The Life of a Boxador

The Harper Chronicles: Snow Dog

/ kellyfbarr / 3 Comments

Happy Wednesday Everyone! I love snow! I have, ever since I was introduced to it in the above photo, when I was about 10 weeks old. I like to run in the snow, but my favorite thing to do is to shove my nose in the snow and push it like a snow plow! That’s why there’s more snow on my nose in the above photo than anywhere else on me. It was finished snowing by the time Mommy took me out in this photo.

This photo is from two, almost three, weeks ago. This was the first time it snowed since I was just a puppy — first snow in 2 years! Mommy was surprised I still liked it so much, but I do and I still love to plow with my nose in the snow. However, I also still like to run in the snow, and if you look at my tracks in the above photo, you should be able to tell that I also like to go in circles. Mom keeps me leashed because she doesn’t want me to run off. (When I get on a scent or see a cat or a squirrel, I want to run after it.)

So that means I can’t run free in the snow. I could in the back yard, if we didn’t have to worry about all the cat poop from the stupid strays who use our back yard as a litter box. Grrr!

Well, anyway, while mom held my leash, I ran around her in circles! It was fun, and Mom was laughing really hard. I like to make Mom laugh. She was also trying to videotape me. She caught a tiny bit of video, but I kept getting out of her camera’s viewfinder. I would’ve shared the video here, but Mom can’t seem to upload her phone videos to her laptop, so you’ll just have to enjoy the still shots.

Not sure if we’ll get any more snow this year or not, but I sure would like one more good snow — this one started early in the morning, before Mommy woke up, and it lasted all day long, but it only dumped 3 or 4 inches. I’d like at least 6! Happy winter!

The Harper Chronicles: My Energy and Curiosity Sometimes Cause Trouble

/ kellyfbarr / 4 Comments

Hi Everyone! I’m back. Mom decided she liked letting me tell my own stories better than her telling them. She likes my style. lol

I have a lot of energy and I am very curious about things I see, especially things Mom tells me I can’t have. I also have some anxiety issues and don’t like a lot of noises. However, there are some noises that don’t bother me, like the plastic bags I am playing with in the picture above. Mom was sitting at the dining room table working on her writing, so I was walking around the dining room seeing what things were in that room. I found this whole bag of plastic bags, grabbed it, and took it into the living room. Then I started pulling all the bags out of the bag they were in. I was having lots of fun until Mom came and took the bags away. Before she did, I grabbed two of them and jumped onto the loveseat, the only piece of furniture I’m allowed to be on, and was chewing on them. She came to get them quickly — she said they’re a choking hazard.

In the above picture, I have an empty plastic water bottle. Mom, Dad, and their two grown sons all drink from these, then they throw them in a small box in the house, and when that’s full, they dump the bottles into a box outside and once a week a truck comes and takes them all away. But, Mom and one of the grown sons throw bottles from a distance and sometimes they miss. They always crunch them before they throw them, and when I hear that crackling noise, I watch and wait, and if the bottle hits the floor, I dash to get it. When I get it, I run into the living room with it and sometimes I lie on the floor and chew on it, and sometimes I take it up on the loveseat to chew on it — that’s where I am in the photo. Sometimes Mom lets me have it for a few minutes before she comes to take it away. Dad doesn’t like when she does that, but she says it doesn’t hurt me and she always watches me and takes the bottle before I get the label off because she doesn’t want me to choke. They don’t usually have the lids on them, so I’m not sure why the one in the picture has a lid on it. Actually, it’s not crinkled much either. Maybe I got this one when there was still a bit of water in it?

Anyway, these are some of the things I like to do sometimes when I want to get rid of some energy.

The Harper Chronicles: Cat Patrol

/ kellyfbarr / 5 Comments

“I hate cats!” Harper stood on her hind legs watching stray cats out the large front bay window. “They’re always using our lawn for a litter box. Grrr!” She plopped her front legs onto the floor and slunk toward the rear patio door. She was always on guard, watching the front and back of the house.

As she approached the sliding door, she spotted a gray cat on the back deck. Harper ran full speed toward it. When she planted her feet to stop, she slid into the clear door with a hard thunk! The cat startled and ran down the deck steps across the yard and out the back. Harper chuckled inside as she stood watching the gray animal disappear. “Stupid cat!” If only she had a doggie door, she’d show that cat a thing or two. But she knew why she didn’t have her own entrance/exit. Her mom, Kelly, wouldn’t take any chances of anything happening to Harper, and if she had a doggie door and got out of the house without a leash, she would chase every stray cat far from her neighborhood. She knew her mom was afraid Harper wouldn’t come back.

