Hello, My Name is Meeko

I've hijacked Kathleen's blog today.  I think I am far more interesting than paintings and flowers.  I mean--look at me!

I understand that blogging can be cathartic and I could use a bit of that.  I've been really quite good during the past few months, but a combination of recent events is changing that.  First of all, I celebrated my 18-month birthday last Friday.  I can feel my puppyhood slipping away.  I've been told by many people that by the time I'm two, I'll be acting in a mature and calm way.  That just makes me want to make these next six months count.  Also, I can feel the seasons changing and it's exciting. I mean really exciting. There are new smells in the air and it's making me feel edgy and just a bit crazy.  And, oh yes, two of my owners went back to school almost three weeks ago and I am really missing them during the day.  Some people, when they are dealing with too much emotion and change, well apparently they eat.  It's kind of like that for me, except that I eat things.

I'm losing count of the times that Kathleen has chased me, cornered and tackled me in order to extract something from my mouth so far this week. (She's so fast that I didn't get to digest any of them--really, she's no fun at all.)  Here's my snack list from the past few days:

• one of the back cushions of the sofa
• a tube of Polysporin (I didn't eat the Polysporin part, just the cap)
• socks
• a dust jacket from a very nice gardening book
• a bobby pin (that made Kathleen very worried and she spoke to both girls about never leaving small objects like that around me)
• a sheet of Halloween stickers
• a big plastic clip from the bread bag
• a package of Post-it notes
• tissues (dirty, clean, they're all good)
• a pine cone (got it outside)
• the wire protectors that Kathleen made for the irrigation system (I've removed three so far this week:   a new version of my old tricks!)
• socks
• a bra
• a vacuum attachment
• the root of one of Kathleen's beloved trees
• a case for the Wii remote
• a beach towel
• more socks (I really like socks)
• my blanket (it's normally sacred but this is no normal week)

This morning, she got up at 5:00 a.m. because she couldn't sleep.  She started cleaning everywhere to make sure there was nothing left on the floor or on the furniture for me to take.  Since her clean sweep of the place, I have swiped a box of eye drops (I am really tall when I stand on my hind legs so I can reach things in high places), I squished myself into the tiny space between the back of the sofa and the wall just for fun (I haven't done that since I was a few months old!), I chewed on the corner of a wicker chair, I took one of the girls' art papers, I flipped through, actually ripped through, the L.L. Bean autumn catalogue (by the way, the flannel shirts look delicious this year) and it's only 9:22 a.m.!

Got to go.  Kathleen is about to take me for yet another long walk.  She's muttering something about needing to exhaust me.  I don't know what's wrong with her.  She's looking a bit tired herself.  As for me, I'm having the time of my life and I'm thinking of expanding my services.