August 26th, 1997 - The best day of my life - I was born in Minnesota.
October 11th, 1997 - My journey began the day I chose my human companion, AKA Mumma. I know what you're thinking, most humans chose their co-pilot, but in my case I walked up to her, put my head against her shin, looked in her eyes and let her know I was running the show and ready for the best adventure of my life. Little did I know that she would take me all around the country where I would make so many wonderful friends.
From 1997 - August 1998 - My co-pilot, Mumma, and I lived in Minnesota while she went to school. During this time I met my first best friend, Brandy, a golden retriever., from St. Louis Park. The two of us were inseperable and got into lots of trouble together. Mumma was born in Cheeseland (Yes, she is a Packer fan), so we went to visit family and friends whenever we had a chance. Let me introduce you to some of my Wisconsin friends from this time in my life. Nicki, from West Bend, WI taught me how to do the butt box out, a move I was later know for at all the dog parks. George, from Ripon, WI was 20 times my size, seriously. I'm not sure what he was a mix of, but he was large in stature with a big heart. He really tolerated my need for puppy play time and took me on adventures in the woods, which often resulted in a bath. I think it had something to do with the smelly stuff we rolled in. I never understood the problem, it smelled good to us!
August 1998 - May 2001 - On to our next journey, my first of many drives across the country. We moved to Oakland, CA and made so many new friends. I hope I can remember all of them. Right across the street was Buster, who took walks with me everyday (with our co-pilots, of course). Down the street lived Tara another friend whom I frequently walked with.
The Bay Area was a great place to live if you were a dog, because lots of places were dog friendly, even the University where Mumma worked. While living in California it was our mission to explore as many dog parks as we could. Every weekend we looked in the book of dog parks and frequently went off as far south as Monterey and as far north as Lake Tahoe (of course we stopped at other parks in between). Mumma was suppose to be working on her dissertation but all I had to do was give her the pouting look and off we went.
There were times when Mumma could not take me along on her adventures, such as places that required an airplane to get there. During these times I went to camp, AKA Anderson Acres. At camp I got to play with new friends everyday and since the owners Chris and Tom adored me, I was often given a special role as either counselor, life guard, or office assistant.
May 2001 - September 2005 - We both loved living in the Bay Area, but we had an opportunity to move to an island in Washington. You know what an island means?, land with lots of water all the way around it, which means, lots of opportunities for swimming. When I heard swimming, I jumped in the car and off we went on I-5 north to our destination of San Juan Island, WA. It didn't take long before we discovered all of the beaches, all of the stores that gave out dog treats, all of the places where people love dogs, and the best place in the world to watch killer whales from shore.
Where do I begin? We started our journey working at the lighthouse, eventually moved to the park where we had amazing whale sightings throughout the summer months, lots of swimming (when the whales were away), and lots of eagle and fox sightings. Mumma and I really enjoyed watching wildlife and hiking throughout the park. When another house became available we moved to Eagle Cove where we met Buddy and Jobie, who loved running around the front yard with me. During our time here we also met Sasha and Romeo, who loved to share their toys and didn't mind that I shread most of them. Jasmine and Jordan, both golden retrievers, frequently came to visit from the mainland. In dog language, golden retriever means - must swim often, so guess what we did alot of, you got it, we swam and swam until we could barely walk home. Oh, those were the days.
We made several trips during this time driving across country to see family and friends. The drive got long, but I knew it meant I got to go along. They have more snow in the Midwest, so I had lots of fun with that. It is here that I got my first pair of snowboots and I'll tell you I never got use to wearing those, but I did what I was told...most of the time. I made more friends and we had lots of fun running through the snow and warming up inside with a few treats. Augie, from Ripon, WI loved to take me on adventures through the woods, where big George use to take me. Augie lived out in the country so we ran all over the place and found lots of fun smelly things to roll in. When we were in Brookfield, WI I would hang out with Pappy. Pappy was a little dog, so we didn't play rough, but we did compete for attention. It was a contest to see who could get the most head scratches. He had an unfair advantage - he was a lap dog! In MN we'd see Brandy and Zoe for some romping time in the snow. We saw lots of family and friends before heading back to Washington. Good thing we went back to the island because thats where we met someone really special.
During the last year of our journey on the island we met the other human companion in my life, who eventually became my Daddy, AKA, My Best Buddy. He lived on the mainland, so for awhile I only saw him on the weekends, but Well, either way, I was happy to have two human companions in my life that I could wrap around my paw. Yes, I frequently got what a wanted (i.e. frequent head and belly scratches, walks, and more opportunities for car trips). Eventually we moved to Issaquah to be a part of his life, or should I say, he became a part of ours.
September 2005 - October 2008 - So on to our next journey in Issaquah with my new buddy, My Daddy and another great group of friends. A month after we got moved in Mumma went off to Japan for a few weeks, which meant lots of one on one time with my New Buddy. After this time alone with my Buddy I knew for sure he was the one for our family. My human companions took up a new hobbie, snowshoeing, so on the weekends in the winter, we explored the mountains. In the summer, we explored the mountains and the lakes in the area. My friend Karma lived on the lake, so I got to go swimming alot, especially when the folks went out of town. Camp Karma is where I got to stay.
I made many friends in the neighborhood, Axle, who was a very excited puppy and wanted to play all the time. I was hitting senior status and not always up for play time, but I still enjoyed walking with Axle. Darcy Kitty frequently joined us on our walks and I think she liked me because she knew I wouldn't chase her. Another friend I walked with frequently, was Baby. Baby liked to take long walks around the block and throught the trails, so I got a good workout on these walks. I had other human companion friends that enjoyed sitting out on their porch in the evenings, so I would stop by and get my belly scratched and say Hi to Harley the kitty, who would sit in the window and meow at me.
On some days Mumma would take me to doggie day care where I would get to play with lots of friends. (With age comes senior moments, which means I cannot name all of these friends, but there were lots of them). Sometimes I just felt like having my space so they let me stay in the office and help...them move their hand to scratch my head or belly. I developed some great strategies to making human hands work in my favor!
The biggest event that happened during this time was the big wedding on August 11th, 2007. Yes, a wedding on San Juan Island where my Mumma and Daddy met years earlier. The best part was that I was the flower girl and got to be a part of the ceremony. I was so happy, you can see my BIG smile in all of the pictures.
During 2008 I started to slow down a bit, but still made time for my friends and made time for swimming and snowshoeing, just at a slower pace. Karma and I started going to warm water therapy for relief from arthritis. Boy, this was alot of fun, even though I started wearing a life vest. I was always a really strong swimmer, but with the arthritis I didn't mind having a little extra lift to keep my behind floating at the surface. I went once a week for about a year and wow, what a great time.
To be continued....
