"What do you mean by that, Harriet? Where have you been?" I'm just asking so you won't have to.
Well, it started when my cousins, Loki and Odin, came to visit.
My PR Mom calls us the Trouble Trio. We really like to play! Loki is easy to play with as long as he gets to be the boss. Odin doesn't care who's boss as long as he gets to play.
Odin is an escape artist. He loves to run. He got out the door three times. Once I went with him. My people and Odin's people didn't think that was so great.
The third time Odin got out and was brought back, I decided I would just take him for a walk inside the house, where nobody would object.
Nobody but Odin!
But my PRs noticed that my boy cousins were, um, very interested in me.
So I got to take a vacation at the doggie spa.
It's a great place. There were people to feed me and give me lots of attention, and there were lots of other dogs to play with. Girl dogs!
But it seemed like a long time before I came home!
Once I was back, I wanted to stay here. I didn't want to get in the car and go anywhere. I wanted to enjoy my house and my yard and my cats and my people and my bones. My PRs thought that was OK, so they let me have a couple of days to do that.
But now it's back to work. I'll be going to college soon, and I need to be sure I know all my stuff! (Here I am at the plant nursery. I'm terrific as a bench tester.)
Sometimes people ask my PR Mom, "Harriet is so sweet..." (I like that) "... that she's sure to graduate and become a service dog, right?" She answers, "We can't assume she'll graduate until she has graduated!" It takes a lot to be a service dog. You have to know your commands, from "side" to "heel," from "hurry" to "wait." You have to be aware of your person all the time and be willing to do what he or she says. Something may startle you, but you have to recover quickly and go ahead with your job. You can't be distracted. You can't be afraid of things. (Am I afraid of things? Well, I was just a little worried about a Great Dane I met in Lowe's one day. He barked like a dog but he looked like a horse.)
So then I got to stay home with Dad during rehearsal time. But I got to see everybody again when I went to the play! It was fine. All those kids and grownups did a really nice job, and I got a lot of hugs and pats.
Then my dad took me to the circus. Lights, sounds, and smells! It was pretty weird. (But it looked better than the photo. My dad says circuses are hard to take pictures of.) I was pretty tired from my playgoing adventure, so I slept through most of the circus. Dad said that was good. He wished, though, that I could have met more lions and tigers and bears, O my.
Pretty soon I'll be going on a trip with my PR dad to a country called Indiana. He says it's in the opposite direction from California, so I don't know why I'm going. But he says there are dogs there, and a river - whatever that is - and lot of places to practice the things I'm learning.
Oh, and if you didn't see this before, I'm back to doing a roll with my cape on. That other attitude was just so puppyish!
Spring is in the air!
It comes late to this part of the country, but it comes! There's green stuff popping out of the ground. And I'm not allowed to dig it up.
My PRs say it's official: my nose is definitely turning pink. Slowly. They can't get a good picture of it yet. One day you may have a pink-nosed friend. I don't know why I'm turning pink, but it must be because I'm such a special dog.
Do you think my fur color makes my nose look pink? Guess not.
My mom is also telling me that it will be only a few months before I go to puppy college. And I seem to have a few, um, peculiarities that she seems to think I need to give up. I thought they were cute.
A while back, I decided to have "allergies." I decided to be allergic to doing things with my CCI cape on. I wouldn't do downs; I wouldn't do rolls. I tried to say I had a constitutional right to choose what commands I wanted to obey.
"Not when you're a service dog!" my mom said. So we have spent the last several weeks helping me remember the things I've "forgotten." We've practiced a thousand downs. Well, I have - my mom hasn't put my cape on her.
Not long ago my PRs had to go the the home improvement store to pick up some BIG boxes. We had to wait for the store people to get our purchases out of the warehouse. While we waited, guess what I practiced.
Does my PR dad look bored? I wasn't bored - I was practicing my downs! I was also looking at the other dogs in the store! They were taking their Canine Good Citizen exams. I kept my distance from them so I wouldn't outshine - er, distract them. (But I'll tell you a secret: well-behaved dogs are allowed in this store even if they aren't taking a class or wearing capes. I hope this fine policy brings the store lots of business!)
Then the boxes were loaded into my dad's car. Was there enough room? There sure was. But there wasn't room left for my mom and me! So he had to take some things home, unpack them, and come back for us later.
