Midwestern Madcaps

Dear Sophie,
Was this a weekend to remember or what? You were perfect on the flight to Omaha, although I don't think the floor of an airplane is your favorite place to be. At the Lewis & Clark landing in Omaha, nothing impressed you much till you got to the museum with its beaver and bear skins. Lots of good sniffing there.
Friday night was the Irish Rovers concert which started out with the Omaha Symphony. When we got into the hall we endured ten minutes of deafening, horrible screeching as the musicians warmed up but, when that was over and they beautifully performed about half an hour of Irish music, you settled right in on your quilt on the floor. Finally, the Irish Rovers came out which was almost a brand new experience with their three new members.They were magnificent as always! I love their concerts!After the performance, we spent quite a bit of time with them ... George, his wife Betsy, and John, away from their own dogs for a couple of weeks, were all over you and you sure did love cuddling up with them. We got lots of pictures and lots of chat time in and, after all that, I better never dare show up at one of their concerts without you.Saturday morning marked your first trip to a dog park and, boy, was I nervous! I'm just not one to unlatch the leash and say "go for it", especially with about 50 other large dogs around. You ran and ran and romped and did enough sniffing to keep yourself out of trouble, and only then did you make a few friends. It might even make me reconsider taking you to dog parks here at home. You weren't especially happy to run around a casino in Iowa for a few hours that afternoon, but you tolerated it and let Daddy have his fun.
All day Sunday we spent at the Henry Doorley Zoo in Omaha. What a place! It was so fun to watch you watching the animals, and even more fun watching them watch you.We weren't asked to stay out of any exhibit so we covered practically the whole park. The monkeys watched with awe every move you made. Remember how loud the cockatoos shrieked at Reid Park? Well, they had nothing on the scarlet macaws at Doorley! But even the macaws paled in comparison to the elephant who caught sight of you. He charged at us and began trumpeting so loud you could hear him in Maine! You poor thing; you jumped a foot off the ground and couldn't figure out, "What did I do?" A couple more passes by the elephant later on were mostly uneventful; guess he got used to you in a hurry.The big kitties ... orange tigers, white tigers, lions, leopards, and snow leopards all paced and tried for everything they were worth to get out of their enclosures. It didn't appear they were looking for dessert; I think they just wanted to play. And, judging from the speed of your wagging tail, you wished you could've too.Of all the exhibits we visited, the gorillas were the most amusing. A giant silverback out for a stroll saw us and made a beeline right for you. He beat his chest and slapped the glass a few times, and then stood back and watched as you visited with the juveniles who were completely taken with you.They seemed most fascinated with your tail! The aquarium was awesome too, and surprising, in that that you paid no attention to any of the fish, or the big sharks, or the jellyfish, or the sea turtle. Instead, you were intrigued by the rays, looking at them with wondering eyes!
Can you just imagine what all these zoo animals were talking about that night?
Monday morning it was time to go home. We met up with the Irish Rovers again at the airport ... we were taking the same flight! So George and Betsy got in more cuddle time and we had extra chat time, wrapping up the whole incredible weekend.
Wow, Sophie ... you were 99% perfect the whole time. I'm sooo proud of you! Let's do it again soon!

Your Happiest Howl-oween, 10-31-07

Dear Sophie,
After such a disastrous trip to Las Vegas, the journey home seemed to make up for it all. We got to the airport, got checked in, had some time outside, went through security, and made it to the gate all in one swift move. No time for stress there! You and I had a whole bulkhead row to ourselves! One of our flight attendants instantly became your "Uncle Bob" ... he was all over you and, boy, did you like him pretty fine! One embarrassing moment for me, you little stinkbug, was that in mid-flight, when they had all the lights in the plane off except for a random reading light here and there, I suddenly discovered you were no longer on the floor! You were up in the bloomin' seat looking out the window! Geez!! Everyone thought it was hilarious but I was a bit mortified because that's a big no-no! Finally off the plane after rolling up dog hair from three seats, we walked to the other side of security. We were still about 30 or so feet away when you caught sight of 'Daddy' and there wasn't a spedometer in the world fast enough to keep up with your tail. I finally had to release you and you ran straight into his arms. I'm tellin' ya, it was like a Lassie movie. As soon as we got home, we took you out in the back yard and you ran and ran and ran, and I think you forgot all about everything bad from the past four days. You only knew that, at that moment, all was well with your world.