IN THE BEGINNING - By Freddy

         Once upon a time I lived with many other puppies who were called 'litter mates'. The other puppies had little collars around their necks but I was very special so I didn't need one. I could be told apart from the others without a coloured collar because I was the only boy who was in the litter who didn't have a ridge.

      That's me you see at the bottom right eating away with the others.
   When I became a bit bigger a lady came to visit. She stroked me and held me. Then she came again and played with me and my brothers and sisters. Then I started to like her and she 'chose' me. That meant that I was going to go and live with her.

      Aren't I just the cutest. Well, she thought so.
      When she took me home with her I got to meet the other pets in the household. First there was HarryBoy. He was older and really didn't like me much. I think I was there a long time before he would let me touch him. In fact, my owner took a picture so that the occasion was set down in history.

      There, that's him. This is the first time I was allowed to touch him. He pretty much stuck like glue to our lady owner and let us youngsters play away our days. In the corner of the picture you can see Kaede. Kaede was pretty cool. She is older than me by six months but anyone would think she's my mother the way she used to boss me around. When I lay quietly sleeping in my crate, the second I opened my eyes what did I see? Kaede's face with the weird blue eye staring at me. The second my owner let me out of the crate Kaede lunged for my back leg and held on to me while I went outside to pee. I liked her though. Here are some pictures of me and Kaede playing.

 We always had so much fun wrestling and chasing each other around the yard where we lived. It was warm there. Usually Kaede won the wrestling matches.

This time though, she didn't. That's me on top winning the battle. We had a rope that we pulled and tugged. Kaede is still my friend.
     Next time I am going to tell you about the move we made from southern California, where it was always warm, to Canada where sometimes it is very, very, cold.
     Until next time. Yours truly, Freddy

The Beginning

     I was born in a place called an animal shelter. My mother was a very beautiful black dog, called a Lab, and she also was part Rhodesian Ridgeback because she had a ridge down her back. She was a most beautiful and unusual girl. I don't know where she came from but she was found walking around the streets in a place called San Diego. That's in California.
     When I was very tiny, just days old, a very nice couple of people came to see me. They scooped me and my brothers and sisters up and my mother and took us to live with them. They had a place attached to their house called a garage and that's where we stayed.
     I don't really remember those people and I don't remember my mother or my brothers and sisters very well. I think I remember a warm pile of puppies but not much else.

         I was actually pretty cute. Anyway, after a certain amount of time in the garage with my family, a very nice lady came to see me. She cuddled me and held me and kissed me. I really liked her too. Then one day my brothers and my sister and I were taken to a place called a Vet's office. We were given shots. Ouch. They hurt. Then they gave me a needle that put me to sleep and when I woke up I had stitches on my belly.
       That very evening the woman who had come to see me so many times met me and my brothers and my sister. There were lots of people there that evening. I learned that we were going 'home'. I didn't quite know what it meant. Anyway, the lady who cuddled me carried me gently, because of my stitches, and put me in a crate in the back of her car. I was still very tired from the operation.

     When we stopped at her house I was amazed to see other dogs already there. One was named Simba. She was an old dog. Something called a Rhodesian Ridgeback. She was extremely beautiful and very kind. She cuddled me and licked me and lay next to me. She let me play with her toys. I really loved her a lot. There is a picture of her coming up.

      She was beautiful. Simba wasn't with me for very long. She was old and one day she got sick and our human woman took her to a place to make her better but she didn't get better. She didn't come back. My human cried but I comforted her.
     There was another dog there too. He was a boy Rhodesian Ridgeback named HarryBoy. He hated me. He didn't let me go near him. He liked Simba but he sure didn't like me much.
     I will show you a picture of him too but not now. I will write next about my first little while living with my new human woman and her two dogs, Simba and HarryBoy.
      That's it for now.
                                        From Kaede

