IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! AND MEL'S! by Gabe

This is an extremely special day for me because I am TWELVE years old today!  And Mel is TEN.  We don't really know when Mel's birthday is or even how old he is for sure, but we think he is ten.  And Mom made me share my birthday with him so that she has one less date to remember.  I'm glad I'm not as old and forgetful as Mom is -- at least not yet!

But anyway, we really and truly know that today is my birthday because I am AKC registered, which means I have Papers that say exactly when my birthday is and exactly how old I am.  My sire was a very famous basenji named Johnny, who won tons of ribbons and titles, including Best in Show on many occasions.  But maybe I already told you that when I was introducing myself in the first blog entry I wrote.

Johnny died when he was only 9 years old because he got cancer.  But so far, I have not got any cancer, so maybe I will live to be really old, like my dam, Dulce, who was 15 when she died.  Or maybe 16.  I can't remember which.

I'm not sure how Mel and I are going to celebrate our birthdays, but maybe we will get some eggs for supper or something cool like that.  It would be great if we could go for a long walk in the woods and if we would be allowed off-lead, so we could run after squirrels and rabbits, but I'm pretty sure Mom wouldn't let us do that.  Also the weather is not good for walking in the woods right now.

A whole bunch of our snow has melted, but that made the ground all soggy and horrible, so you can't walk anywhere without getting your feet all wet.  Piper and I hate getting our feet wet!  Sunday Mom took us for a walk in the afternoon when all the snow was soft and not icy anymore.  It was the first time we went walking since Christmas Eve.  I pooped three times, and Piper pooped twice.  Of course, this was not the only time we have pooped since Christmas Eve!

Yesterday after Mom came home from visiting the dogs at the shelter, she got the ladder out and climbed up on it to see why the gutter overflowed with icicles when we had all the cold weather.  The icicles got into our flood lights and made two of the bulbs burn out.  Mom thought maybe the gutter was clogged up, and sure enough, it was totally full of oak leaves and twigs and acorns.  So Mom stood on the ladder and threw all this stuff down out of the gutter, including some ice that made a big, scary noise when it landed on the patio.  So Piper and I went inside the house, where we could be safe from Mom's crazy activities.

After that, Mom picked up poop in the yard, which she had also not done for three weeks, and she filled up three big bags with poop.  Which just goes to prove that Piper and I have been pooping in the yard most days, and we didn't just save it all up for our walk on Sunday.

Today maybe we'll get to go for a walk, but I don't know if we will or not because it's supposed to maybe drizzle and rain.  I wish the weather would be pretty and warm for my birthday, but that doesn't usually happen in January.  Maybe I should change my birthday to May.  But I guess that would be too much trouble because I don't know if the AKC would give me all new papers.