News From My Duchess

The Duke got an email from the Duchess today:

Hi Honey,

Things are going quite well. Mom is improving each day and I know without a doubt she will make a full recovery. Sis came in yesterday and we ran off to Starbucks for an hour. Oh, heavenly!

After all my trips down here, for some reason this time I noticed things I'd missed before. For instance, the sky never really gets dark at night. Not the pitch black darkness with a million stars overhead like we have at home. The tap water never really gets cold. It could never freeze your hands like the water from our well. And there is no such thing as silence, day or night. Perhaps I noticed these things this time because the stress level is so much lower now. The chemo is over, the cancer is gone, and I feel good about Mom's recovery. In any case, Southern California is a different world!
I'm very glad I came, but I'll be happy to get home.

Tell Emma and Bear I miss them terribly, and give them a snuggle for me.

Love,
D

PS Tell Emma we will scan her puppy pictures as soon as I get back!



I miss the Duchess so much. The Duke is great and he takes good care of us, but kibble and coffee isn't the same without my Duchess. It's the "girl talk", you know? The Duke's not really good at "girl talk". I hope she comes home soon.

The Dreaded Suitcases

Oh no! Not the suitcases! No, no, no, no, no, I hate the suitcases! Please don't leave me home, please, please, please! No, no, no, no, no!!!!!

Emma, it's ok. Remember, the Duchess is going to visit her Mother.

Oh.....um....right....and theDuke's staying home with me....
Whew!

Piddle or Pee?

There has been a long standing argument in the castle about what to call “my business”. Technically, I don’t go to the “bathroom” (unless I want to see what’s going on in there and poke my nose through the shower curtain) I go to the “backyard”.

When the Duchess takes me outside she says “Emma, go potty”. But the Duke says “Emma, go pee”.

The Duchess has always disagreed with the Duke on this and has told him that “Ladies do not pee, they tinkle, and in Emma’s case, she piddles!” The Duke just shakes his head, rolls his eyes and says “Emma, go pee”.

Then last summer, on one of our big camping trips, much to the Dukes dismay, the Duchess finally won.

The Duke was standing around the campfire doing manly things with all the manly camping friends. You know, building the biggest campfire, talking football, hunting, NASCAR, fishing, etc… when suddenly he realized that it was time for my walk. So, obviously not thinking, he says to the burly crowd “I’ll be back in a few minutes guys, I think Emma needs to piddle.”

HA!! The Duchess scored!!!

I Will Win This One

I am pouting this morning, for all the good it will do me. My new scanner arrived yesterday and the Duchess won’t take it out of the box. She says she is too busy getting ready for her trip and that I will have to wait until she gets back. I offered to open the box for her, but she just gave me that look. You know, the look that says “Don’t you even think about chewing on this box!” She will be gone an entire week, and when she comes home she will go back to work for 5 days. Then, and only then, we can take the scanner out of the box. Do you have any idea how long that is in Dog years???? It’s practically a lifetime….. Hmmmmmm… Maybe I can kiss up to the Duke and he can open the box while she’s gone. We could tell her we were just trying to do something “nice” for her. Yep. That just might work. Devious you say? That’s why I am the Queen!

The Best Medicine

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Duchess has a cold and has not been sleeping well at all. Every two hours she wakes up coughing violently and goes in the other room so as not to disturb the Duke. When it subsides and she climbs back into bed, she reaches for me and we cuddle. I curl up against her and she massages the silky softness of my neck and ears until she drifts off to sleep. Last night she told me I am the best medicine for her. And as I waited for my next "massage session" I thought "sometimes a virus can be a good thing"!

The Kiss

Happy Valentines Day Sir Bear.

This is the only kiss you get till next year!

My New Friend Sophie

I have a new friend and her name is Sophie. She lives in Canada with her human, Andrea. Sophie is a pure bred Border Collie and is definitely the Queen of her castle. She is shamelessly adorable (like me) and you can visit her "here". We Borders always stick together!

