Life From a Dog’s Perspective

The Harper Chronicles: How I Keep Cool On a Hot Day

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

Wow! Summer started out with some major heat here this year. All last week, temperatures were in the low to mid 90s! This week, Monday was awesome — temperature was in the mid 80s and there was a blustery breeze all day! Nice relief from last week. But then yesterday and today, we’re back in the 90s. We’re supposed to get rain and/or thunder showers today, which is supposed to put us back into the 80s.

No, this entire post isn’t going to be about the weather, but it is about how the weather affects my life. So, how do those hot days affect my life? Well, I only get two walks a day on those days. Mom takes me out in the morning before the sun is too high in the sky and heating things up, and then again in the evening when the sun has gone below our house roofs and tree lines and the pavements, roads, and driveways have cooled down enough so that they don’t burn my paws.

So, how do I do my potty the rest of the day? Well, Mom goes out and scans the entire backyard, shovel in hand, to clean up any dirt the stray cats leave in our yard. Thankfully, she usually only finds one pile. Then she pours bleach on that area and puts the lid to our fire pit over it so that I know not to get near it. Then she takes me out in the backyard. She takes me out in there once or twice while it’s really hot, and once again in the early evening, when most of our yard is in shade.

Mom hates this heat, and I don’t really like it either. I’m usually panting in no time, so even though I enjoy the freedom of running around the backyard without a leash, I like to get back into the air-conditioned house in a short amount of time. When we get inside, I go straight to my water bowl for a drink. But did you know if a dog is hot and panting and drinks too much water too quickly, it can cause them to vomit? Yeah, so Mom always makes sure she has ice cubes in the freezer during the summer months, and she’ll get one out and give it to me. I hold it in my mouth a few moments, then bite it into smaller pieces to eat. It’s a nice refreshing summertime treat!

The Harper Chronicles: A Special Gift (My Look-alike?)

/ kellyfbarr / 2 Comments

Hello, it’s me, Harper. I come from a family with three boys. Well, I guess I should say men. Anyway, one of them no longer lives with the rest of us. He lives in an apartment building in another city, and he really misses having a dog. He hasn’t lived here, since I’ve been in this home. My family had two Labrador Retrievers before me, and he moved out while the second one was still living.

Mom and Dad have taken me to visit their oldest son a couple times, and I think they’re going to take me again sometime. This son had a birthday a little while ago. Mom felt bad that, based on certain circumstances, he decided not to get a dog yet. But, some days he misses having a dog more than others. Mom wanted to get him a stuffed Labrador Retriever. She thought it might help if he, at least, had a stuffed Labrador Retriever that looked like me. She thought he couldt hug it when he was really missing having a dog.

Mom searched three stores to no avail. However, she did find the Labrador Retriever in the picture below. She decided to settle for it, even though it wasn’t soft for hugging, because of the “Welcome” sign around its neck. She thought he could sit this dog inside the apartment near the entry door, so that he sees it anytime he comes home. She hoped seeing the dog “welcome” him, everytime he comes in, might help a little.

Well, he liked it, and he does have it sitting where he can see it when he comes home. Mom suggested he give it a name and talk to it, when he misses a dog too. After all, she talks to me all the time. I’m not sure a grown man would do this. I don’t even know if he gave it a name, but I do hope he gets some comfort from this little greeter.

The above picture is me, sitting on the arm of the loveseat. I can see out the window from there. There are also two other places I can go to look out the window. So, what do you think? Does the little “Welcome” Labrador Retriever look like me?

The Harper Chronicles: My Chewy Delivery

/ kellyfbarr / 2 Comments

Hi Everyone!

My mom orders all my stuff from Chewy! Mom likes their selection of healthy treats. She also likes the shampoo, paw care, and ear wipes she gets for me from Chewy, not to mention it’s so easy for her to order and it comes right to our door!

As you can see in the pictures above, I get very excited when the Chewy box comes! I usually bark at the Chewy delivery guy, then I eagerly wait till Mom opens the box and shows me what she ordered. We only get a box every other month. The item I have in the photos above is a new treat by Paul Newman’s company — healthy natural treats that have peanut butter flavor, probably have peanut butter in them too! I love peanut butter!

Do you like peanut butter too?

Have a good week! I’ll be back next Wednesday.

The Harper Chronicles

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

Can you see the spider on the screen? I’m watching it. It’s on the outside, so I can’t get it, and that is driving me nuts! I push my nose into the screen and try to get it with my mouth to no avail. Mom likes to have the patio door open when the weather is nice. I like it too, except for the spiders and other bugs that think they can just hang out on our screen.

