Ollie-Lilies

So today is a better day.  I have managed to stay away from the nice man with the needles and the treats for a whole 24 hours now.  I was pretty tired today.  Between my collapse yesterday morning and then having a family portrait photo shoot last night I was dog-tired.  Get it?  Dog tired?  I will blog a whole other post about the photo shoot, but suffice to say, I've been pretty wiped out.  But the good news is I have a bit of an appetite today, I've been fairly alert and I haven't collapsed today.  I'd say I haven't had any chemo today either, but that's not entirely accurate since I have to take a chemo pill every day.  Anyways...my rambling right now sure doesn't seem like it has anything to do with the title of this post now, does it?  So let me get to it.  Today's story is a fun reflection of my younger days.

Let's take a trip back to Easter, 2003.  I was just about a year old.  Mommy and Daddy may have had a slightly better grasp on how to live with me, but I was still a very interesting friend to travel with.  And boy do I love to travel!  So for Easter we for a ride(!!!!) to my Mommy's parents house.  They are called Mima and Pop Pop.  They live in California, so they are far away from me now, and I miss them lots.  Especially Pop Pop because he and I share Culvers vanilla malt shakes whenever he comes to visit me here in Illinois.  I love ice cream.  I mean it's like one of my most favoritest things in the world.  It ranks up there with peanut butter and cheese.  And hamburgers.  And tater tots.  And butter.  But I really love when people actually share things with me, rather than me resorting to stealing.  When I steal I get in trouble.  So the fact that Pop Pop actually buys a bigger size malt just so he can share it with me, now that is true love. Pop Pop is my buddy.  I really love him.  He's really upset that I'm so sick.  I'm hoping if I play my cards right he may come out and visit me sometime soon.  And take me to Culvers. 

Where was I?  Oh yes, we went for a ride(!!!!) to see Mima and Pop Pop.  At the time we lived in California so our ride(!!!!) was only a two hour drive.  Mima and Pop Pop used to live in a different house, before they moved to the one they live in now with slippery floors.  But on this Easter Sunday in 2003 we were going to their old house.  At their old house they had a swimming pool with a deck around it and various shrubs and potted plants in a rock garden surrounding the deck.  My Mima, she is so super wonderful to me.  I love her.  And she is an excellent gardener.  She has what we doggies call "Green Paws".  Her garden is beautiful.  She's also really patient.  Especially with me.  So she was totally fine with me exploring her and Pop Pop's backyard.  In fact, the whole family was happy when I went outside that Easter morning because then they all were able to eat without me begging.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't really beg.  I'm way too dignified for such things.  I merely place my head on the lap of someone who's plate of food smells unbearably good, and I just stare.  I have the pathetic look down pat.  But that's different than begging.  So my Mommy and Daddy and my Mima  and Pop Pop and my aunties and uncles were all eating inside and I was on back yard-patrol.  

I was very busy outside.  First I ran around with a gigantic bucket in my mouth.  Why, you might ask?  Because I could.  Next I ran around in the garden and smelled the pretty flowers.  I like to be at one with nature.  In fact, I like that so much that I felt compelled to go one step further.  I decided that I would help my Mima do some of her gardening.  Remember how I mentioned in an earlier blog that I am an artist and an interior decorator?  Well I'm also an gardener.  I too have "Green Paws," just like Mima.  I set to work out in her garden.  I took my job very seriously, and I worked swiftly and silently.  Maybe a little too silently.  Inside where my family was eating Easter breakfast they noticed they hadn't seen the yellow streak with a bucket hanging out it's mouth (aka ME) run by in quite some time.  They also hadn't heard any sound from outside.  You know, a puppy being quiet is often viewed the same as child being quiet....trouble.  When my family realized that I hadn't been seen or heard in quite some time, they decided to come check on me.  Mima walked outside and there I was, standing in the rocks surrounding the deck and I was holding a pot in my mouth.  The pot, in the life it lead before we met, was the home to a calla-lily.  The calla-lily was nice enough, but the pot, it just looked delicious.  So I lifted calla-lily out by the stem, noticed that a big bulb came out with it and that it was in my way.  So I shook the calla-lily until it was free of the bulb and dirt.  Then I tossed it aside and turned my attention to the pot.  I took the pot in my teeth and I shook it back and forth until I got all the dirt out.  Then I found it to be a most perfect toy.  I mean, if I stuck my head in it, everything turned dark.  I could chew on it and it felt great on my teeth.  I could toss it and it would roll.  I was having a ball....that is, until I got caught in the calla-lily and pot destruction zone red handed (red pawed?).  That was kind of a problem.  Mima, being very patient with me, just let me have the pot (it was kind of too late at that point) and she cleaned up some of the dirt (including the dirt on my face).  We said goodbye to calla-lily, because, well, I had won that battle.  But guess what?????????  Here's where the miracle part happens.  Truly, it's a miracle.  The next spring, in 2004, calla-lilies came up all over in the rocks!  Remember how I shook that calla-lily when I de-potted it?  Well apparently I shook bulbs all over and they came up from the ground the next year.  In a rock bed no less!  When Mima called my Mommy to tell her about the amazing calla-lilies she said she owed it all to ME!  From that moment on the calla-lily was renamed.  It is now officially called an "Ollie Lily" and it is my most favoritest flower.  The Ollie-Lilies were pulled up from the garden when my Mima and Pop Pop moved to their new house with the slippery floors.  And the Ollie-Lilies survived the move just fine.  Mima took bulbs to my Mommy in Illinois.  So now my Ollie-Lilies live in two states!  Mommy is going to post a picture of me snoozing next to one of the Ollie Lilies in my yard when I lived in California.   But that picture may go under a different blog....possibly one titled "Ollie the Landscaper."  But that, my friends, is for another day.

For now I'm ready to go have a little snuggle with my Mommy and Daddy.  I had a busy night tonight with friends that came over.  My one friend who loves me a lot brought me a new chew toy.  It's actually a stuffed animal that is supposed to be good for dogs that love to chew.  That's me.  So far my new stuffed animal, a chipmunk that I named "Chipper" is still in tact.  But I'm very protective of him.  Right now I'm laying with him tucked under my chin.

Til my next blog!

Love,
Ollie the Wonder Puppy.