Happy Valentines Day

Hello my friends, and Happy Valentines Day! I am so excited I've been chasing my tail all morning. I just found out, this very day, that the Duchess has ordered a new scanner for me. I have some really wonderful "pre-digital" pictures to share with you but I need a way to get them into the computer. The Duchess says a scanner will do the trick. It should arrive sometime next week so stay tuned!

The Duchess is Sick

Life at the castle has been pretty dull lately. The Duchess came down with a cold or the flu on February 1st and she's still coughing. When she gets home from work she's too exhausted to play with me. Now don't get me wrong - I love the Duchess with all of my heart and I hate to see her suffer. But boy oh boy, I'm really getting BORED!
I think she should stay home and let me take care of her. After all, if I was sick she would stay home to take care of me!

Waiting for Summer

Summer is the best time of the year. The days are long and the air is warm. The butterflies and bumble bees flit tirelessly from one fragrant flower to the next and I get to spend hours running free in the sunshine. The Duke and Duchess seem to “morph” into completely different people in the summer. You can almost see the contentment radiating from them. But the best part about summer is the camping trips.

The Duchess had never been camping until she met the Duke. Her Grandparents had a cabin deep in the mountains of Utah where she spent the summers of her youth. (That’s another story for another time). So the Duchess learned to pitch a tent and spent many summers camping with the Duke and their friends. They were living in the city back in those days and the Duke, being a “country boy”, was always ready to get out of town. The Duchess re-discovered a part of herself on those camp-outs because, even though she was a “city girl”, her roots were in the mountains of Utah where she’d spent the most memorable days of her life.

The Duke had tried for years to get the Duchess to move out into the country. He wanted some land and a home away from the hustle-bustle of the city. They eventually moved from the city to the suburbs, but that’s as far as the Duchess was willing to go.

As time wore on, her defenses wore down and the Duke finally got his wish. They sold their house in the suburbs and bought 3 acres outside of a little town (pop. 2500) 30 miles away from the city. The Duchess, being afraid of her own shadow, was certain she would spend the remainder of her days in fear. But instead, she blossomed in the peaceful home the Duke had provided for her.

At that same time the camping trips ended. The Duchess said she did not want to sleep on the ground anymore, and besides that, she was living in the woods now and no longer had the need to get out of town. By this time all of their camping “buddies” had traded in their tents for RV’s of some kind so it wasn’t much fun anyway, being the only tent-campers left in the bunch. The Duke would have loved to buy her a trailer to camp in, but even if they could afford it, which they couldn’t, they could not afford a truck to pull it. The Duke had a very old, beat up truck that he called the “gutless wonder” and it wasn’t always safe to drive, let alone haul with.

So the years went by (eleven of them to be exact) with the Duke and Duchess spending their summers working on the house (my castle) and yard (the grounds). There was much work to be done, but they were young and strong. About the time they ran out of remodeling projects, the Duke found the truck of his “dreams” and the Duchess wanted him to have it. She felt bad that he’d had to wait so many years and she knew that now they could afford it. They had to have it shipped in from another state because they were on vacation when they first saw it. It had a full size back seat that folded down to make a nice travel bed for two large dogs. The Duke was very happy, to say the least.

Then one day they were at a garage sale and the Duchess noticed a tiny little trailer for sale and said to the Duke, “Oh wouldn’t it be fun to have a little trailer to go camping with our friends again?” They’d always known they couldn’t have a trailer because they never had a truck to pull one – then all of a sudden the realization hit that NOW they had a truck! Not just a truck, but a brand new heavy duty diesel truck that would pull anything!!! And of course the Duchess just exploded with the excitement of her “revelation”! So, that very same day, in the rain no less, off they went to check out all the local RV stores. Within a matter of a few days they were the proud owners of a new travel trailer. And they have never looked back.

Now our summers revolve around camping. And for me it’s really great, because when we’re camping the focus is on us (me and Bear). Lot’s of walks, and cuddling, talking and just hanging out together with no distractions. It’s pretty close to heaven on earth, if I do say so myself!

Some thoughts from the Duchess