Merlin the Mutt's Occasional Moos

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

CHASE THE CAT! (Boy Plays Rough!)



YIPP-EEE! Hey Cyber-Pack, do you like to play? What’s your favorite? Maybe “Play Fetch”? Or “Dig Dig Dig”? (I like that one pretty much too.) Or “Check Out What the Bunny Left in My Yard”? Maybe you, like I, REALLY enjoy a good game of “Run Diagonally at the Fence Where the Possum is Sitting and See if You Can Knock it Off the Fence in One Try”?

“Chase The Cat” has to be the MOST exciting, though, ESPECIALLY when played indoors!

I told you about my girlfriend Tessa, who lives across the street, with her human pack. This is Tessa:

Sometimes we go for walks together, and sometimes Tessa comes over to visit me. Tessa loves to play “Fetch the Silver Ball that is Bigger than a Tennis Ball.” She could play it for hours. (BOR-ING!) She also loves to look out her window, like this:
and watch my house to see where I am and where my Alison and Alexa are. (OK, I sit at my bay window and watch Tessa’s house too!)













When the weather is nice, Tessa likes to sit in the ivy in her front yard like this:
and many summer evenings, I join her in the nice cool ivy.

Well, these days, the ivy is freeze-your-dogbutt-snowy-icy COLD ivy! So it’s fun to visit indoors and play with each other’s dog toys.

Tessa has a very fun toy called a CAT, that she doesn’t even play with. (Such a waste of CAT!) Its name is “BOY” (I guess because it is a boy cat). And its biggest talent is growing fur…and claws. Nancy, Tessa’s alpha human, says Boy is pretty old.

When I visit Tessa, Boy stays in a room behind a closed door because the first time I visited, many dog-years ago, I chased Boy and another cat up and down the stairs, and all over the house until both cats climbed to the top of the highest furniture they could find, where I, Merlin, could not even jump. They both left small claws in the carpet, running so hard to beat me to the tall furniture! Wow, was that ever FUN, even though the cats won! But my Alison took me home then, and I had to send a note to the cats, apologizing and sending them cat treats. So that’s why Boy stays in a closed room now when I visit.
(I never saw that other cat again. Nancy said he was very, very old.)

The other day, I was visiting at Tessa’s house. Always, the first thing I do there is run upstairs and sniff around for Boy, and I always find where he is, but the door is always closed. Sometimes he fools me and hides down the basement, so I sniff at the basement door too. OK, so I knew Boy was in the room they call ‘the Den”. (Hey, really, it just looks like a ROOM, with a ceiling just as high as the rest of the rooms—not MY idea of a close, cozy “DEN” at all!) I went downstairs and got pets from the humans and gave them kisses, played with Tessa’s toys, played a little “Chase” with Tessa, drank her water and knocked the top off her giant can of kibble. We went outside and ran in the snow, sniffed for wildlife and had a barkfest with the other dogs in the ‘hood. (THEY started it!) Pretty good fun so far!

Well, Cyber-Pack, I bet you can guess what’s coming!

When we went back inside, I could smell Boy stronger than before, so I bounded upstairs, 3 stairs at a time with my long Pointer-legs and saw—the DEN DOOR was OPEN! YIPP-EE! PLAYTIME! And no tall furniture in the den!

Did you know cats can fly? I’m not sure Boy knew cats can fly either, but, boy, did that furry old sucker zip past me, all of him in the air at the same time! As he flashed by I felt a THWAHP! on my muzzle, and pricks like the bee stings I got one summer. YES! A good game of CHASE THE CAT was afoot! And, “tag”, I was “IT”! I chased that Boy down the stairs and through the living room, and then he disappeared down the basement stairs, and someone slammed the basement door behind him. DRAT! End of game. (NOT end of story.)

We stayed a while longer, but my Alison decided to take me home when I camped out in front of the basement door, still sniffing deeply. (STILL NOT end of story.)

