Oh boy, life is great!!

Courtesy post for Oliver:

WOW! Life is amazing! My name is Oliver and I’ve been with the Cruz family for almost two weeks now, and it’s been the best two weeks of my life! It feels like forever!!!

This is me, Oliver, coming home from the shelter. My new mommy gave me a bathe and gave me a brand new blanket to sleep on. It even matches me, look, look, I’m almost invisible – tadaa!!!

Oh boy, I’ve done so many things! We’ve gone on long walks with mommy and daddy. Mommy got me a harness because she seems to have issues keeping up with me. She keeps on telling daddy that I pull, but I just think her tempo is slow,  bol (barks-out-loud). Well, anyhow, we’re practicing together and she keeps on telling me that ‘I’m a good boy’, so I guess I’m doing a good job. As long as mommy is happy, I’m happy!!

I’ve also been running with them. Maaan that’s nice! And maaan they’re slow, bol! I could outrun them any day! But the important thing is we’re doing it together. It’s so nice to feel the wind in my face after all those months at the shelter – to run free, to sniff around – to pee in nature. Yeah, oh boy, that’s freedom!! And I’ve done a good job marking my neighborhood. Mommy keeps on telling me that my messages to the misses is all in wain, I think she uses the word ‘eunuch ‘, but she ain’t seen me with the misses yet!! I’m a gentleman, bol!!

Here we go on our first run together! Oh boy, that was fun! Mommy said she’s getting me a running leash, so we both can run freely. Can’t wait for that!!

This was me amd mommy today, told you she’s slow!! But don’t worry, I’ll get her in running shape! And mabe we’ll do a 5K run together soon!!

If I would start online dating, these would probably be my profile pictures. Mommy says the misses would be disappointed with me and that I’m better off here at home. Can’t understand what she’s talking about. 

Part from walking, running and eating good – mommy even gave me chicken!! Oh, and I found some extra chicken in the trashcan the other day! Can you believe that!? I don’t know what mommy was thinking throwing those bones away, but I sure did a good job chopping them down while she was gone and big sis was napping on the couch. I don’t really understand why mommy freaked out when she came home, she wasn’t mad, but she kept on telling me she hoped I wouldn’t die. C’mon it was chicken. Chicken. I love chicken. Juicy chicken…

Anyway, I also get a treat every evening. Mommy hides it behind the couch and I have to find it. Maaan, it’s hard to wait for her to hide it, most of the times I won’t. It’s my biscuit anyway. But then we have to start all over, so I guess we’re doing better now. I won’t get it until I wait, and it’s so so so hard, but in the end it’s so worth the wait! I love those biscuits….yummy, biscuits. I could eat the whole package!!

Oh, oh, oh, did I tell you I got to spend Christmas with my family??? And mommy wasn’t wrong, I have been a good boy, because I got several Christmas gifts!! I got a bone, which I’ve almost chopped down already, some biscuits, pork ears (which are so delicious!!) and a new toy!! It’s an orange lion that squeaks!! I love it. -squeeeeak-

Me on Christmas.

And did I mention that I had my own stocking?? Wow, I’ve been a good boy! It had some nice treats in it.

My stocking!!!

And, and, I even helped mommy wrap some gifts! (I was a bit afraid that those wrapping papers would attack me, I’ll explain later why. Luckily they didn’t!!)

And I went to a Christmas party at a friends house. Those people were so nice! It was my 2nd day with the family and I got to go to a party. Now that’s life! All those people! So many butts to sniff! And so much scratching that I got!! And everyone was so impressed by me! Maaan, I was a good boy!! I can’t wait for next year!!!

Me at the Christmas party! Oh boy, did I good!!

I’ve also met the whole family. The nieces and nephew are all so great! I love them!!! They scratch me and play with me and in return I give them as many kisses that I can! I keep on hearing that my breath stinks like a dog, but hey, I am a dog. Do you know what your butts smell like? I do, because I’ve been smelling ya’ll. Yes, yes, I know, I smell too many butts. Mommy keeps on telling me that humans don’t like that, but how do you get to know someone if you don’t smell their butt?? I’m only saying ‘hello’. Nah, they’ll get used to it.

What else can I tell you about my amazing life?? A lot of my time I spend napping, either inside on my blanket or out in the sun on the porch. And don’t get me wrong, I look after the house! I tell mommy and daddy immediately if there’s anything suspicious going on, like the neighbors kids driving around in their toycar. Now that is scary!! Daddy says I have a manly bark. I’m so happy when he’s proud of me!! He’s the leader, you know.

Napping is sooooo good! I’m really good at it too!!

This is how I roll’ !! Mommy calls me the yoga master. She thinks I’m too flexible. My neck is just fine. Doesn’t everybody sleep like this??

