MY FIRST MINI-HOLIDAY

"I went on my first "mini-holiday" recently.  Catherine told me that we were going on a mini-holiday but I had no idea what that might be.  I now know, I know I love a mini-holiday.  

"Humans can be very strange creatures"

To get to our mini-holiday I had to travel in my crate.  It is behind Sean and Catherine in the car (the car for any other dogs reading, is a big noisy thing you get into and you end up somewhere away from home when the noise stops.  It can be frightening at first but once you realise that there is usually fun at the end, you get to like it.  But I still don't like the idea of jumping out of the cage once we stop ~ have you SEEN the drop down to the floor from it?!  Sean opens the door and puts my lead on and then says "Come on Oscar, jump" whilst giving a little tug on my lead.  It seems he expects me to jump out but there is no way I am doing that!  And anyway, he always puts his arms around me and lifts me down so why jump?  He mutters whilst doing this "you are going to have to jump when you are too heavy to lift you know!".  I just can't imagine being brave enough to jump at any stage!

Me and one of my little humans

So on our mini-holiday we picked up some of our family before we went.  Two of the little humans and a senior human, all of whom I like because they pet me and tell me what a good boy I am ~ even when I haven't done anything at all so it seems I am clever just sitting still or lying down!  

After we picked up the family, we went on a long journey, well it seemed long to me.  It wasn't as long as the journey from my old home though so that wasn't too bad.

The strange thing about being in the car is my humans now and then open all the windows ~ even if it is cold.  I gather it is something to do with me even though I don't want all the windows open.  I know it is something to do with me because I hear my name.  They say "oh no, Oscar has farted!" and then the cold wind blows all around the car at the same time they are complaining about the cold!  I tell you, humans are very strange creatures indeed!

Stones!  Not nice to walk on!

The mini holiday place was so exciting ~ except for the stones I had to walk on to get to the garden of course.  I didn't much like them but I had to walk on them to get to the garden, which was a very exciting place.  There were lots of new smells in the garden and all my humans played with me and we ran around having great fun.  

Sticks are good

I kept finding lots of twigs in the garden too.  Other dogs who don't know what they are I can tell them because I heard my humans saying.  They are bits that fall from trees, and trees it seems are these very big things that have lots of twigs on them.  You would think that as there are so many lying around they wouldn't mind me chewing on the ones I found.  But every single time I found one and had started to enjoy chewing it, it was taken from me!  I wasn't too bothered because I kept finding more and ran away from my humans to enjoy a wee chew before they caught up with me and took it from me.  Maybe they want to chew them themselves?  Who knows?

But we had lots of games in the garden and I even discovered how to bury my Nylabone!  I don't know how I knew to bury it but something came over me and I had this huge urge to hide it in the garden.  It made the humans laugh watching me ~ humans make this sound when they are happy and it is called a laugh which is very strange because they show their teeth and I used to think showing your teeth was a sign you were angry.  Humans can be very strange animals.

Me running in the garden!

In the garden I played something called "fetch".  It is like the game Catherine and I play at home with my tennis ball on a rope toy but this time it was on grass (it's soft green stuff which is nicer to walk on than stones!).  It took a lot longer to get to my toy when they threw it because the garden is very big, or it seems so to me because I am still only a puppy.

Mmm ... banana!

One of the very best things on my mini-holiday was something called banana.  We were all in the living room one of the nights and Sean gave me a piece of what they called banana.  It is really delicious and I could have wolfed it down in one!  

The next morning Catherine wanted me to sit and instead of giving me a treat of meat, she used slices of banana and I loved it so much I did this sit thing immediately when told knowing I would get a slice of that delicious banana!

This toy says banana!

The funny thing is the little humans have these toys (they don't chew them like I chew my toys) who say "banana" but they never give any to me!  The humans all find these toys very funny but I don't because they say "banana" but don't give any.

We were to go on a trip to a place called a beach but I can't tell you what a beach is because rain stopped play as Catherine said.  Maybe I will find out some other time.

After a couple of nights it was time to leave.  I know it's night because it gets dark and later I go into my crate and Catherine says "night, night Oscar" just before everyone disappears for a very long time and I don't see them until the morning again.  I know now what morning is too because it is daylight and Catherine comes into me and puts me outside to "go pee pee", which I do and then I get my "din-dins".  Din-dins is food by the way.

I had a great time with my humans on my mini-holiday and the very best of all is that I heard them saying we would soon be back there for another mini-holiday.  Then I was put in my crate and we went on a journey and guess what?  I was home again.  Cars are magical!"