The Harper Chronicles — Bath?!

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

So, nothing real exciting to write about this week, so I’ll tell you how I often surprise my Mommy with the level of my intelligence.

In the above photo, I’m sitting on the only piece of furniture I’m allowed on, just relaxing. That’s where I can be found while Mommy is working on her writing at the dining room table. When Mommy needs a break, or just needs to get up and move around a bit, she’ll often come into the living room and talk to me and pet me, and occasionally, she’ll sit down next to me for a couple minutes.

Well, last week one day, she came in, perched next to me, talked to me and petted me. One of the things she said to me was, “In two weeks, you have your checkup with Dr. Hockenberry, so I think you need a bath before that.” I don’t like to get baths, so my ears perked up and I thought, “Oh no! Not that.” Then I lifted my front paws, placed them on Mommy’s chest and gave her a push to let her know I wanted no parts of that.

Mommy looked at me and said, “Are you trying to tell me you don’t want a bath? I know you don’t like baths, but you have to have them sometimes. I can’t believe you pushed me away because I said you have to have a bath soon.”

I thought, “Yep, I’m smarter than you think I am.”

The Harper Chronicles — Harper Visits Kevin

/ kellyfbarr / 2 Comments

This past weekend, Mommy took me for a walk around our neighborhood. (She does that four or five times a day.) When we got to Kevin’s house, Mommy saw a pick-up truck parked in the grass. She recognized it as belonging to Kevin’s brother. Mommy is close friends with Kevin’s brother’s wife.

As we walked by, Kevin called out to Mommy, then her close friend stuck her head out the door. She shouted, “Can you bring Harper up? I haven’t seen her in a long time.”

So Mommy took me up to Kevin’s doorstep. Then Kevin’s brother came out and wanted to meet me, but I was nervous. The red step up to the stoop scared me because we don’t have one of those at our house. Our stoop isn’t as high as Kevin’s. Also, in the little flower bed next to the stoop, Kevin has one of those small banner/decorative flag things and there was a light wind that was blowing it, and that scared me too.

Well, Mommy told Kevin and her closest friend about her website, and that she lets me post here on Wednesdays. So Kevin said, “So this week’s post is going to be ‘A Visit to Kevin’s House’.”

Mommy said, “Only if we get a picture because every post includes a picture.”

So, the picture at the top of this post is me with Kevin, and this is my post about my visit to Kevin’s house.

The Harper Chronicles: Harper’s Easter Treat Hunt

/ kellyfbarr / 2 Comments

This past weekend was Easter weekend, and Mom and Dad planned for us to go up to Grandma’s house for Easter dinner after they attended Sunday School and church.

There are several children in our neighborhood who love me, and earlier in the week, Mom was walking me around our neighborhood one day, and Carter, a little boy in our neighborhood, stopped us to say “hi” to me and pet me. Then he told Mom she should have an “egg hunt” for me. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I do like eggs!

I didn’t get any eggs, but after all the people had enjoyed their dinner, Mom went outside for awhile. I was wondering what she was doing because she didn’t take me outside with her. After a while, she returned and put my prong collar and leash on me to take me outside. In the first picture at the top of the page, you can see a treat, just above my head in the picture. I caught a scent of it and soon after the photo was snapped, I gobbled that treat down.

Mom walked me all over Grandma’s deck, just below the deck, and in the front flower bed. She had hidden some of my treats all over that area and I sniffed them out and enjoyed eating them! In the second picture at the top of the page, I had found a treat on the edge of the driveway and those green weeds to the left of me and was eating it. And, in case you’re wondering if the two tan/brown things you see to the left of me in the photo and near the wooden railing are treats, they’re not. They’re dead leaves.

I sure enjoyed my Treat Hunt, and Grandma said it was fun to watch me have a treat hunt! Dad said it was another way for Mom to spoil me. That might be true, but maybe it was an idea for something for me to share here. 😀

The Harper Chronicles — Three Harpers?

/ kellyfbarr / 7 Comments

Like most dogs, I have to take heartworm and flea and tick medicines once a month. Well, Mom gave me the last doses she had in February, so last Thursday we went to my veterinarian’s office to get more. Mom called and told them how much she wanted before we left.