Kaede Tells a Lie

     Well, well, well. What do you know. A funny thing happened the other day. I got my human woman up. The human man had already gone downstairs and left me and Freddy in the room on our beds to sleep. So, anyway. I got my human woman up by standing next to the bed and staring at her until she opened her eyes. That's what I always do. She got up and opened the door so Freddy and I could go downstairs.
     Our human man was laying on the couch and no one seemed to be very interested in feeding us so I went over to him and stared. That got his attention. He got up and fed us and then let us outside to our private backyard toilet area.
     As is our usual custom, we all go back to bed together so upstairs I go but the bedroom door is closed. Now, how's a dog to get back in there if the door's closed? I pace up and down in front of the door.
     Finally, the door opens up. But, instead of letting us in our human woman goes downstairs where Freddy is sitting at the bottom of the stairs and takes us into the room that has the magic cupboard with the food. When we get fed I sit like the good dog I am. Freddy doesn't sit until the food is in his bowl and ready to be put down in front of him. But not me, no siree, not me. The second we go into the room with the magic closet of food I sit. It works every time. And today was no different. I sat and sure enough she reaches into the magic cupboard and I hear the wonderful tinkle of the food hitting the metal bowl.
     Suddenly, and without warning, the male human comes out and says, "They've already been fed." Imagine my disappointment when I hear the food being dropped from the bowl back into the magic cupboard.
     Then they laughed. I heard my woman human say, "I can't believe Kaede sat there waiting for her food as if she hasn't eaten yet. What a little liar she is."

     Well I beg to differ. I'm not a little liar. An opportunist perhaps but certainly not a liar.
 

Freddy Has a Good Day

      I went for a ride with my man human. He drove for a very long time looking out the window. Then he would stop the car and write stuff down. Every now and then he would turn around and pat me on the head and say hello to me.

      When it was human lunch time he found a park and I sat next to him while he ate. He slipped me a little morsel of cheese. It was delicious. 

      We walked around the park then we got in the car and drove some more. We drove around for eight hours. He seemed to like being with me. I slept.


     

Kaede has a Better Day

      What a great day I had. It started off with me being a little upset because Freddy trotted off on the end of the leash with our man. I don't like when Freddy goes places without me because I always worry that he will get in trouble if I'm not there to look out for him.
      Anyway, off he goes, as pleased with himself as can be. I ran to the window and watched them drive off.

      The next thing I know my woman human is getting on the 'dog clothes'. Yippee, we're going somewhere too. She clips on the no-nonsense leash. That's the one that is very short so that I can trot along beside her. Off we go. 


      First we walk toward the park and on the way we greet our neighbour, Molly, who is a black beauty with some blond highlights. She is on leash too so we kind of play bow while the humans talk. Boy, they sure can talk. There is some yummy tall stalks of grass, you know the good kind that is sweet and juicy. Turns out Molly likes to chew on them too so we did that.


      Finally the human women stop talking and off we go again. We go through the streets of our town, the usual route, then suddenly we go a different way. We go along roads that I don't know and we walk at a pretty fair clip. That pleases me because I may not have mentioned this before but I am pretty energetic. I may be six and a half but I have plenty of get up and go.


     We walk for a long time when I start to notice things that are familiar. Well, what do you know? We have walked all the way to dog park, one of my very favourite places in the world. I can't believe it. There are only a couple of dogs there but I play a bit with them and wander around taking in all the wonderful new smells.


      My human sits on the bench and talks to another human woman. A black lab lunges at me but I just turn the other cheek. Guess that lab doesn't know that I'm allowed on the bench even if his human is there too. Oh, well. Sometimes these dogs think they own the place. I trot off by myself. It's the first time I have been to dog park without Freddy but it's okay. He's a bit of a stick in the mud anyway. All he wants to do is lay on the benches and sunbathe.

      (Me resting after a long fun day)

      My human clips my leash on again and we walk back home. It's been wonderful. Just her and me, very long walks and playing at the park. But, it doesn't end there. When we get back home she makes some human food and we sit outside in the sunshine while she eats and I watch the world go by. Then she slips me a treat. It's crunchy and orange and I kind of like it, I think humans call it a carrot.


