THE CARLY REPORT - July, 2011

Carly's traveled many more miles and here is her latest:

Dear Sister:
I haven't written you for a couple of days. My Mom didn't have some kinda connection to her typer thing. She said she needed a Why-Fie. I don't know what that is since sometimes she can type for me without adding anything to the typer thing.

We've spent a couple extremely hot days in a place called Witch-A-Taw. My Mom has lots of family there. They were having some kind of heat wave and it got to be 112 degrees but it was much hotter than the 112 we see in Too-Sawn. I panted but it didn't help and my humans dripped that wet stuff that stinks!! Can you explain why humans do that?

We visited one of my Mom's litter-mates and then the rest of her litter-mates came over. She has 4 litter-mates and they all have litters of their own. It was CRAZY. My Mom's litter-mate has 2 doggies and another dog she was "dog-sitting" with. Don't know what that means. The dogs were a big red retriever named "Rolo", a doxie named "Rocko" and a Boston Terrie named "Cleo". I liked Rolo right away and he liked me. He's really old and doesn't play but he also doesn't fight. Cleo didn't like me at first and tried to back me down but I stood my ground and we became friends. The last day there I made friends with Rocko. I like Rocko and she (yup, she's a girl named Rocko - her people like to laugh about that) likes me. Rocko actually played with me and I played with her. We ran and ran through the house and barked and "boxed". I wagged my tail so she'd know I was playing. My Mom had never seen me play and she and her litter-mate were happy and laughed at me. My humans kept me on the leash a lot there. I think it was because there were soooo many other litters there and they were afraid of getting lost. I didn't play with many of the kids but one of the humans out of the grown litters had just come back from someplace called a "wore-in-i-rack". He has something called Pee-Tee-Ess-Dee and seemed to need a lot of love. I helped him out.

When my doggie friends were in the basement because there were too many people and Rocko bites people, I sat with the human from the grown litter and let him pet and pet me. I think it helped. I have a silky coat and I even let him pet my freckled belly. My freckled belly always makes humans feel better. I liked him. I also liked the litter-mate whose house we were parked at. She likes doggies and likes me. She also said she likes kitties too but doesn't have any right now. Another litter-mate did have a kitty that she rescued. I heard her telling my Mom about her. The kitty's human had died because she was really old and the grown litter didn't like cats so they kicked the kitty out. The kitty had no claws so she couldn't defend herself and didn't even know how to hunt to feed herself. My human's litter-mate now has her and calls her "Fat Cat" because she is no longer skinny. Can you tell me why some humans are so mean to little animals like cats and dogs?

It was really hard to sleep in the tin can the humans call an RV because it was sooo hot the aire condishuner couldn't even help. My Dad went out several times and sprayed the outside and top with water. It's like they made their own rain! I've been hit with the water out of the hose before and I don't like it. It did help cool things down though. My people also let me sleep up between their pillows where it was cooler than between them or at the foot of the bed, which are usually my choices. All for now, Carly

PS: I forgot to tell you that tonight we are in someplace called "A-mare-i-o. It's in Texas although no where near where we were previously. It's better here. it isn't as hot. Okay, so it's hot but the humans don't leak as much. We walked down to a store where my humans got some ice cream bars. The guy let me in the store but said I had to watch out for the cats. He said they didn't like little dogs and would shred me with their claws. I didn't see any cats in the store but when we went outside there was a big yellow one under a bench. It was just laying there. it didn't run, it didn't hiss or anything. I wanted to play with it but think my Mom was afraid it would shred her because she kept the leash so tight I couldn't get to the cat. How can you tell if a cat wants to play or shred? At least she gave me a taste of the ice cream. Bye now.

Dear Carly,
Good to hear from you again. I's funny to hear it's hot almost everywhere you've traveled. Makes me laugh when I think of all the so-called "snowbirds" who flock to Arizona for the winter and skedaddle for summer to escape the heat...and now it's a much hotter hot where they return to than in Arizona. Besides, snowbirds aren't even real birds at all. They can't even fly.

I don't know exactly what the Why-fie thing is either but maybe my typist does. Then again when I see her 2-finger pecking on her typer...nah, she probably doesn't have a clue.

Bummer on your aire condishuner situation. As far as the humans leaking that stinky odor it happens when they get over heated, I guess. I'm not sure why..it's just a weird human thing. That's why it's good they have showers and bathtubs to get rid of the odor and cool off. Carly, you might reconsider the bath thing...it would cool you off. Myself, of course, have a self-cleaning tongue and therefore not only do I not leak an odor, I don't require that human method of cleaning either.

I bet you had a great time with your new doggie friends but you were probably also happy to escape all those humans in one spot at one time. They sounded like good humans though and obviously critter-friendly. I don't know why some humans are sometimes bad to us critters, Carly but I do know there is something humans call "KARMA" and they will someday be punished for being bad.

As far as how to tell if a cat is in the mood for playing or shredding....trust me - Rule of Paw - it is best to avoid the cat. Just trust they'd probably rather shred you than play with you unless it's a cat that belongs to a nice human. Kittens would probably play after they hissed at you. But big cats...not necessarily playful, especially with a strange member of canine distinction.
Okay, you're almost home...Sister VC