Hi, it’s me again, Harper! Mom and I are happy for cooler temperatures. Mom now takes me out in the backyard once or twice a day, not just to do my potty, but to play and to run! I love to run!

I want to give you an update on Mom. She really has tried to faithfully post five days a week here and she’s accomplished it a couple times. However, it’s more than she can possibly do at this time. She has a lot of responsibilities: she takes Grandma to all her medical appointments because Grandma is alone and has some health issues; she takes care of me, which means feeding me breakfast and dinner, lunchtime treats, and after dinner, she gives me glucosamine treats to keep my joints healthy, and she walks me three to four times a day and I already mentioned our time in the backyard — yes, she goes out with me and plays with me. She takes care of our household, which means doing four or five loads of laundry every week, cooking dinner for two to four people, depending on who is going to be home, and cleaning the house. She also is an author and an editor, so she has to spend most of five days a week working on her current novel, doing what she can to market her book to make sales, and as an editor, she works on editing other author’s upcoming books for them. Therefore, I have to tell you that Mom will let me continue to post here every Wednesday. Other than that, Mom will post what she can, when she can, as far as the other days go.

Now let’s talk about squirrels!

See the squirrel in the photo above? Well, this is the largest yard in our neighborhood and there are always lots of squirrels in that yard. I used to want to chase them all the time, but soon realized I’m always on a leash, so I can’t chase them. So, now I will often stop and watch them. That’s what I did when I saw this guy, but I must have made him nervous because he started to move toward a tree.

The photo above is the same squirrel. Partway to the tree, he got curious and stopped to watch us.

We saw the squirrel in the photo above a day or so later in the same yard. He was enjoying a couple acorns and was startled when he first saw me, and he ran to the foot of the tree. Then he stopped, picked up another acorn and the two of us stared each other down for awhile. These little guys fascinate me. They move so fast I’d really like to know if I could catch one if I wasn’t leashed.