When we pulled into the parking lot, I got excited because I like to meet other dogs and I know I usually see several at the veterinarian’s office. Sure enough, when we walked in, there was a man sitting in a chair with a black Labrador Retriever sitting in front of him. I met the dog on our way to the desk.

When Mom told the lady at the desk what we were there for, the lady asked Mom her dog’s name. She said, “Harper.”

The lady looked at her and said, “Are you setting me up?”

Mom looked at the lady in confusion and turned to look at the man with the Labrador Retriever. He said, “This is Harper.”

Yes, his black Labrador Retriever’s name was Harper too!

So, anyway, the lady got my medicine and began ringing the purchase up for mom, when an older gentleman came into the office with a smaller black dog. It was obvious it was still a puppy, but not a real young pup. Anyway, he stopped with the lady at the first desk because he was there to drop off his puppy. Mom thinks it was to be spayed.

Okay, so here’s the shocker — Mom heard the man tell the lady his puppy’s name, but she couldn’t believe it. She looked at the gentleman with the black Labrador Retriever and he had a big grin on his face. Mom said, “Did he say…?” And the gentleman nodded.

So Mom says, “Harper! She’s another Harper? So, we have three Harpers here!”

The older gentleman then brought his puppy to meet me, then took her to meet the Labrador Retriever. Mom asked him what kind of dog his puppy was, and he said, “She’s 53% Boxer, 43% Pitbull, and the rest is a hodgepodge of several different things.”

After mom paid for my medicines and we turned to leave, she stopped to talk to the gentleman with the black Labrador Retriever. She said, “So, how did you decide on Harper for her?”

He said, “Well, my wife and I are Harper Lee fans.”

Mom said, “Me too!”

Then he said, “My wife already has a cat named Atticus. So we decided to call her Harper. And friends of ours have a dog named Scout.”

Mom said, “I was planning on getting a male and naming it Atticus, but a friend offered her to me, and I wasn’t going to turn down a free dog. That’s how she became ‘Harper’.”

Mom really wanted to ask the other man how he decided on Harper for his dog too, but he was too busy with the receptionist and getting his puppy taken care of.

The lady who waited on Mom at the check-out desk couldn’t believe it when the third Harper came in. She stood up so she could see over the desk, and she said, “And all three of them are black! This won’t happen again today.”

Meeting two other black Harpers was fun!

The Harper Chronicles: Laundry Thief

/ kellyfbarr / 4 Comments

Hi Everyone! In the picture above, the yellowish-tan thing to the right under my face was one of my favorite chew toys. I say “was” because Mom had to take it and throw it away about a month ago because I had chewed it down so small, she was afraid I’d choke on it. It was made of bamboo and in the shape of a “T”.

Now you might be asking yourself what does that have to do with this post’s title. Well, I’m sure I’ve told you before that I love to chew things A LOT! Though Mom keeps me well-stocked in chew toys and chewy treats, I don’t always only chew the things Mom gives me for that purpose.

For instance, Monday is laundry day and I follow Mom up and down the stairs and watch as she throws clothing into the washer and dryer several times on that day. I stand very close so I can see everything and sniff some things, and I wait for an opportunity — an opportunity to snatch something and run off to play with it and chew it! My favorite things to grab are socks, and Mom chases me up the steps to retrieve a sock from me. Another thing I like to try to grab and run off with are the white fluffy balls she throws in the dryer. I don’t know why she puts them in the dryer and why she doesn’t want me to play with them. Balls are a great doggy toy! Do any of you put balls in your clothes dryers? If so, do you let your dog play with them or chew on them?

The Harper Chronicles: My Favorite Treat

/ kellyfbarr / 2 Comments

Hi Everyone! Today I’d like to tell you about my favorite treat. Can you tell what it is in the photo above? It’s peanut butter! In the above photo, Mom emptied a large jar of peanut butter the best she could, then let me have a try. As you can see, my tongue isn’t long enough to reach the bottom of the jar, so I couldn’t get it all.

This is me with one of my brothers. He’s holding one of my Kongs — that’s the best way for me to get peanut butter, so, of course, I’m trying to get it from him! A Kong is a hard rubber toy with a hole in the center that has a wider end and a narrower end. Mom puts peanut butter into the middle and freezes it, then she gives one to me a couple times a month. I have 6 Kongs! Mom puts plain peanut butter in 2 of them, peanut butter mixed with banana in 2 of them, and peanut butter mixed with pumpkin and kibble in the last 2. She rotates the ones she gives me. YUM! I’m not sure which one’s my favorite. They’re all delicious!