She lay on the floor, keeping watch until she heard a noise at the front of the house. She rose and dashed back to the bay window. “Ah, a van. I know what that means.” She watched until a man stepped out of the van and started walking toward her house, a couple packages in his hand. “Woof … woof! Woo – woo – woof!” Harper’s bark started low but increased in volume as the man drew closer.

To Harper’s disappointment, the man never looked toward the window where she stood, watching. He simply put the packages on the stoop, pointed his phone at them, pushed a button, then turned and strode back to his van, climbed in and drove away. Harper moved to the love seat where she jumped up and curled into a ball, disappointed that she’d failed to frighten the delivery man.

After a nap, she rose, climbed down from the love seat and returned to the window to look out once again. Movement to her left caught her eye and her heartbeat quickened. Two of her friends were out in their yard next door. Tequila and Whiskey, a reddish brown female Cavapoo and a curly haired white dog of which breed, neither her nor her mom knew. Harper attempted to jump onto the wide windowsill and barked.

“Harper, no.” Her mom commanded.

Harper tried again, this time knocking a couple of mom’s snowman knickknacks crooked, then trying to bite one of mom’s plants that was on the windowsill. Uh-oh, approaching footsteps. That meant mom was coming.

Sure enough, Mom arrived, hovered over Harper, and looked out the window. “Harper, you know Tequila and Whiskey. There’s no need to get so excited. Leave my plants alone, and look what you’ve done to my snowmen. Now get down!”

Harper placed her front paws back onto the floor and walked to the front door, where she rung her bell.

“No, you don’t have to go out to potty. You only want to go out because two of your friends are out.” Mom stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

Harper hung her head and returned to her comfy spot on the loveseat. Foiled again!

Introducing . . . HARPER!

/ kellyfbarr / 6 Comments

Hi, welcome to The Harper Chronicles. I’m Harper. The above photo is me and my mom, Kelly, on my second birthday, which just happened on November 29, 2023. I’m 3/4 Labrador Retriever and 1/4 Boxer.

This is me when I was still in my very early months. Mom fell in love with my face the first time she saw me. She’s a writer and this is her blog on her website. She graciously agreed to allow me to introduce myself, but after this post, what you see of me will be whatever pictures Mom posts and stories she’s going to write and share about me. That’s why these posts will be called “The Harper Chronicles”.

Before that happens, I get to tell you that I am Mom’s third dog. She had two purebred black Labrador Retrievers, both male, before me. I was actually given, as a gift, to Mom the day after she had to say goodbye to her second Lab. It was a very hard day for her, but receiving me helped her feel better and she decided not to waste time building a very strong bond with me. That means I’m spoiled. I get lots of love and attention from Mom and some from the other members of our family. Mom buys great tasting healthy treats and lots of toys for me. She plays with me, sits with me, and cuddles with me. She also takes me places and takes me for walks.

I have been a challenge for her because I like to chew A LOT! She has spent a lot of time trying to teach me I’m not supposed to chew on people. I also have a lot of energy and I like to jump! That’s another thing Mom’s been trying to get me to stop. Apparently people don’t like it when dogs jump on them. I have gotten better in these areas, but I haven’t stopped completely.

I guess the last thing I’ll tell you is how I got my name. You see, Mom doesn’t like to give her dogs ordinary dog names. She likes to give them unique names. I think that’s the writer in her. The fact that I’m a girl was a bit of a disappointment to her at first, because she had a boy name already picked for her next dog. So, she was in a quandary about what to name me. She searched her bookshelves in hopes of finding a story character she liked enough to name me after. Yeah, she reads a LOT too. The boy’s name she had picked was a character from To Kill a Mockingbird, so when she came downstairs after searching her bookshelves to no avail, Dad asked her who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. That’s how I became Harper Lee. Yes, Mom also gives all her dogs a middle name. Before me were Elvis Aaron (yes, named after the King of Rock and Roll), and Gentry Allen (not named after anyone. He was actually named for his gentle disposition), and now me!

I hope you’ll like the stories my mom writes about me. She’ll post them here on as many Wednesdays as she is able. I also hope her stories aren’t too embarrassing for me.

I don’t know if she’ll let me post here again, so “Goodbye”!