"Whoa!!!"

"Lookit that!!!"

"Get outa the way Keeper, I want it.!!"

"No way, quit shoving me around!! Get outta the way yurself!!! It’s mine!!!"

"Knock it off you guys. Keep back. That’s no gopher. That’s a weasel!!!!"

"Oh boy, Keeper, a weasel!! Let’s go get it -but me first. What’s a weasel?"

"One side I’m comin’ through. That’s my weasel if I dare say!!"

"Gaaakk!! Hey, Rick you big dummy, let go of us. We gotta capture that weasel. Look, he’s sitting right there on the fence and he’s not running away."

"Now listen you two. Quit pulling. That weasel isn’t running away because he’s not a fraidy cat like those gophers and mice and things you’ve been chasing. A weasel is a vicious little killer and you’re darned lucky I caught him in my trap instead of you just finding him. But I thought he was gonna bite my fingers when I was letting him go. Why, he mighta jumped you two!!!"

And that’s how we almost got jumped by a weasel the other day.

Keeper and me were out snooping through the tall grass in our field, looking for mice to chew when Rick screamed "Eureka!!!" and pulled one of his traps out of the ground.

He uses traps to capture critters that live in the ground and dig holes in our yard and he catches lots but we’ve never heard him yell "Eureka!!!" before so we came over to have a look at what all the fuss was about.

And guess what, instead of the dead things he catches this one was alive!!! Its little bum was sticking out of the back of the trap and it was sniffing with its nose out the little hole in the front. Rick wasn’t even sure what it was – he thought it might be a junior gopher. So Keeper and me was getting mighty interested in the proceedings when Rick let down the wires in the trap that were holding the critter in place. Then guess what happened? That weasel turned around in the trap and just as "mind you please" stuck himself out the other end and turned around to look at Rick like he was lunch. He didn’t try to run away or nothing.

That’s when Rick shouted, "A weasel!!!!" and threw his trap over the fence. But the weasel was faster than that and jumped onto the fence on his way by.

And then that weasel, cocky as all get out, just sat there on the fence post staring at us like he was figuring out ways to attack us.

Keeper and I naturally turned into our ferocious predator selves and tried to get at him.

But Rick kept holding onto us and after a little bit that varmint must have figured he was outnumbered so he scampered off down the fence and into the field. Rick says he was in our yard looking for gophers and since that’s what Rick was doing too that’s how the weasel got himself caught in Rick’s trap.

Well, we had a visitor this morning. A deer hopped the fence and Keeper was off like a shot of light to get after it because they eat the flowers and the garden and stuff. Keeper’s a lot faster than me but that deer wasn’t even trying and it left Keeper in the dust. Holy cow, can those deer run. 

Me, I didn’t even waste the effort.

Well we were in a pretty bad pickle up in the hills on an Epik Journey the other day. We was coming to a rise when we kept hearing this "Grrrrrrrr" sound coming from the other side. And then just as fast as anything this big ole’ 2000 pound bull comes up over the hill. Well . . . . . let me say that sure sets your hair to standing up!!!

Carol and Rick and Keeper and me looked around for a second but there weren’t no fence for half a mile and no trees for a quarter mile either. It was just us and that Grrrrrring bull and if you don’t mind my saying so my ferocious self was getting knocked down a peg or two. So we just started shuffling off to the side to give him room to slide by if you know what I mean. He kept on growling but kept on walking. He was mad at something but it was a good thing it wasn’t us. Rick and Carol nearly pooped their pants they was so scared. But Keeper and me – we’re never scared of nothing!!!

Well, summer is here and boy oh boy is it ever hot. It’s very dry because it hasn’t rained in weeks and weeks. All the grass has gone brown and the muddy holes that we like to cool off in have run dry. Even the Lake of Doom is down a bit.

But …….. we got a pool!!!! Rick fills it up for Keeper and me and we can dive for rocks and stuff and it’s nice and cold when it’s hot outside.

And let me say since I’m only two years old that my memory only goes back to yesterday so I had sure forgotten that summer is hot, hot, hot. I guess this is the third summer for Keeper and me but only the second we remember because we were being born in the first one.

There is lot’s to do and see in summer if you got ponds and pools to cool down in. So far we have chased gophers, weasels and deer out of our yard. We have barked at the moose when it crosses the valley. And the coyotes are hunting mice in the barley field so we can see them and bark at them. We don’t go up in the hills much in the summer because of mosquitoes and the heat and the fact there isn’t much water for Keeper and me. We kind of power out when the sun is out.

And the cows are in the hills in the summer. They are sure dangerous, even the one’s that are not bulls. One time a cow set Keeper and me to running – not because we wuz scared or anything – but that big ole cow was running right at us!!!! Holy smokes!!! As it turned out that cow only wanted to be somewhere else. 

So we just watched him run by.

We had a calf following us one time when we were on an Epik Journey but Keeper saw it and decided to chase it. Boy that didn’t go over very well with Rick and Carol. We don't chase cows after that let me tell you!!

Newt, the neighbour border collie from the farm in the valley, has taken to visiting us again. You might recall, having a human memory, that he was the dog that got his hind foot caught in the fence and Carol had to cut him out. Well, he comes calling again now only he waits politely for Carol to open the gate for him to come in instead of jumping the fence.

Yes, these are the salad days of our youth.

Well, Keeper and I have got some laying in the shade to do.

And boy, is it ever hot, hot, hot.