BarkingProse

Today I’m barking about Thanksgiving and what it means to us mutts at Asherpark.

Me, I’ve always had it good. If you’ve read my barks, you know I am the only chosen one in the pack. Mom picked me when I was a little pup and raised me herself.

Next came Tess. She was a stray and got adopted out of a shelter. Tess is goofy and has some big time phobias, but she wasn’t homeless for long. Now she’s got the good life too. Sleeps every night on the big couch with her feet in the air.

Jack had a home where nobody cared. He was hungry and sick. He spent five long months in the slammer till Old Dog Haven pulled him out. Now Jack’s a happy boy.

And then there’s little Nellie. Old Dog Haven saved her at the last minute. She was scheduled to die on a Saturday but the shelter gave Old Dog Haven till the following Monday to get her out.

Mom picked Nellie up from the shelter transport volunteer. Nellie was saturated in urine, stunk like a skunk, had rotten black teeth and could hardly walk. Deaf and mostly blind the volunteer said there wasn’t much reason to keep Nellie going.

It’s true. Nellie took some work. She leaked all over the house. Had to wear diapers for a while. Nell had surgery for a bunch of stuff. She had a lump taken off her eyelid, a rotten tooth pulled, her black teeth polished to a creamy white, and her dragon toenails clipped.

Mom never minded all the extra laundry and cleaning up after Nellie. She just wanted Nellie to get stronger and know she was safe. Us mutts ignored Nellie at first because she was old and kinda boring. But then something strange happened. We all fell in love with the stinky little rag of a dog.

Caring for Nellie brought us closer together as a pack. What started out like a burden became a gift. Our little Nellie….. She ain’t heavy, she’s our sister.

Us mutts at Asherpark give thanks for the good life we enjoy. To all the people who care for, rescue, or sponsor some mutt, thank you. The kindness you show to the animals will come back to bless you many times over.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

 

Me and mom were going through some of my puppy pictures last week. She spread a bunch of them on the floor and asked me to pick the one I like best. Here it is. That’s me channeling my inner self.

I get tired of always being Mr. Nice Guy. Yeah, I get along with most mutts. I let Tess boss me around. I don’t fight unless some other mutt starts it. I love everybody who comes to visit.

I even let mom pick me up and rock me like a baby. But inside, I’m Mr. Tough Guy. See for yourself. Pictures don’t lie.

Maybe you wonder how come I had on my best nasty face. Okay, I gotta confess. I was playing with my pal Libby, the Labrador. She outweighs me by thirty pounds. When she gets tired of me running circles around her, she sits on me.

Have you ever had an eighty pound sack of concrete flop down on your head? That’s what Libby does to me. Sits right on my head so I can’t get my breath. It takes me a while to wiggle out from under her butt. One time she let go a stinker while she had me pinned. Oh man, I got out of there in a hurry.

Anyway, to show her I was tough and wasn’t going to be her seat cushion, I put on my special bad self face. Mom just happened to be there with her camera. Bingo! Immortalized for all time and proud of it. What’s your favorite puppy picture? Send it to me and I’ll post it in the next bark. Promise!

 

Oh man. I gotta apologize big time to my readers. We haven’t posted a bark for almost three weeks. That’s just not okay.

Yeah, we got plenty of excuses. Technical difficulties with the computer. Mom had to troubleshoot a lot of stuff to get us back online. Then mom hurt her shoulder mowing the heavy grass in October and didn’t feel like sitting in a chair editing my barks.

Then I got kinda lazy and out of the habit of doing a DailyBark. That’s how we ended up in this big mess. Mom says when you screw up the best thing to do is admit it and tell people you’re sorry. Well, I screwed up and I am sorry.

Now we can move on and get to the fun stuff. See me in my headset? I’m learning how to bark my barks instead of doing the hunt and peck thing on the keyboard. Best of all, mom tells me I can bark out loud over the internet. Watch out world, I got things to say!

Hey, so this is what’s coming up in the next few barks: How I learned to leave the goats alone. Why Jack has more confidence now. The poop zone. Training with my mom, and deaf dog country.

I been watching the TV news and they always tease you with what’s coming up next. I know it makes you stick around for the next segment, but sometimes it really annoys me. I promise I won’t do that stuff very often, but since I’ve been offline a while I want to make sure you’ll come back and see what’s new at Asherpark. Come check us out again, okay?