Family Vacation: Day One

I'm a dog.  I work hard at being dog, so it's only fitting that I get to take a vacation after a week of joining my new family.  This morning Matt and Alicia packed up my bed, kibble, food bowls, toys, treats, and leash and packed me into the car.  I do.not.like.car.  When I ride in the car, they lock me up in a crate.  As you know, I do.not.like.crates.  And boy was I in for it this time!  Almost four hours cooped up in my crate with only a bone to chew on and one stop halfway through to stretch my legs, lap up some water and not go to the bathroom.

Vacation was NOT off to a good start.

But then, we arrived!  As soon as we got to Aunt Nancy's beach house, Matt and Alicia directed me to the back yard.  And took off my leash to allow me to explore the fenced in yard.  It was heaven on earth!  Why don't we have one of these at home? I sniffed everything.  I ate some grass. I plopped down in the shade of a tree.  I lapped up some water from my bowl.  And then, I repeated the above.

Vacation was getting better.

Then we went inside the house.  I sniffed around for quite some time, exploring the different rooms and then finally settled into the back room.  That's where I found the mother load!  The dog bed was a treasure trove of toys.

Snarfing around to uncover toys.

First, I found this little guy.

Then I found a few bones!

The entirety of my bounty.

Clearly, my cousin dogs have a human who love them more than Matt and Alicia love me.  Either that, or for each dog in the house, the number of toys grows exponentially.  But the fun wasn't over yet.

Later on, we went back outside, and Matt brought out a new toy for me.  A ball!  He knew I'd been wanting a ball ever since I stole Moxie's ball over the weekend, and made it a special vacation treat.

Vacation is awesome! (and we haven't even been to the beach yet)

After I capture my new ball, I like to chew it.

I also like to run around the yard with my ball in my mouth.

I'm very good at chasing after the ball when it is thrown across the yard.  Once I get close, I pounce on it.  I usually miss capturing it with my mouth, so I have to hunt around a bit to see where it lands.  Then I grab it with my mouth and run around the yard with it.  Eventually, I either drop down and chew at it a bit or just leave it in the lawn and then hope that Matt or Alicia come over to throw it again.  They keep asking me to bring them the ball, but I don't understand why I would do that, if they're only going to throw it across the lawn again.  Humans.

Still, I like vacation.  I could get used to this.