My Day In a Nutshell by Freddy

I pretty much go with the flow around here. I'm a pretty mellow guy who enjoys sleeping and snoozing. Every morning Kaede gets up first. We sleep on beds on the floor next to our people who are in their bed. Kaede stands next to our lady and stares and licks her until she gets up. On the third try I get up so the day really only starts when I say so. However, don't tell Kaede. She thinks she runs the show and that's fine with me.

When we've eaten and had our morning nap Kaede will ask to go out so she can check out what is going on in the back yard. Sometimes she just lays on the balcony. I prefer to stay inside and maybe look out the window. The humans will open the door for me and say, "Freddy. Do you want to go outside?" but when I hear the word 'outside' I run into another room. 

I like when our man human plays his trumpet. Something happens inside of me and I put my head up toward the sky and I let loose with a howl. It's quite a nice howl, if I do say so myself. In tune and everything. I close my eyes and I feel like I am the king of the world, just me and my howl. Once I start Kaede comes running into the room and begins her singing. She has a very bad voice actually and she never sings unless I do. She never sings alone. That's another thing that I am the boss of, just don't tell her.

I like going for walks and I like going to the dog park but not as much as Kaede. She just loves to run around and jump and play and she has a lot of energy. I'm more of a lap dog kind of guy but I'm pretty big to be a lap dog. I love following my lady or my man around the house. No matter what room they go to or how long they go for I follow them.

My favourite time of day is after breakfast when we all go back to bed for a few hours. My second favourite time of day is after dinner when I am sleepy and I can go to bed. Some times I sneak upstairs and get up onto the human bed. It's so comfortable and cozy and I don't understand why they always make me get off. When I hear them coming up the stairs I try to quickly get off their bed and pretend I wasn't doing anything wrong but they always seem to know. 

At dog park I like one or two of the dogs and those guys I follow around and play with. My favourite dog to play with, though, is Kaede. We run into each other and thump our chests. I also like it when my human does tricks with me. Sometimes she makes me sit and I get a treat. Sometimes she makes me go down and I get a treat. Sometimes she makes me stay and I get a treat. It's a pretty good life when you can get a treat for doing nothing, right? 

When the humans go out at night and Kaede and I have to stay alone I get very sad. They put a gate across the stairs and put our beds in a hallway and close all the doors. Once when they left us alone but didn't shut the bathroom door we got the toilet paper and ripped it to shreds. Oh yes, we chewed the toilet brush to bits and we knocked over the soaps. We also ate some books another time when they left a door to their office open. I guess they shouldn't have left us alone!!! But when they leave us in the hallway I shake and they give me a pat and tell me it will be fine, but still I am frightened.

The only time I am bad is when I get on the human bed or when we are outside and I see a squirrel. My human tugs on my leash and makes me stop trying to catch the squirrel but I can't stop myself. I am in a doggy frenzy.

Other than that, I guess I lead quite a slow paced and sheltered life. My humans stroke me a lot and they feed me every day and take me for walks and they never make me go outside if I don't want to except to the outdoor private toilet. I think they are very good people. They tell me I am great but don't tell Kaede. She thinks she is pretty special and runs things around here so maybe we should just let her go on thinking that.
The End.

My Day in a Nutshell - by Kaede

I like to think of myself as the spokesdog around our house. I let our people know when it's time to eat, when it's time to go for a walk and when it's time to get up. I take my role very seriously and I know that Freddy thanks me for it.

Each morning when it just begins to get light I walk over to the bed my humans sleep in and I stare into the sleeping face. If that doesn't wake anyone up I plant a kiss on the face closest to me. Usually that does the trick.  I hear the words, "Kaede, go lay down." and that's what I do. I go and lay down and wait for a decent interval. Sometimes I wait an entire five minutes, sometimes more. When five minutes are up I stand once more staring at a sleeping face which usually is enough this time to wake someone and I again hear the words, "Kaede, go lay down." So I do.

The third time it works like a charm. The third time Freddy gets up with me and shakes his big body and he comes with me to stand at the bed of the humans. That's it. They're up and my day has begun. I'm eager to start another day and I always get up in a very good and happy mood. Freddy and I rub up against our human and each other and play, both excited about breakfast!!

We bound down the stairs, me, Freddy and one of our humans and go straight to the magic cupboard. When the door of the magic cupboard is opened wonderful things happen. Sometimes food comes out. Sometimes leashes come out for walks but first thing in the morning, food comes out.

