Holidays & Birthdays

Luky was so excited yesterday. I visited with Uncle Jack which is always a fantastic and stimulating experience. Luky's mom (Kiki) is out of town which has him rather glum, so the prospect of my returning with stories, and a pass-along kiss on the snoot, from Uncle Jack really brightened his day.

We met at a Caribou Coffee place. Luky doesn't attend these meetings - unless we're all sitting outside. In the first place he never got into the coffeehouse thing, plus, he claims that most of the Starbucks and Caribous in Atlanta have a "no wolves" policy. I have no idea how he came to that conclusion but he insists it is so.

In addition to stories and snoot kisses, I had to report that Uncle Jack showed up with a copy of a book, Utterly lovable dogs (pictured). Luky says he knows the author.

I would apologize for the infrequency of his posting of late, but the truth is Luky's been extremely busy! First there was Thanksgiving. Then Kiki had a holiday party at her house and Luky wanted to spend weekends helping her get ready. (I should have known that his volunteering to rake leaves was just a ruse. He always acts like he's making a gallant effort at such things but must retreat since his paws and claws are inadequate for the tools of the task. Truth be told, this whole "lacking opposable thumbs" excuse is getting a little old. The next time he tries that on me I'm going to have special gloves ready that can lock rake handles, paint brushes, grilling utensils, etc., in place. The era of my fulfilling all his chore commitments is coming to an end!)

In addition to understandable, even predictable, holiday activities - travels, parties, shopping and so on - our family and extended family birthdays pile up at this time of year. Luky's favorite human grandpa turned 86 yesterday (that's cousin Barney's daddy); then, the aforementioned Yellow Lab Barney turns eight this week, plus his human cousin Scipio (whom Luky insists is really a Great Dane disguised as a human boy) celebrates a birthday today . . . and I'm sure we're leaving out a bunch of others, but before we stop the birthday list I'm forced to acknowledge that Luky will also be turning eight on the 30th.

He says he's happy for me to stop here with the light news. He's ready to start posting the heavy concepts of the past month's musings.