Oh boy, oh boy, my life is awesome, did I already say that? Can’t wait for the new year and new things!! Although I’m not really sure about those fireworks I keep hearing about, they might scare me. I don’t really like sounds like that. And I don’t like sticks. Sticks scare me. Mommy is doing a good job getting me used to sticks and showing me they’re not going to hurt me, but they still scare me. I don’t remember well, but I know sticks has not been good in the past. But apparently sticks are not bad in this house, I just have to get used to mopping, wrapping paper rolls and such things.

Heyyy, let’s not get too sad here – life’s too short (mine is even shorter than yours btw, bol)! I’m going to go out in the backyard now and bark at the neighbors dog – we still haven’t sorted out whose the king on the block. I mean, we all know it’s me, he just doesn’t seem to get it!

Have a happy new year everyone! Stay safe and please make sure you keep us inside during new year – a lot of us dogs are scared of all the noise from the fireworks!

Oliver

P.S. Thanks to mommy for helping me type all of this. There would have been so many spelling errors without her. And she said I’m too young to have my own blog, so I guess I have to use hers.

P.S. II Did you know chicken is good? I love it!!!

P.S. III Oh, I saw a squirrel the other day. Point!!

P.S. IV Did I already say life’s amazing? 🙂

Louisiana: Down South

After New Orleans we drove down to the south, into the wetlands, where we trained for a couple of days. I didn’t get a chance to take a whole lot of pictures, but I got some of the Bayou while we were driving.

Bayou is the water, the rivers, that float through the marshlands. Down south the fishing industry is big, especially crayfish. The scenery was impressive for somebody that comes from the land of Santa Clause (yes, Santa is from Finland, not the north pole. There is no land on the north pole, Santa’s reindeer’s would starve and so on. So now we got that aspect settled, lol).

The Bayou.

The Mississippi river.

I wish I would have gotten some pictures of the trees, the way the forest rises from the water. That is something worth seeing!

CC

Louisiana: Oak Alley

While visiting New Orleans, we had to pay a visit to an old sugarcane plantation. There are many tours available, like swamp tours and horror walks, but we chose a plantation this time. There are several plantations that you can visit and we chose Oak Alley, which is probably the most famous one. It’s famous for the 12 oak alley that make up the road to the house. The oaks were planted around 1725 and nobody knows who planted them. The mansion was constructed in 1837 by Jacques Roman. It took 3 years to finish the whole building, which was of course built entirely by slaves. They even made the bricks for the house from mud of the Mississippi river.

The land and mansion now belongs to the Oak Alley association. You can read more about Oak Alley’s history here.

Oak Alley mansion.

On the road to the mansion.

Real slave cottages.

The backyard.

Inside the mansion.

The oak road.

Me and the love of my life.

Sugar canes and the burning of sugar cane plantation.
Burning of the land makes the crop grow better.

Some movies have been filmed here, at least partially, e.g. Interview with a Vampire. It was also said that Gone with the wind was partially filmed here, but I couldn’t find anything about it online. Maybe I will have to look at the movie again and see if I recognize any scenes.

If you visit New Orleans, I really recommend seeing one of the plantations. The history behind them is quite sad, but they sure are worth seeing. Just the architecture is amazing. Oh, and the good thing about visiting New Orleans in December, is that there are no mosquitoes! 😉

Have a great Weekend! And a Merry Christmas!

CC

Louisiana: New Orleans

Last weekend we made a 5-day trip to Louisiana. We were going there mainly for training, but decided to take a few days for some touristing in New Orleans. The drive from Del Rio to NOLA, as it’s called, was more or less 10 hours. Nice, huh? It’s literally a pain in the butt. 😀

New Orleans is located along the Mississippi river. It’s famous for its food and music. It’s very french, due to European settlers (obviously French) back in the days. We stayed in the French quarters and spent most of our time there on Thursday.

Breakfast the first morning at famous Ruby SLipper’s.

Royal street. Lot’s of antique shops, galleries, restaurants etc.

A really cool antique gun/firearm store. 

We paid a visit to Lafitte’s Blacksmiths Shop Bar, that was established in 1770’s. It was a well known pirate bar, that is said to be haunted.
Well, most of NOLA is said to be haunted for all I saw, lol.

One of the most famous things in NOLA is probably the Bourbon street (where the bar was also located). It’s like Austins 5th and 6th street, but vol 6.1. Luckily for us, it was quite cold, so that kept most drunks off the streets. It can get pretty bad from what I’ve heard! I just took pics from a few cute houses that we saw. 🙂

The cathedral.

I really liked NOLA and would love to see more of it! On Friday we went on a tour to a sugar cane plantation, but I will blog about that in a separate blog post.

Take care!

CC