car-in-teen hoomans

I didn’t like the can-all as much as life in a pack. It wasn’t a bad place, I got food and lots of treats. But there weren’t many hoomans around. I had other dogs to play with, but we didn’t get to play together all day, or live like a pack. When I wasn’t playing with the other dogs, I was in a wire cave at the can-all. It was long, and big, and had a nice nest and toys. But it was hard to feel like a member of a pack when your all by yourself in a big cave.

I didn’t get many belly rubs or ear scratches at the can-all either. The hoomans were nice, but I didn’t get to see them all the time. There was one nice hooman I saw more than the others. I taught him some tricks too, like how to give me a hotdog when I stayed put and waited for him to return to me, or when I ran over to him when he called me. I liked that hotdog handing out hooman, but we weren’t a pack. After we’d play, he’d put me back in my cave and I wouldn’t see him for a while.

Then one day, I was playing with the hotdog handing out hooman, and two new hoomans were there. I didn’t know these hoomans, they weren’t the ones that fed me or cleaned my cave, or played with me and the other dogs. I don’t think they had ever been to the can-all. They didn’t smell familiar. There was a female and a male hooman.

But the hotdog handing out hooman gave them some hotdogs, and they gave them to me. I showed them how to walk around the room, when to give me hotdogs, and how to walk next to me properly. Then the hotdog handing out hooman told me I was going home with them. I didn’t know what that meant, but these two new hoomans put my nest and toys in a car and we went for a car ride and I never saw the can-all or the hotdog handing out hooman again.

Now I have a pack again. I like this pack. I don’t know why I had to leave my other packs, so I don’t know if I’ll have to leave this one one day too. I hope I can stay in this pack for a long time. The hoomans in this pack keep telling my I’m home and that they’re keeping me. I hope that means I stay in this pack.

I heard one of the hoomans say I’ve been in this pack for 3 years. I don’t know what a year is, but I know it’s been a few seasons. I like the cold season best, except when it’s really cold and hurts my paws. And I like the middle season. I don’t like the warm season. But I do have nice cool holes to nest in now. I like that.

This pack had a routine. I quickly figured out the routine, and I liked the routine. Most days both hoomans would leave the den, and I’d get to sleep in my cave inside the den. I liked that. I liked when the hoomans were home too. I liked playing with the hoomans and being in a pack again.

Sometimes the female hooman would take me for a car ride and we’d go to another den. I liked those days too. She called it shop day. There was a cave for me there too. I could sleep in this den’s cave, but still hear her talking to other hoomans and doing hooman things. Sometimes the hoomans she talked to would give me ear rubs. I liked that. And a few times during the day my female hooman would attach herself to me with a rope and I would show her to all the good goose poop and rabbit holes.

Recently my pack’s routine changed. There are no more shop days for me or the female hooman, and the male hooman doesn’t leave the den in the morning either. I don’t know why things changed. The hoomans say it’s because of a car-in-teen. I don’t know what a car-in-teen is, but I like the change. Now the two hoomans are always home, or almost always home. I like that. The pack is always a pack now.

Some things stayed the same when my pack’s routine changed. Every morning when I wake up I can hear the male hooman in the small room with the three water bowls. I don’t know why hoomans need 3 different sized water bowls. And they get mad when I try to drink out of any of them.

I don’t like the big water bowl though, that’s the one they use for baths. But I like the room with the water bowls, even if they make me takes baths sometimes. I like it because this room smells like my pack, and it’s small, it’s like a small cave in the den that we can all fit in.

I don’t hear the wake-up-noise-box often now. I haven’t heard it in a while. Not since before the pack was always home. They don’t seem to use the wake-up-noise-box as much now. I don’t mind. It makes me angry and I have to bark at it to get the male hooman to stop it from making more noise.

Both hoomans get up around the same time now. Before the pack was always home, that didn’t happen much. The male hooman would get up when the wake-up-noise-box barked. I would bark at it, and then cave under the hooman nest until the male hooman was done in the room with the three water bowls. Now I just stay in my nest until the male hooman is done in the room with the three water bowls and he covers his walking paws so we can do walkies.

I still have to lead the male hooman through the neighborhood every morning for walkies. But we’re not out as early now that the wake-up-noise-box doesn’t bark. Often the female hooman does walkies in the afternoon now too. Before the pack was always home, she only did walkies on days when she came back to the den before dark.

I like walkies. There’s a lot of pee-mail to check. There seems to be a lot going on in our neighborhood right now. Because of the car-in-teen, almost all of the packs seem to be at home. All the dogs in the neighborhood are enjoying pack time, but some like it more than others.

The pack of little dogs a few dens away just got a new fence, now they can’t chase me and my hoomans on walkies, they don’t like that, but I do. The yellow dog at the big white den hasn’t been out lately, I think he’s inside with his pack. He hasn’t left any pee-mail updates recently, so I’m not sure. But the little cranky three legged old one isn’t getting any less cranky, maybe he’s not getting his naps now that his pack is always around.

I especially like walkies on the days when all the dens put out their scraps. Oh the smells! And the stuff the hoomans leave in those blue boxes – all sorts of crunchy things with flavor still in them! Sometimes I find a banana peel on the ground, or crunchy white things that explode with gravy when I bite them. Once, I even found something the female hooman called a pineapple, and once one nice hooman dropped a whole giant plate of hooman cookies when she fell. I was sorry that she fell, but happy about the hooman cookies.

I don’t know why the hoomans go on walkies. They don’t seem to have any interest in the grass growing between the cracks, the mailboxes, the fences around the other dens, and they never check pee-mail. Sometimes they wave to other hoomans. And it’s a good thing my hoomans are smart enough to attach a rope to me before we leave the den for walkies because I don’t know how the hoomans would find their way back to our den if they weren’t attached to me during walkies, they never seem to know where they’re going.

