OUR PICNIC

Guess what happened yesterday!  We had an entire picnic at our house, and a bunch of people came, and they brought food, and everybody ate a whole lot, and then everybody went home again.  And the reason we had this picnic was because it was the cactus club, whose real name is the Kansas City Cactus and Succulent Society.  But it's easier to just say "cactus club."  And anyway, every year they have a picnic, and usually it's in May, and usually it's at somebody's house.  So this year Mom said the picnic could be at our house.

Aunt Barbara is fixing some food, and Aunt Judy
is talking to somebody who didn't get in the picture.
Also you can see Nicky's butt by the back door.

But first of all, before we could have the picnic, Mom had to do a ton of work, like she had to clean up all her plants because she knew that the cactus club people would want to look at them.  And then she had to dust everything in the house, and there was lots of dust everywhere because Mom hadn't done the dusting for a while.  And upstairs stuff gets really dusty because of those silly cats who are always scratching around in their litter boxes.

And then Mom had to vacuum the house, which also took a while because there was a lot of dirt, and Mom said it was probably all stuff that we dogs had tracked in from outside, but I don't think it was all our fault, and I refuse to feel guilty.  And when Mom moved one of the rugs, she found out that somebody peed on it sometime when she didn't know it happened, and so she had to wash that rug and also some other rugs.

Then while Mom was vacuuming, Nicky got really, really nervous because he didn't like the vacuum noise, so Mom let him stay outside for a long time, and he entertained himself by digging holes in the yard, which made Mom annoyed.  And Saturday afternoon Mom took Barry and Mel over to Pooches' Paradise because they were going to spend the night there so that they wouldn't bite anybody at the picnic.

Oh, and Mom also had to mow the grass, besides vacuuming the whole house, and so she got kind of exhausted.  And when she finally sat down to rest Saturday night, she saw that somebody had peed on Nicky's dog bed in the living room.  And she thought Nicky probably did it himself because he was upset about the vacuum and everything else that was happening in the house.  So Mom had to wash the cover of the bed, and Nicky had to sleep on a rug until it was time to go to bed upstairs, where there are beds that hadn't got peed on.

Uncle Joe is reading
one of Mom's cactus books.

Okay, so yesterday people came here for the picnic.  Except it was kind of cold outside, and Mom even had to turn the furnace on Saturday night.  So everybody stayed in the house where it was warm instead of being outside where you are supposed to be for a picnic.  And in that way, it wasn't much like a picnic.  Also, Mom had planned to take a whole bunch of pictures, but she mostly forgot, so she only took three.

Nicky went right up to everybody at the picnic, and so they all petted him, which he likes a lot.  And if people start petting him, he will lean on them, which is a greyhound thing to do.  I mostly stayed in my little dog bed on the sofa, but people asked about me and petted me, and sometimes I got up and walked around so that everyone could see how cute I am.  And lots of people said they couldn't believe how quiet Nicky and I were, which I guess means they were glad we weren't jumping up on everybody or barking or doing stuff like that.

Charlie and Chloe were even quieter than Nicky and I were.  They spent the whole picnic hiding under the covers on Mom's bed.  Which is kind of a shame because if they had come out, they could have got petted, too.  But they didn't come out, so they didn't get petted.

Anyway, even though our picnic was indoors, there was lots of yummy food there, such as ham and turkey and cheese and potato salad and deviled eggs and macaroni salad and baked beans and brownies and cake and cookies and chips and dip.  I could smell all these yummy foods, and that made me feel very hungry.  So when Mom got herself a whole plate full of food and sat by me on the sofa, I started trying to eat everything on her plate, but she wouldn't let me do that.  However, she did give me a little turkey and some chips and some egg and some cheese.

Aunt Gail, Uncle Mark, and Uncle John
are looking well-fed and happy.

Then after everybody finished eating, the club had a meeting, and Mom ran the meeting because she is the President of the club, which makes her Very Important.  And while the meeting was happening, I curled up in my dog bed beside Mom and took a little nap because frankly, I thought the meeting was pretty boring.

After the meeting was over, people started leaving.  And finally everybody was gone except me and Nicky and Mom.  So Mom cleaned up some stuff and then she took a nap, and after that she went to Pooches and brought Mel and Barry home.  They were very glad to get home so they could poop in our own yard.  And now we are a big, happy family all together again.  Mom is glad the picnic is over with, but she is also glad that she got the house cleaned up.  And she hopes it's a long time before it's her turn to host the picnic again!