What’s Up With Shiloh?

Be patient, please, because Mom is still teaching me how to talk about my thoughts. First off, I don’t know what was going on with that dog named Shiloh that has been staying here. He usually sleeps with Mom and that man Mom says we should call Dad. Well, maybe Father.

Anyway, last night, Mom said Shiloh couldn’t sleep in their bed. Someone told her that Shiloh probably thinks he’s the Boss — I think they call it a Pack Leader — because he sleeps in their bed. I don’t know what that means. Oh well.

I do know that when they put Shiloh in his kennel, across the room from us, he moaned and barked. Big baby. They put him in the basement and he made so much noise that they moved him into their room, and just had him sleep in his kennel. Flower and I were happy about that, because when we went to wake up Mom, he didn’t jump off the bed and interrupt us, trying to get her attention too. In fact, he didn’t get out of the kennel until Father let him out at 7:30, so we had two hours with Mom without either of them.

I’m not sure why, but Flower didn’t bark when Father came downstairs. She usually does.

Mom is still making us walk around wearing a harness and sometimes she makes us drag a leash behind us. We don’t know why. We think it’s silly though.

Strange Place

Mom took me on another car trip. But I wasn’t the only one. She picked up Candy and Flower and put them in kennels in the back of the Jeep. I got to sit in the front with Mom because I’m a good dog. When we got to where we were going, Mom took me inside. It kind of looked like where we used to live a long time ago. There were some dogs in kennels against the wall. Mom put me in one of the kennels and went out to get my sisters.

When they came in, she talked to a strange lady for a while. Then, they picked me up and put me on a tall table. She told Mom she was going to teach her how to groom us. She said the first thing was to “rough us in.” That sounded like a bad thing to me. Well, Mom read the sign to me and it said “Gentle Groomer,” and as far as I know, rough is the opposite of gentle!

The lady, whose name was Lia, used those loud things on me; I think they are called clippers. I stood there quietly and watched as my fur fell off. She gave the clippers to Mom, but Mom couldn’t figure out how to hold them. It sounds like Mom wants to be able to groom us, so we don’t have to go to strange groomers. I guess I don’t care either way, because I’m braver than my sisters, but I know Flower and Candy probably do.

My sisters sat in the kennel and watched them use me as a “guinea dog,” as Mom says. When we left, Lia told Mom that she had homework. She said she had to use the clippers on Flower and Candy, and that she especially had to clip their face and paws. She also said she wanted her to work on the “anal area,” whatever that means. She also told Mom I had leaky “anal glands” and that she should feed me pumpkin. That doesn’t sound good!

When we got home, Mom wasn’t good. She couldn’t figure out how to show Dad the video of the lesson, so he couldn’t help her with the homework. I heard her tell Dad that she really wants him to groom us; she just wants to help. She thinks he’d be better at it. I don’t know what I think about that. Candy and Flower probably won’t let him touch them with those loud things though!