It has been a long time since Mom and I have done any writing. A lot in our lives has changed. I don’t live in Alaska anymore. I’m not really sure why things changed but my kibble keeps coming so that’s good. Arlo, aka The Cat, The Little Bastard, The Gosh Darn Gitty Gat, still lives with us.  

Lee, my other person, is gone. That’s really sad and Mom doesn’t talk about it much. I don’t know how long Lee has been gone but I haven’t been licking tears off of Mom’s face as often so I guess it has been a while. Mom says that Lee is still watching over us and I can tell that’s true. Every time Arlo does something annoying I hear Lee telling me to go get him. Don’t tell Mom.

I have a new job description and title. I’m Chief of RV Security. I’m not a young pup anymore. I’m 14 now, so it hasn’t been easy learning a new skill set. Plus, our RV configuration has been a moving target. For a while we lived in a pickup camper. Then we lived in a travel trailer. That was nice but then we went back to the camper. Just when I was getting used to that we moved back into the travel trailer. While I almost never agree with Arlo, I have to say that he was right on when he made some rather loud protests about the lack of stability in our living arrangements. Then Mom bribed him with canned cat food and the Little Bastard backed down.

Arlo is a better traveler than anyone thought he would be. He has to ride in a cage thing which I think is awesome. But he sleeps all day and then when we stop for the night, he is hell on wheels, literally. It’s quite disturbing. He runs around leaping on things and going to areas of the RV he’s not supposed to be in – basically where ever I am. I don’t understand why he can’t just stay in the cage. But I get to ride shot gun which is excellent.

We’ve done a lot of traveling. We’ve been back to Alaska a couple of times which has been really fun. It’s been about the only time I’ve gotten to be outside off of my leash. One of my favorite places was when we got to live in the travel trailer at the place my boy Kyle and his dog Ruger worked in Colorado. He had lots of horses there. There were a lot of people too but the horses were the best part. Horses are very big. Their nostrils are huge. They eat a lot and they poop a lot. I just love horse poop. Ruger showed me that horse hooves are a tasty treat, too. Obviously horses aren’t the smartest animals but they are smart enough not to let a dog chew on their hooves while they are still attached. Ruger and me like to chew on the trimmed off pieces. Some dogs like to roll in horse poop but not me. I don’t like to get baths and if you roll in horse poop you are guaranteed, 100%, going to get a bath.

We spent last winter in Texas at the Aransas Wildlife Refuge. I made friends with a retired gray hound named Ziggy. Really, we were friends. His person is Penni. She gets me. There were lots of deer, pocket gophers and turkeys where we lived and some really weird animals, too. Once I sounded the alarm big time when I saw a creature unlike anything I had ever seen before. I got praised for letting the neighbors know there was an armadillo in the yard and then told to shut up. Everyone stood outside taking pictures. I was telling them to kill it or to let me kill it, not take pictures of it. What possible purpose could a creature that looks like that have? But once again, I was misunderstood.

Then we went to Oregon. I really like the place we had there. We were close to the ocean and the travel trailer was parked in a place where I could be off of my leash as long as I behaved. There were deer there. Their poop is also tasty but not as good as horse poop. Anyway, Mom likes it there a lot so we are going back this spring. Mom says we have to hit the road before it gets too hot here. I don’t understand that saying but Mom says to stop being so literal.

For now we are at a place called an RV park and we have something called a Class C. It is very comfy. Bigger than the camper, about the same as the travel trailer. We are in a town called Casa Grande which is kind of ironic when you think about it. RV parks are weird. I’ll tell you more about living in an RV park next time. Right now I have to take a nap. Naps and drinking a lot of water have always been important but now that I’m 14 napping is more of a reflex than a choice.

Bow wow,

Pearl