It was a hot summer day. I mean hot. Boomer and I were laying around in any spot of shade we could find, I have two places I claim as my own, Boomer is not allowed near them, the first one is under Dad’s pick-up and the second one is under the lilac bush next to the tile house.

I catch Boomer trying to lay in one of the spots every once in a while, but I never let him even get turned around twice when I give him the evil eye and a deep throated growl:

“Get your own place, Mutt! This is my spot!”

So anyway on with the story, I was really hot so I was sleeping under the lilac bush, which was where I wanted to be. I crawled under the bottom leaves and scratched out my soft hole a little more. I have a pretty nice hole under there already but it never hurts to fluff up the dirt a bit. Sometimes rocks and sticks get in the hole, have you ever slept on a rock or a sharp stick? Pretty much hurts, that’s for certain and sure!

The heat was making it really hard to move around much so I gave a couple of scratches and pats turned around a couple of times and dozed off:

I was zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz dreaming of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, hum, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, the most beautiful dog in the whole world…Houston. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz That woman is hard to get off my mind. Zzzzzzzzzzz

Suddenly my right ear picked up a sound. I was still sleeping mind you, but my ears really never sleep, they are real good at picking up all types of sounds all the time. That’s why I’m such a good watch dog. I can pick up sounds other people can’t, when I do I jump up and run really fast barking all the while to scare off whatever it is that is coming onto our property.

Sometimes I do such a good job of scaring off whatever is coming that I have to bark at the birds in order to not waste a good run and bark.

Boomer says I don’t hear real well, but I hear just as well as I have always heard, maybe better!

So there I was, the heat bearing down on the earth, me under the shade of the cool, green, leafy lilac tree having a nice dream when

BARK! BARK! BARK!

WOOF!

WOOF!

It sounded like a cacophony of I don’t know what….attack by wolves?!?!

I woke with a start….Boomer was already down at the canal baying at that huge sound coming our way… I had been distracted by my dream or I would have met him there.

“Red Alert” he was baying, “RED ALERT!”

I took off barking and running as fast as my legs could get me there.

“Where ya been, Fuzzy?” Boomer asked in-between barks.

“Resting” I replied, “It’s hot, I was tired.”

“You’re about to miss Houston.”

Houston? Where is Houston? Bark, bark, BARK!

“Coming down the road, can’t you hear them?”

“I can hear just fine. It’s that loud noisy truck coming that makes it hard to hear.”

“Well, Houston’s in that truck!”

“She is?”

“You would know that if your eyes worked better!”

“My eyes work just fine. You can’t expect eyes and ears to work extra fine when they’ve been sleeping in this heat!” I growled at Boomer

“Oh, here they are, they are here, Shannon and Houston and the boys.”

I looked over at Boomer he was twirling around in happy circles stopping every once in a while to give a short happy little bay.

I took the lead and went streaking to the driver’s door as Shannon pulled to a stop. I wagged my stubby little tail and gave her a Helllllllllllllooo bark as she got out of the truck.

Then I looked up and looked straight into the eyes of ♥

Houston❤ ♪ ♫

Oh! Be still my ❥!

Of course the other dogs were there too and so was Boomer.

Boomer was bouncing around baying and barking

“Hi, everyone Glad you came Do you get to get out Why ya here. Hi, Houston is it hot enough!

Have you gone for a swim?”

Just then Balou and Rock growled and barked madly because Mom was coming with dog cookies.

Foam was coming off their mouths and Mom reached right up there and gave them all a pat on the head and a huge homemade dog cookie!

Boomer and I barked a loud warning, swirling around Mom’s feet trying to tell her to BE CAREFUL!

She just laughed at us and gave us a cookie also.

Then Shannon got out and loaded a hay bale into her truck. No one got out but Shannon. I was hoping Hou-bug would jump out, just to say HI, but she didn’t.

Then Shannon petted all of us…Boomer and I, gave Mom a hug, got in her truck and drove off.

Boomer and I sat at the end of the lane and watched them go.

“She is really a nice looking dog” Boomer remarked. “Don’t you agree?”

I just looked at him. Silly moon-struck dog!

I headed back to my shady lilac bush. This was just way to much excitement for the day.

Fuzzy.