“Nemo and I are worn out after playing with our new “squeaky chicken” toy for hours!  I’m ashamed to admit I live with a squeaky challenged spaniel.  I can squeak that chicken fifteen minutes straight and Nemo can only manage a pitiful squeak every once in awhile.  I’ve shown him and shown him how to do it.  Any self respecting terrier would have gutted and desqueaked that chicken within about five minutes.  Krikey!  Momma Dog where are you going with our chicken?  Why are we going outside?”

This morning we have been helping Momma Dog mow the yard and mulch the Hollyhocks.  It’s been a bad year around here for Hollyhocks, something has been eating their leaves leaving only the frame.  I’m glad I’m not a plant!  Great dog, they say it’s a dog eat dog world out there, but to me, it looks harder to be a plant and not able to run away from a beetle.   Momma Dog told us when she was a little girl, she made Hollyhock dolls out of a bud and a bloom and floated them in dishes of water.  Maybe I could stick a bloom in Huck’s ear and float him in a dish of water.  Affectionately, Nemo

G’Day Mates!  The accompaning photo shows me demonstrating the art of walking a sticky wicket, moss covered log with the aid of my lovely arched tail.  There is another picture of a clumsy someone having no tail attempting this feat, but I don’t know if it will make the blog or not.  P.S.  I caught another mouse today!  I displayed it on my pillow just like a trophy.  I’m feeling good!  Huck

Momma Dog has a couple of poems she needs to submit before August 2, so she’s been concentrating on writing.  Huck went with us up the hill to cut the rest of the Iris into little fans this morning.  It’s tough being the big dog sometimes, you can never be carried.  It’s all Momma Dog can do to lift me into the mudroom sink for a bath.  She’s been reading to us from Rita Mae Brown’s mystery “Murder She Meowed.”  We like hearing about the adventures of Tee Tucker, a Corgi who helps his person solve murders.

It wasn’t raining this morning so I went up the back hill without any trouble at all.  It was hot and muggy, real croc tracking weather.  The sunflowers are starting to bloom, it seems like only yesterday we were noticing daffodils and now we are on a fast trot to chrysanthemums.  Nemo brought his stuffed tiger up with him so Momma Dog could throw it for us.  I had a good bark at the neighbor dog across the road, we can’t see each other but I smelled him.  Today has been sort of boring around here, I think I’d better stir up some trouble.  Later Mate, Huck

Yesterday Momma Dog and VOG took a road trip to look at books and she told us the Queen Anne’s Lace and Nicotiana were beautiful along the sides of the highway.  We said they would have been even more beautiful if we had been along too.  We are trying to instill guilt. 

Last night’s Omaha World Herald had a story about Sarah (the person) and Sadie (a Great Dane/Pointer mix) whose video is a one in ten finalist for a $500,000 make over for the Hefflinger Dog Park.  Huck and I have been to Hefflinger a few times ourselves.  To help Sadie win the money to  improve the park go to www.dreamdogpark.wagworld.come and vote.  Remember only one vote a day and we have until August ll, 2010.

It’s the summer wild flower season with the dainty yellow flowers of mullein, and Great Blue Lobelia leading the way.  Evidently the severe winter and all the moisture this spring was just their cup a tea for they are huge and everywhere!  In the southwest United States, Mullein is called cowboy toilet paper for reasons you can see in the photo.  Its leaves are soft and furry and can be rolled and smoked to prevent coughing.  Mullein’s yellow flowers have served as a hair rinse since Roman times, and the thick leaves were put in shoes to help keep feet warm in the winter.

“Momma Dog, let’s dye Huck yellow, I’ll help you collect the flowers.”

“Eeeoowww phooey, mate, you can’t sneak up on a crocodile if you’re yellow!”

Ha, Ha!  Momma Dog tricked Huck this morning!  He was doing his hang around the deck and not go up the hill with us hoping she would carry him half way, and we left without him.  When we got 1/2 the way up the hill Momma Dog squeaked his favorite toy.  He came running like the hounds of hell were after him!  As they say on the racetrack, “he ran with his ears pinned back”.   I take it to mean this means the horse will fight to win in the stretch.  Ahhh!  I smell the sweet smell of roast being warmed up, so I think I’ll pin my ears back and race to the kitchen.  Affectionately, Nemo

Today we want to give a big round of applause to one of our best friends, Dale H., who is completing six weeks of radiation for cancer.  Dale has written to us several times during the life of our blog and we love his sense of humor.  We are celebrating with him today as he rings the bell at the radiation lab to say he is finished, been there, done that!

See you later alligator, you can carry my gorilla.  Affectionately, Nemo

Afterwhile crocodile, I’ll save a biscuit for you Dale.  Huck

Great Dog, I’m glad to be wearing my short fur this summer.  Today our heat index is 112 degrees in southwest Iowa.  Huck and I caught the scent of a doe and fawn this afternoon up on the hill in the trees, but we didn’t find them.  They were long gone at the first whiff of us.  We will probably have storms tonight as there is rain to the west of us.  We also heard the ridiculous rumor that there is a “cat” show in Omaha.  What would they show?  Hissing and scratching?   Affectionately, Nemo