We just returned from a fun trip to Montana. Before that it was dog shows galore and mom never had any time to tell you what we've been up to. I was so glad when I found out we were going to get 4 whole days to be off somewhere new, without a judge checking my boy parts. I still got petted and snuggled lots. I met my dad's sister, Peg. She came all the way out to our friends, the Hodges' place in Montana to pick up a puppy and hang out with my human pack. Maine is where my granny Mitzi and auntie Lilly were born and where the best lobster in the world comes from - at least that's what mom says. I never got to eat any of it. I also met lots of new dog friends, this is Elektra - she has the same name as my dog mom, but her face is all bristly. She was lots of fun to play with. We drove most of the night last Thursday and got there at 2:00 in the morning - Montana time. Boy is it dark out there, you can see the whole Milky Way without any interference from city lights.
In the morning we got up way too early - that's what mom said anyway - and went for a long walk with a bunch more of our new friends. This is a typical morning ritual at Teckelwood Farm and the process is repeated several times with different bunches of dogs. You can see, it's a major wiener fest, but the neighbors love to wave and honk when they see us all in the road.
Granny Mitzi and auntie Lilly love this part of our stay the best because the smells are so interesting and there's lots of things to hunt in the long grass in the ditches. Also, there's so much activity around the pond and the streams - geese, ducks, swallows and pollywogs (whatever those are).
The other thing there are lots of, besides Dachshunds, is the cows. That's the main reason we went, so mom and dad could get some cow meat. We pulled a trailer behind the van with a freezer on it to keep the 162 lbs of beef and some Montana Huckleberry ice cream, frozen on the trip home. Mom, dad and auntie Peg helped uncle Rae with his fall round-up and moved the herd out to another pasture way far away. That was nice because then they didn't wake me up with all their mooing so early in the morning. Auntie Jennifer from our Dachshund club came along too and they all rode the horses every day, which makes me really glad I'm a dog.
Dad took granny Mitzi with him in the mule a couple of times. The mule is sort of an upscale golf cart with an small pick-up like back end. It worked great for rounding up the horses every morning, hauling mineral blocks out to the cows and going ahead of the riders to open gates. Then dad would close them behind and nobody had to get off the horses. Did I tell you I'm really glad I'm a dog. Anyway, granny Mitzi got to have a short ride with mom on a nice horse named Lady. She was a little unsure about the whole thing and when Lady started tossing her head, granny Mitzi just grabbed chunks of her main and pulled on it to tell her to stop. Mom said it didn't really work much but it was worth a try.
We sure had lots of fun with our Montana friends at Teckelwood Farm, but I'm glad we've had a day to rest up before mom and dad go back to work. Kate and I are helping with laundry so I gotta go.
Later,
Dash
