cody bear’s friends

dogs are very smart, especially corgis and mandarin collies.  as you will soon see, checkers and cody bear  have great problem solving abilities and natural survival skills.  to “ruff” it, so to speak…

after recovering from their trip to la casa blanca, they decided it was time to expand their life experience, challenge their mettle, conquer the great outdoors.  i was honored to be invited along, …until i realized ….they were only using me to put the tent up!….

…. and to open their canned goods and build a fire.

here’s what they already knew about camping:

the outdoors is pretty and wildly dangerous, there are bears, no electricity, lots of trees, trail mix is often involved, and …. you are required to eat warm, mushy marshmallows.

here’s what they learned:

melty marshmallows stick to paws and face fur. when you REALLY REALLY have to go to the bathroom in a hurry and you don’t have thumbs….it is darn near impossible to unzip the tent flap.  get claws trimmed before camping, so as not to pop air mattress.  when packing for camping trip, don’t choose the squeaky dog toy over the compass or snow shoes.

they truly discovered why people find camping so amazing.  there are soooo many trees to pee on, soooo many squirrels to chase.  there are no garbage men around and you get to leave the stress of the big city behind.

checkers did admit, however, that it was tough being away from his blog for so long.

ultimately, they sent me packing.   checkers isn’t used to my snoring, so i got kicked out of the tent and was forced to hike through the wilderness the entire lonely 25 feet back to my bedroom.

well, that’s it for the latest “on the road with cody bear and checkers.” i sure hope they invite me along again.  everything is more enjoyable with a dog, especially these two!

well, i better get back to picking the burrs out of cody bear’s furry gaucho pants…

it was time for checkers and cody bear to head to the nation’s capitol. they decided it was time for afro ken to hit the road, too. he has a great internal compass.

tomorrow being earthday, the elections on the horizon, the dogs pulled some strings, wagged some tails and licked some faces and were able to visit the oval office…

there was some grumblings among secret service and random staffers about who let the dogs on the white house couches, but no one gave them any trouble. obviously they were important canine ambassadors to be hanging out in the white house.

all in all, having the three visit was a breath of fresh air for the president, his wife and their staffers. checkers and spotty had an AWESOME fake fight on the white house lawn and cody bear left many pee-mails on pennsylvania avenue.

afro ken was much more serious. he took advantage of the opportunity to pick the brains of the powers that be on topics of great importance. the war: note the peaceful colors of afro ken’s wig. clearly he would love to see a peaceful resolution. earth day. safety in imported pet foods. all huge topics. we can’t wait to see the impact of his discussions.

(check out their previous and SCARY trip here)

wishing to experience the sites and smells of america, checkers and cody bear thought it was high time to embark on a series of road trips. equipped with no technology other than checkers’ juice phone, armed with their superior sense of smell, these young, luggage free and very cunning dogs set out to tour the country in short treks, arriving home every night just in time for kibble!

since the new x-files movie is coming out soon, they thought they would sniff their way through roswell, nm to see if they could get some background on aliens….

probably the less said about their visit to the museum the better.  the aliens smelled funny and ….imagine what one of those giant martian heads look like to a little corgi.

to sum it up, they had a great time at the crash down diner.  delicious fries with gravy! they did meet some nice folks in roswell.  a woman named marilyn gave them each a bum scratch and some carrot muffins.  another lady, dorothy, pointed them in the right direction when their bellies started grumbling and it was time to make for home.

where to next?  we’ll have to wait and see…

maybe it was a mistake taking cody bear to vegas….

las vegas. it wasn’t an ideal destination for this dear dog. gambling was wasted on him:

1. he had no pockets in which to carry his quarters or chips.

2. “poker face” was completely blown with wagging tail. we all knew what he was holding!

3. 4.99 all you can eat buffet is just not worth it when you’re two feet shorter than the sneeze guard and you don’t have a thumb….so you can’t use the tongs.

4. cirque de soleil performers ban cody bear from all performances, claiming his fur sticks to their make up.

5. he kept wanting to pee on the stratosphere…

6. completely misunderstood the meaning of…..”craps.”

7. seeing siegreid and roy’s cats shook him to the core and his view of cats as prey crumbled.

…ok….maybe i’m spending too much time trying to learn photoshop….

twas a sunny day…..

i packed up my camera, overnight bag, kibble and of course…the dog. we were on our way to visit loved ones!

surprised by a sudden cold, i slept well into the late morning, whereas cody bear rose early and tried to woo the locals with his winning smile and a waggy tail. wanting to catch up, i moped out of bed, grabbed the canon, and commenced taking pictures of these crazy flowers in my equally colorful jammies.

and thus went easter sunday!

 i’m growing to love cacti…

here are some buds.  flowers, …maybe next month?

some of them have fruit, too.

yes, they’re prickly.  you can’t just pluck one and give it to your sweety.  and no, there are no luscious petals like roses have.

they aren’t romantic, but they’re unique, whimsical, dangerous, functional and beautiful…in there own scratchy way.

more from yesterday’s photo trip:

apricot blossoms! the bees were all over those flowers. i was standing under the trees and they would fly in and out of the frame constantly. the buzzing was more comforting than scary. though i will admit: if cody bear had been there, i would have been nervous he might get stung. but the bees ignored me and the blossoms were so pretty!

with hovering bee…

i don’t know what they are.  but they were SO small and cute.  and we didn’t notice them at first because they were being upstaged by all the vibrant california poppies!  you didn’t really see how pretty they were until you zoomed in!

 here is another picture from my travels.

i don’t have any great caption to go with it.  i know more pics would have turned out if i had a tripod with me.  i know this chapel was packed with people:  half tourists with cameras, half actual church goers touching base with god.

it was very ornate and peaceful.  i want to go back already!