eating out | Mozart's

Dorothy and me love it when mom and dad kick our weekend off with a trip to Mozart's!  It's our favorite cafe in Austin.

Actually, it's our favorite cafe out of anywhere we've lived because usually eating out with the parents stinks! We are expected to just sit under the table and aren't allowed to explore, say hello to other people or go anywhere! Dorothy gives up trying after a few minutes and goes to sleep, while I become restless and annoyed!  

But at Mozart's we always have fun because we're allowed up on the seats beside mom and dad (as long as we watch our table manners) and there are always other dogs to play with, birds to chase or turtles in the lake to tease!  Annnnd, if we're really good and don't run off or bark: mom and dad give us some of their leftovers as treats!  For a dog in Austin, there's
no better place to eat out than Mozart's.

birthday boy

Yesterday was my birthday, I turned four!  In doggy years that means I'm 28 but mommy says that - even though that makes me older than her - I'll always be her baby.  I was a little lonely without grandma, grandpa, Aunt Amy and Uncle Sean to celebrate with me, but mommy and daddy still gave me a really great day. 

Mommy made my favorite meat-jelly cupcakes and both Dorothy and me got those yummy smoked bones with the meat still on them!  Then I enjoyed unwrapping my present by tearing open the paper and spreading it all around the living room, that's is always fun!  My present turned out to be the perfect combination of my two favorite things: ropes and balls... a rope ball! I didn't even know something so awesome existed!

 Then, in the early evening, I got the best present I could ever ask for: some alone time with mommy and daddy who took me to the park for a run without Dorothy so I could have some decent ball chasing without her chasing me!  All in all, a great day :)

learning I can swim

Mommy has always been overprotective and doesn't let us swim in the lakes or creeks that we come across during our hikes, like the other dogs do.  She's always been afraid that we'd end up with an ear, skin or some other type of infection - so Dorothy and I usually just watch other dogs jumping in the water, swimming and fetching sticks from the sidelines.  Only very recently (since the weather's become hot) mom's started letting us run across the shallow parts of the creeks where the trails weave in and out of them, but for the longest time, her and daddy would carry us over the water and we didn't get the tiniest bit wet.  

Then something incredible happened... On Wednesday, during one of our afternoon hikes at Bull Creek, I was running across the creek when I accidentally fell into a deep part and got completely immersed in water!  I got myself back to the shallow, crossed the creek and turned around to mommy to see if I was in trouble or not,  but other than being worried for my ears... she was totally ok with it!  I overheard her and daddy saying things like 'well, it is super hot,' 'should be ok since it's running water,' 'at least it'll cool him down' and 'heaps of other dogs get in this water all the time so it should be fine.'

I made super sure it was ok one more time by pretending to fall in again at the next crossing, and when neither parent said anything, I took off down the middle of the creek barking at my splashes and chasing fish.  Dorothy followed but her legs are so short that she could hardly reach the bottom! Luckily she knew how to swim straight away but she didn't like being out there in the water and returned to the bank where mommy and daddy stood, watching me.

D coming to check up

Before long the real began because daddy got a stick and threw it for me to chase!  I was ok in the shallow where I could reach the bottom, but when he threw the stick out further, I didn't know what to do!  I tried jumping up and down, springing myself from the bottom - but this filled my nose with water, so I kept trying different things until eventually, I SWAM!  I didn't even know I knew how to!  It was one of the most exciting things I've ever done - and it was all caught on video:

Not a bad place for a dog to learn how to swim!  Here are some more photos mommy took that afternoon:

I loved my stick!

I wanted to take it home with me

I even had a spectator (see the dragonfly?)

this was when I first got in (when I thought mom would be mad)

And here's a video is of my first attempt to swim - when I was just jumping: 

wildflowers at Bull Creek

A couple of weeks ago (on May 24), we went for a long walk along the trail at Bull Creek.  As always, we enjoyed running wild and free, but this was also one of those times that Mommy let us get all wet, dirty and cool in the water!  That's not even the best part though... the best part was that the whole place was c.o.v.e.r.e.d in wildflowers!  Mom and dad took lots of really great photos:  

Here are my two faves, mommy says they're going straight on the wall:

And here are the others, more or less in order:

Yep, wild raspberries!