IT'S TIME FOR AN UPDATE!

Here's a picture of Nicky standing in the back yard.  He thinks he looks very handsome and regal, and maybe he does, but to me he's just a very tall little brother.  Nicky finished his obedience class last Wednesday night.  Mom thought it was a fairly stupid class, but the money she paid for it went to REGAP, so that made it sort of worthwhile.  Also Nicky is getting a little better about coming in the house when he's called instead of staying out in the yard gawking at the squirrels.

And Mom started using the little squirt bottle she got in class to spray Barry and Mel when they bark while she is fixing our dinner, so now they don't bark anymore.  Before this, she had tried just stopping the fixing of the food whenever any barking happened, but this method did not work very well because maybe Mom was not patient enough and consistent enough when she used it.  But the squirt bottle worked really well.  And the other night, Mom squirted Chloe when she was climbing into the trash basket, and Chloe hasn't tried to do that since then.

Okay, well, here's another photo, and it's of Barry in the yard.  Mom sort of missed him when she took the picture, but she likes it anyway, so she said I should put it in my blog.  I guess what this picture shows is that Barry was trotting pretty fast on his way into the house.  And I think it also shows that Mom needs to practice her aim.

Barry and Mel are still having diarrhea, so they are getting some medicine and stuff.  Mel is getting Panacur, which is supposed to cure you if you have worms.  Also he is taking metronidazole, and he is getting some extra prednisone for a few days.  Barry is going to start eating a new, different food.  But the clinic had to order the food, and it didn't come yet.

Nicky also has diarrhea some of the time, but Mom is only dealing with Mel and Barry right now.  Mom says she is really tired of picking up big piles of gooey poop in the yard because it's messy and hard to pick up, and she usually ends up getting it on her hands.  Which she doesn't like, for some reason.

Last week, Mom finally got around to burying Gabe's ashes, which was sad for all of us.  She buried them at the base of our big, tall oak tree, kind of between the roots.  Trixie's ashes are buried nearby, also at the base of the oak tree.  Mom was afraid that Nicky might try to dig a hole in the spot where Gabe's ashes got buried, so she put some rocks there.  When it started raining the other day, I asked Mom if Gabe's ashes would sprout and grow lots of little baby Gabes, but she said that only phoenixes grow out of ashes, not dogs.

And speaking of holes, Nicky is in trouble with Mom because he has dug several of them in the yard.  Mom filled the biggest ones with bricks, and she filled one that was kind of in the middle of the yard with dirt.  Then she dug up some grass from another place in the yard and planted it where the hole was. She is just hoping that Nicky won't dig there again.

Mom planted some pansies in some pots outside, and the pansies are blooming.  They like cool weather, but they will look yucky later on, when it gets hot.  Then Mom can throw them out and plant something else.  Mom's clematis is also blooming, which makes her happy.

Yesterday Mom turned off the furnace because the weather is finally getting warm.  And in fact, Mom might even turn on the air-conditioner today because the temperature is supposed to go all the way up to 90 degrees.  Nicky really doesn't like hot weather.  I know this because he told me so.  Also, he pants really big and loud when he is hot. Yesterday when Mom took him for a walk, it was about 75 degrees, which Nicky thinks is pretty hot.  So he started walking slowly in all the shady spots and hurrying through the sunny spots to get to the next shady spot.  I think Nicky will be very happy when Mom turns the air-conditioner on!