To Grandmother's House We Go!

I'm a dog.  As you know, I traveled to a magical place called New Jersey last weekend.  After having lunch with Jess, Alicia and I charted a course to Parsippany, where we were staying for the weekend at her parents' house.  Upon arrival, Alicia and I immediately went out for a walk.  While hanging out with a landscaping crew and playing with the squirrel they caught, my attention was diverted to a large, very sheddy light brown dog that was coming my way.  She looked very happy.  She wasn't looking at me.  She wasn't looking at the squirrel.  She was looking at Alicia.

Turns out, the dog was Annabelle (aka Nanna), and she lives with Alicia's parents and sister Meghan.  She's a few years older than me, and has got about 40 lbs. on me, but that didn't bother me at all.  I went right to playing!  At first, Annabelle was happy to play with me.  As we walked around the neighborhood together at jumped on her and chewed her mouth and ears.  She played back a bit too.  But I think she was just happy to see Alicia and to be out on a walk, because this attitude towards my play did not last long.  Before long, she was avoiding me.

When we got back to the house, I was still ready to play, so I attempted to search out some new friends...

I could've sworn I smelled a friend around here.

Friend? Where are you going? It's time to play!

Numerous times throughout the weekend Willow and I tried to connect, but alas, she always seemed to be running somewhere else.  Maybe next time I visit we'll be able to play.

Since I was still rarin' to go, Alicia took me outside and put me on the dog wire.  Even though Annabelle didn't seem very interested in playing with me, she still insisted on coming outside.  So I insisted on playing.

Annabelle tries to escape.

We call a temporary truce.

Then we went inside the house and I proceeded to help myself to all of her toys.  I was particularly fond of this pink flamingo, which, in turns out, was her newest toy.

Though the toy was filled with squeakers, I rose to the
challenge of playing with it.

Another of Annabelle's favorite things to play with: Meghan!

I spent a good amount of time digging through Annabelle's toy box.  You wouldn't believe the number of toys this dog has!  This one dog has even more toys than Jack and Katie (and they have a lot of toys). Most of her toys are stuffed animals with squeakers.  She also has a nice assortment of animal bones.  I wish I could tell you which animals, but Alicia took those away from me so fast that I have no idea.  Not to worry though; while rummaging I found the greatest toy ever invented.  It wasn't invented for dogs or even cats, but humans!

About to pounce the best. toy. EVER!

It's called the Weazel Ball and it's a little battery-powered ball that has a fluffy weazel thing attached.  It rolls around the room, bumping into things and trying to escape my clutches.  And I can't get enough of it.  I was growling and barking and pouncing and having a grand old time.  Here's a little video that Alicia was able to catch before her memory card reached capacity.  She missed the barking and growling, but there's plenty of pouncing!

After playing with it for a bit, I went ahead and made some modifications to the original toy.  First, I took off the weazel.  Sure, it's cute, but it was limiting my access to the ball.  Second, I chewed through the little black rubber band that went around the center of the ball.  When Alicia looked up reviews, most people complained that that band caused black scuff marks on the walls and trim.  See what a good dog I am?

Luckily, this is one toy that Annabelle has absolutely no interest in playing with.  She also didn't seem to enjoy the way I freaked out whenever I played with it.  Anyway, Meghan and Maw (Alicia's mom) said I could take it home with me.  You bet I did.  And I definitely played with it this morning, too!

Lots more happened during my visit, but this post has gone on long enough.  I'm going to go out for a walk, so I'll post more later.