Emlyn: 2010

June is one of my favorite months as it is when the roses are in bloom, and I love roses....eating them, that is.

I just wander among the bushes, and nip off a rosebud here and there, and no-one ever notices. Unfortunately, Della caught me in the act this time - she can be pretty sneaky.

So I decided that I should try to distract her with charm and cuteness, while I pushed away the incriminating evidence with my left paw....

That didn't seem to be working too well, so I turned it on full throttle. My smile usually gets me whatever I want...

... but not this time. She was pretty mad as that rosebush had had about ten buds on it earlier that morning.

So I quickly switched gears and went with abject remorse. That's very hard for me, but I thought I did quite well considering how quickly I had to switch. Secretly, I was dying to finish up that yummy rosebud.....

I guess that rosebush did look pretty pathetic after I was done with it.

My tactical mistake was leaving a blossom half-eaten. I got too distracted by the rosebuds. I should have just yanked the whole thing off.... you get no gratitude for trying to be careful.

So now there are no roses left to tend, and I've turned my attention to some wood working -- trying for an abstract sculptural look. I find most of my materials in the hedges that surround my yard. I bite, pull, gnaw and yank them off, then drag them into a pile.

Unfortunately, Adele and Della keep neatening up my studio and moving my stuff over to the edge of the yard.

Then I have to drag (and it IS a drag....) them all back into the middle again.

But I noticed yesterday that the roses are getting buds again, so in a few days I'll be back to my favorite activity. You're supposed to "Stop and smell the roses." Well, I think eating them is even better...and that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Just had my first trip to the ocean at Dewey Beach, DE. It's a lovely stretch of shoreline with safe beaches, and best of all it's really pet friendly. In the summer, dogs can go on the beach every morning till 10 AM, then again in the afternoons after 5 PM. But right now, there are no restrictions so it was perfect for my first trip to the shore.

I was a bit nervous at first with those waves that kept chasing me, so I stayed very close to Della.

She had her hip waders on so she could walk out in the ocean with me which made it much less scary. In about five minutes, I was ready to roll!

It took me a while to figure out that I didn't have to run away when the waves came after me.

But then I realized that I just had to face right into them and then jump over the wave as it came by.

Here I am just walking around waiting for the next one to jump.

When Della thought I was getting too far away, she called me back, and I always raced in as fast as I could as I've learned that I get tons of praise when I do that.

After playing in the waves for a while, we walked along the beach and I encountered the strangest thing I've ever seen...

At first I thought it was dead as it just lay there while I sniffed it all over. Then its feet started wiggling and I jumped back, quite scared....

.... but then I got brave again and sniffed it all over once more and decided it was pretty boring as it just lay there.

Then I discovered the sand dunes! They are so much fun to climb on.

I loved running across the top of the dunes...

.... and clambering up and down the hilly bits...

The recent storms moved a lot of sand where sand shouldn't be.... this is supposed to be a walking ramp down to the shore. I'm sniffing the hand rail!