When we got home, I lay down and watched my Alison, like I do when I want to get her to pay attention. She looked at me and giggled, “Merlin, dear, that cat gave you a cowlick on your nose fur! Let me pat that down.” I vowed to be SOOO good when she touched my nose, because she didn’t realize at first that it WASN’T a furry cowlick (to which I would have said, “MOOOO!”). It was two sharp, pointy, half-moon-shaped CLAWS stuck in---ME! “Oww-OOO!” When she did realize, she gently backed the cat claws out of my muzzle, like humans do with wood slivers. Then she put some greasy stuff on that place a few times in the next days, and I, Merlin Merlino Moo (and sometimes Charlie) was completely fine. And we found out that Boy was completely fine, too.

So, Cyber-Pack, beware! Here is an artist’s rendering of the dangerous, armed, suspect, a/k/a “Boy”:

If seen, approach with caution! And then come play “Chase” with me, Moo!!

Wishing you all great fun and love, and a great pack!
Merlin Merino Moo

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Thursday, March 01, 2007

I Got Mail! The Mutt Paw and Skipper-keys


Hello Cyber-pack!

I got mail! I got mail! A big puffy white envelope came for me! It said, “In honor of Merlin”. (The mailman brought it, so maybe he’s not as bad a guy as I thought.)
My Alison opened it up, and inside was a letter from Lorraine. She is a nice lady in Wisconsin, which is a place that I think is another planet.

Also inside was a Mutt Paw. What is a Mutt Paw, you ask? Here is a picture of it:

(Too bad the top of it didn’t get in the picture. I’m just learning to use a camera, and have to work on my paw-eye coordination.) Wow, is that cool! An "I love my" Paw all about me, Merlin! The coolest is that Lorraine was the person who informed my pack some time ago that I am actually a purebred German Australian Border Pointer Shorthair Collie Cattle Dog!

My pack met Lorraine’s pack at a dog show, a long time ago—before even my pack had Spock the Skipper-Key. In fact, when my Alison and Alexa met Lorraine, it was the first time they met Skipper-keys! What is a Skipper-key, you ask? Well, here is a picture I found of Mr. Spock the Skipper-key:


I think Spock looked like a little fox, whereas I, Merlin Merlino Moo (and sometimes Charlie), think I look more like a wolf. What do you think? Here is another photo of me, Moo, hunting a chipmunk:


Lorraine’s pack had lots of Skipper-keys, but now has -only- 3. My Alexa still talks about Rainbow. Hahaha, -Rainbow- is a FUNNY name for a Skipper-key because they are completely black! It was the first Skipper-key Alexa met, and she fell in love immediately, just like she fell in love with me, Moo, when she met me. (I was then called “Merle” because of my blue merle coat.) But Alexa couldn’t adopt Rainbow ‘cause Rainbow was busy being a Champion and a mommy. Alison was telling me about Venus the Skipper-key, too. Lorraine’s pack loaned Venus to my pack for a couple hours one time, to make sure nobody would be allergic to Skipper-keys.

And then my pack went out and got Mr. Spock, who I never met, but sometimes I can still smell him. Too bad he got so sick and had to go to Rainbow Bridge. Later on, Lorraine’s alpha human male went to Rainbow Bridge too, and I am sure that Spock was happy to see him. I think there are other dogs and nice humans there too.

If you want to know more about Skipper-keys, here are some places you can go:
http://www.bullmtn.com/oleoranch/schip.htm Ya gotta see SUPER KODY!
http://www.schipperkeclub-usa.org/ You can find Skipper-keys to rescue there.
http://www.bonchien.com/ An amazing amount of Skipper-key info.

Oh, my Alison wants me to tell you that if you think you want a Skipper-key because it’s cute, you must be willing to play with it A LOT, EVERY day, and do training, and you must have a lot of energy and a good sense of humor. She says it is a “full-time dog” and definitely NOT a lap-dog and NOT a home-alone dog. And most of them live a very long time, sometimes 140 years. (I don't know how many people years that is.)

And I, Merlino, say, why not adopt a rescue dog?
http://www.petfinder.com/
For Chicagoland: http://www.adoptapet-il.org/ (The organization that saved my life.)

Well, this pure-bred German Australian Border Pointer Shorthair Collie Cattle Dog is going to go in the car with my Mutt Paw proudly displayed in the back window! Thank you Lorraine! I am one lucky, happy Mutt!

Many wet doggie kisses,
Merlin Merlino Moo