July 1?

If I set out thinking I was going to write in this blog on a daily or even weekly basis, I was pretty far off base. So here I am, nearly 6 months later, July 1. Meaning there are only about 6 weeks left of summer. I'm sitting here next to my "to do" list - blogging is not on that list, but it's preferable to everything else that IS on the list. What I should really be doing is cleaning out my car, because I think my car has waited even longer than this blog. (And the other thing that has waited even longer is my hair - which is getting longer and longer and longer. I did put in a call to my stylist, but while she's great at hair she's not so great at returning phone calls.)

Last time I wrote, I was trying to teach Tally to use her new bell. The secret was butter. I'd put a tiny dab on the underside, and when she stuck her nose in to get at the butter, the bell rang and I'd open the door and let her out. Of course, that put her on the opposite side of the door from the butter so it may not have felt like a reward, but it did work and she rings pretty consistently now when she wants to go out.

And on a sad note about dogs, Tally's good buddy Tres had to be euthanized yesterday. He was an old, old guy and has been having trouble breathing, so yesterday was his last day. He spent the day with us while Brooke and Paul were at work, and we spoiled him nicely. Tres enjoyed much of the day on the deck, chewing on a new knuckle bone in the shade. Doesn't get much better than that for a lab.