Clara's Blog

Do you sometimes say, "No!" just because you feel like it? Do you then say, "No!" to any alternatives? Yes! Me, too. Know what? If you do it all the time, Mommy and Daddy get really agitated. Ha ha.

I had plenty of practice on our Fourth of July vacation. I might call it our Car Driving Vacation because we were in the car forever. (We went to East Lake Resort on the Newberry Caldera.) We fled the fireworks. Scout and I bark at fireworks.

So, I was pretty good in the car on the way there. We stayed in a cabin right on the lake, and I wanted to swim all the time. Lakes are also good for rock throwing.

I tried fishing, but you have to sit and wait for at least two or three minutes, and I don't have the patience for that.

I also did not want to sleep, ever. And I wasn't going to hang out alone in my bedroom, that's for sure.

Oh, do you know how to learn the rules? The secret: be naughty. When you're naughty: a) you learn the rules; b) you get attention. Scout is a good teacher.

I am doing more and more hiking on my own. Until I get tired. I am a good hiker.

The New Dog is funny. In every picture Mommy takes, Reika looks crazy.

So, actually, she has some problems. She got kennel cough from the shelter, and it got worse on vacation. (Pop caught it, too.) She coughed so hard that she vomited, and it was so bad that no one could sleep. Mommy drove her to Bend for medicine. Eighty mile round-trip. and the Bend vet thinks that Reika has a torn cranial cruciate ligament.

I think that the excitement, attention focused on Reika, and lack of sleep caught up with me at the end. I was, maybe, a bit evil. I cried when we left: I live here! Don't take me away from my home!

It was a long car ride home.

Though we did stop in Sisters, and Daddy shared his scone with me.