      I don't think about Freddy all day because I've had so much fun with my woman human. Don't you just love her? I sure do!!!
 

WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD DOGS

   

     Our human lady holds onto my leash and guides me out of the car, telling Kaede to stay. Kaede jumps out of the car anyway and is scolded because she has no leash on and is put back into the car to wait. I'm going first. I'm going first. I'm happy about that.
     She leads me into a room with steps that go up to a thingy where I guess I am supposed to stand. Sure enough, it's like the table they make me stand on when they clip my nails, which, by the way, I hate.
      I stand there, tail between my legs because I'm not liking this one little bit. Suddenly water comes down on me. Water!! I hate water!! I hate water a lot!! It comes down on me and she is making suds all over me. My fur is wet. I hate wet fur. I shake and the water and soap goes all over her. That'll teach her but, no, she just laughs.
     More water comes. I think it will never stop. Suds are everywhere. Then comes the water without the suds. I smell awful. I stink, as a matter of fact. It's like flowers. I am grateful when the water finally stops and wait to be unleashed so I can get off that table and run down the stairs and away from there. I've never in my life been so humiliated or unhappy. Then.....without any warning it gets worse. It get a lot worse. It gets so worse that I try to jump off the table. Suddenly, without warning and ON PURPOSE, I might add, hot air is suddenly blowing on me. A huge big round hose with air is coming on me. All over my legs, my belly, my back my fur is being dried. I was so scared, I tell you, I nearly fainted. I think she knew because she kept saying, in that nice voice of hers that she uses when she tortures me, "It's okay Freddy. There isn't that nice." Well, it wasn't nice. It was horrible.
     Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, I am finished and I am allowed to get off that horrible table and out of the horrible room. I get back to the car and hop in almost before the door is completely opened. I'm a big guy too but I jumped right in there. 
     Kaede took one look at me, smelled the awful flower smell on me and decided she was not getting out of the car. She planted herself firmly in the seat and held on for dear life. But, to no avail. Kaede was taken away to that place. 
     That was the best part of the whole horrible ordeal actually. I got to sit in the car and watch Kaede being taken to the chamber of horrors to be BATHED.

Freddy's Horrible Day

     I had a very bad day. A very bad day indeed. My owners, who swear they love me more than anything, threw me to the wolves. They abandoned me, left me out in the cold, turned their backs on me in my darkest hour. They tricked me terribly and I think that you, the readers, will take my part in all this. I think you will rush to Southern Ontario, find me, and take me home with you so I no longer have to endure this wickedness.
     First of all - the trick. They pretended we were going to have a nice day. They enticed me into the car, all smiles and happiness. We drove, the windows were down so I could stick my head out and let my ears flap in the wind. It was wonderful.
     Suddenly, and without warning, I might add, they stopped the car. Well, I knew immediately there was trouble. I had been here before and I didn't like it at all. I watched in horror as the car door opened and Kaede, that rotten little turn-coat, jumped out all smiles trotting around like we were at the beach or something.
     I knew better. I hid in the car but I guess they must have seen me because next thing I know they are calling me, "Freddy. Come on Freddy." In that sweet friendly voice of theirs.
     What's a boy to do. I slunk out of the car and let the lady hold on to my leash while she walked me to the gallows. Kaede just leaped along beside us, happy in her stupid way.

     Of course I knew it.  Slam. I was confined. I was in a KENNEL. They were leaving me. I saw the tops of their heads as they turned around and left me in that awful place. I went into the corner and that's where I stayed for the remainder of the seven whole hours I was there.
     It was awful and I think you would agree with me - it's no way to treat a wonderful boy like me.

HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED by Kaede

      

     For a few hours we were allowed to play with some very fun German Shephard Dogs. We had a very large yard to play in and when we were tired we got to go and lay down in our own private room. Freddy chose to sit in the kennel and not play with us because he is a big fat baby who misses his Mommy and Daddy. The very nice lady who looked after us kept stroking him and making sure he was alright. Hmmm. Perhaps he's not so stupid after all.