After morning walkies the pack eats breakfast. The hoomans fill my bowl and then eat their own breakfast. Sometimes they share bits of thiers with me. I show them where my food is every morning, in case they forgot. Sometimes I try and sneak a mouthful when they open it, but usually I’m a good boy and wait.

They add gravy, and sometimes, things from the magic box. I like the magic box, it’s where the hoomans keep the food they want to keep cold. Sometimes when they open the door things fall out. The female hooman is quick, but every now and then I get something yummy when it rolls under the door, usually an apple. The hoomans keep carrots, and cheese in the magic box. I like carrots and cheese.

After breakfast I like to nap on the big nest. I like the corner by the window, but so does the female hooman, so I have to get to it before she does. This wasn’t a problem before the hoomas were always home. Now I nap in the other corner if she’s already in the sunny one. I like the big nest. Our whole pack can fit on it. I like that.

Before the pack was always home, I would have to nap in my cave inside the den when the hoomans went away. I didn’t like the hoomans going away but my cave is nice. It’s got a water bowl and a comfy nest. It’s a nice place to nap. But now that the hoomans are always home, I nap on the big nest, or upstairs on my small nest next to the hoomans nest. Sometimes I go into my cave, just because. It’s a good place to watch my hoomans.

Now that the hoomans are home so much, they spend a lot of the day staring at moving picture boxes. I don’t like that my hoomans spend so much time looking at the moving picture boxes, because they’re not playing with me.They each have a small one, and there’s a big one in the room with the big nest too. When it’s dark outside, we sometimes sit on the big nest together while they look at the big moving picture box and I nap. I like that.

Since they’re always home now, I nap when they’re looking at the smaller moving picture boxes. They often sit at the same table, that makes it easy for me to watch and protect them when they’re looking at the moving picture boxes. Sometimes I can hear voices coming from the moving picture boxes, but no one’s here. I don’t like that. I don’t like not knowing where the people are.

They even take the small talking picture boxes outside and stare at them from chairs on the porch. I like that because I can nap on the porch or in one of my favorite holes and watch them. I can also protect our territory better from outside the den.

There are a lot of squirrels and other varmints in our neighborhood. I don’t like varmints. My hoomans say I’m not the best hunter they’ve known, but I’m still pretty good. When I first came to my new den, I didn’t know I was allowed to hunt. A lot of hoomans don’t like me to hunt. But my new pack lets me, so I’m still figuring that out. I’m still learning how to hunt.

Last season I killed a big varmint. He lived under the den next to ours. He wasn’t supposed to be in our territory. I warned him, but he kept coming in. So I caught him. The female hooman called it a groundhog. That was a good day. The hoomans made quite a big fuss. I wanted to take it on walkies and show my friends, but the female hooman didn’t want me too. She gave me eggs and cookies. So I know she was proud of me.

I like the hoomans in the dens next to ours. There’s one that brings me cookies, I really like her. She’s a good hooman. I can see into her den from our territory. Sometimes if I stare real hard, she’ll see me and bring me cookies. Her pack is larger than ours. It has a few hoomans and three dogs. Their territory is bigger too, well, maybe not, but it has two dens instead of just one like my pack.

It’s starting to get warmer. The male hooman in my pack stays around the den more during the warm season, and the female hooman in my pack spends a lot of time outside in our territory too. I hope the male doesn’t decide to go away more during the warm season since he’s hers so much now. And maybe the female will spend even more time outside with me. I’d like that. I like having my pack around.

The female likes to dig, just like me. She also likes to pull plants out of the ground, but not all the plants, just some. She also moves leaves and dirt and rocks around a lot. I like when she does these things. I can get her to play with me if I drop my toy in her bucket or next to the plants she’s pulling out. Sometimes she even tries to help me hunt by moving rocks and things that I can’t move by myself.

I have two nesting holes in our territory. Both were here when I came to this den. But they’re in good spots, so I use them. I dug them up a bit more so that they fit me better. They’re nice and cool, I like napping in them during the warmer season. They’re great hiding spots, but the hoomans know where they are, and they will look for me in them. But it’s ok because they let me stay in them.

There are some things I don’t like about having my pack around so much. I don’t get to nap as often as I used to. And now when I am napping, the hoomans like to pet me. I kind of like that, but sometimes I just want to nap. It makes me mad that it’s called cat napping, as if dogs don’t enjoy hours of naps. Now I have to watch and protect my hoomans all day. It’s exhausting.

The hoomans give me baths more often now too. I don’t like baths. Well that’s not all true. I don’t like the bath, but I do like not being itchy afterwards. But I don’t want the hoomans to know that, they might try to give me baths more often. The bath gets rid of the itchies, but it makes me smell funny too. I don’t like that.

I also don’t like that the female hooman changes the smell of the big nest so much now. She says I’m a messy boy and that she needs to clean the nest lots now. She takes parts of the nest into the cave under the den and comes back up with parts that no longer smell like me or the pack. She also takes the nest apart and uses something loud and growly she calls a vack-yoom to take away the smells and the dirt.

The hoomans keep talking about the car-in-teen being the reason they’re home. I don’t know what that means, but I liked my pack’s routine before they were home so often, and I like them being home a lot now. So I think the pack will be ok if the car-in-teen goes away and the pack goes back to the old routine.

But right now, I’m going to see if I can get the male hooman to share his snack. Or maybe I’ll check on the female and see if she wants to nap on the big nest. Or maybe I’ll see if the hooman in the den next to ours has some cookies. I could check on our territory and make sure there are no chipmunks. But I have all day, so maybe I’ll just nap for a while and figure it out later.