I stay in the room with the magic cupboard to eat and Freddy goes into another room. My human saunters off to the kitchen where she makes coffee, a dark brown liquid she drinks. Personally, I think it smells funny and I much prefer good old water.

When we have finished eating a door to the outside is opened and Freddy and I run out to use our own personal toilets. It's green now that the snow is gone and quite a large place. Freddy finds his own spot away from me and I find mine. When our toilet is finished we race into the house because first one in gets the best bed. Our human takes her coffee upstairs and Freddy and I go back to sleep while she sits up in bed and reads books.

Most days we go on long walks or we go to dog park. I can't decide what I like best. I can tell when we are going out because our human puts on special clothes that smell just like us and she put on shoes that she doesn't care if they get dirty. That's when I start to get excited. We go out to where the magic cupboard is and sure enough out comes the leash. Yippee. It's either a walk or the dog park. I sit like a good girl so that the leash can be attached to my collar and I try really, really hard not to but I can't help it. I always have to put the leash in my mouth and chew on it and that's when I get told not to do that. Bad girl.

When we leave the house with me and Freddy clipped together our human will say, "To the car. Good dogs." That means dog park. Freddy and I jump into the back of the car and we drive through town. Our human always opens up the back windows so we can stick our heads out unless it is very, very cold with lots of snow on the ground then the windows stay up. When we get to the dog park all the dogs who are already there run to the gate to greet us. I run in barking and jumping around, Freddy doesn't. I look to see if any of my friends are there but mostly I like to go and say hi to the humans. They always stroke me and the ones who I don't know tell me how cute I am and comment on my blue eye. They seem to think it's quite unusual although I don't know what the big deal is. It's just a blue eye.

I like it when there are lots of dogs running and I can run with them and bark and bark and bark and chase them and they chase me. It's a lot of fun and I'm pretty fast still even if I am six years old. My favourite thing, though, at dog park is to play with the puppies or the little tiny dogs. I love to follow the puppies and play with them and I am very gentle. The little dogs run very fast but sometimes the humans who have these little dogs think I will hurt them but I don't but they pick the little dog up anyway and that makes it hard for me to smell if it's a boy or a girl dog. I like to know these things.

If we don't go to the car then it's a walk with Freddy and I clipped together. We walk for a very long time. On these walks we sometimes see squirrels and that's when our human gets frustrated with us. I can't help it. When I see them I want to chase them. Freddy is worse and he is really big and strong and pulls so our human sometimes makes us face her so we can't see the squirrels. But, we can still smell them!!

When we are not going for a walk or playing at dog park we get to hang out with our humans. Our man human plays something called a trumpet and when he does Freddy and I howl along with him, sometimes for up to five minutes, non-stop. It's quite a lot of fun, we can't help it. It's something in us dogs that we just have to howl. Now that sprintime is getting here I like to lay out on the balcony in the sun and snooze or watch the world go by. We live downtown and there is always someone going by and we can see a park where kids and dogs play and I like to watch them. Sometimes I see a squirrel in the tree in our backyard but he is always too high up to catch but I will watch him all afternoon if I have to.

When it is time for our dinner I alert our humans to that fact. I find them in whatever room they are and I sit in front of them and stare with all my might. If that doesn't alert them I put my paw on them and whine a sad and very hungry sounding whine. Once in a while they will say something like, "It's too early Kaede, it's not time." and make me wait but it's hard. When a girl is hungry a girl is hungry and that's all there is to it.

When finally it is dinner time we go back out to the room with the magic cupboard and out comes the two bowls of food, one for Freddy and one for me. I sit like a good girl and wait for the food to be put down. When we have finished our dinner we go back outside again to our personal toilet. By this time, we are both quite tired, especially Freddy, and we find a nice place to settle down. Our humans are now in their kitchen making their food and they often ask us to go to another room. I like to go to the family room where the television is because I can sit in the doorway and see them in the kitchen. I shouldn't tell on him but sometimes Freddy sneaks away and gets up on the human's bed, which he is NOT allowed to do. He gets caught though most of the time. He's pretty big so it's not like they can't see him.

When the evening is really here and the humans have eaten their dinner I say good night to them and go upstairs to the bedroom where our beds are next to the human bed and go to sleep, ready to start another day.  When I am fast asleep I get a gentle nudge from my human who tells me and Freddy that it's time to go outside. I get up, half asleep, and go outside with Freddy one last time to our private toilet then back to bed. This is my favourite time of the day because the humans come to bed too and we are altogether in one room, me and Freddy on our beds next to our humans in their bed. Good night.