While we waited, my mom had me practice all sorts of things:
Harriet doing an up! That's standing up and putting one's front paws on the wall of the building. You can't see it because I'm so close to the camera. But a picture of a good-looking dog is an asset on any blog page.
Harriet sitting on grating! You know grating - that metal stuff with holes in it that looks scary to walk on.
Harriet sitting on rocks!
Harriet shopping for trees! (I didn't buy any.)
Harriet sitting in a twelve-inch space in the back of the car! (It was just enough room to take a nap in.)
Harriet at home! One of my other peculiarities is that once I'm done working I have a burning desire to work off some energy by racing around like a crazy dog. And, um, a lamp had a close encounter with me.
My mom said that if I got an allowance, I'd be paying for the damage myself.
Another thing I've "forgotten" to do with my cape on is to roll. Without my cape I could live this way all day.
I'm embarrassed to say I don't roll in my cape on command yet. My mom has to "persuade" me. But I do it! Yay, me!
Note to other CCI pups: don't develop any "allergies." It doesn't pay.
The other night at puppy class I made a new friend. Mr. Chris wants to be a puppy raiser. I let him practice on me, and he got me to roll, too. We also maneuvered through a maze of doggy toys and treats. Not only toys and treats, but other dogs!
I went up and down with him like a good girl and didn't touch anything! It's very hard to resist temptation like this. But I hear that at puppy college, the dogs all sit inside a tennis court, and are supposed to stay seated while people drop dozens of tennis balls into the court. A service dog must have self-control!
I showed Mr. Chris how I do a visit.
In a visit you sit close and put your chin in the person's lap. You're supposed to keep your chin there until you're told to release. I don't last that long yet. But I'm working on it.
I hope I helped Mr. Chris learn how to raise puppies. I love meeting people who love dogs!
I love snow, but the weather was SOOOO cold for a while that I couldn't enjoy it. My PR Mom was talking about "wind chill factor" and "below zero." I don't know what those things mean.
But I know it was so cold out there that my nose felt funny and I got hard pieces of snow in my paws. Ouch!
The Puppy Bowl was fun to watch, but it was just a couple of hours. What'll I do the rest of the time?
The trouble is that I need to run around and be goofy somewhere. And if I can't do that outside, I ... um, get into trouble.
My ear started feeling funny. I didn't know what it was, but I knew that if I let my people see that I hurt, my PR Dad would come after me with some sort of stuff, and I wouldn't like it.
So I started hiding.
It didn't work. I don't know why. I wouldn't have been able to find me if I hadn't known where I was.
So... I had a week of medicines. And my vet said, "Well, she's nearly all Lab. Ear infections are what Labs do."
(I'm a tiny bit Golden Retriever, but they have flop-over ears, too.)
Sigh. What is there to do in the house? There are always my toys. Time to redecorate the family room.
(Mom said, "That's all the stuffed toys for you, Harriet!")
Oh, look, there's a bathroom rug.
Oh, look, there's a bathroom rug. And there are trash baskets. And Mom left her closet door open a little bit, so I found a slipper. And there's a WHOLE STACK OF NEWSPAPERS!
Hey, not my fault - it's what Labs do!
Happily, I did some good things, too. My friend Buddy came over one morning.
We were racing so fast that my Mom couldn't get both of us into focus.
Then my cousin Olivia came over, and we played and played.
Being sociable. It's what Labs do!
Then it got warmer, and I discovered something about the dirt in the back yard.
It's movable. 
Hey, it's what Labs... who's that calling me?
What is this red stuff? Oh, Mom says it's called cayenne pepper. Wonder what - HAT-CHOO! I don't like that at all!
But I wonder if I could develop a taste for it. After all, it's what Labs do.
Today - January 22nd - is my birthday! I'm one year old!
All people - including four-footed people - should get presents for their birthdays! I asked for a whole jar of peanut butter. I didn't get it.
But I got some tasty little treats (good-tasting but low-calorie, because I'm getting a bit, er, tubby)...
...and a toy my PR mom and I both like - I can make it squeak, and she doesn't have to pick up stuffing...
...and one of those YUMMY filled-up bones I love, love, love!
This is Uncle Richard petting me and taking a picture at the same time. Talent runs in my family.
I got to play with my friend Harry this morning, too. He lives across the street. It's so nice to have friends! (No, it only looks as if we were playing in the street. Actually, our dads were supervising us closely. I just didn't want them in the picture. I look cooler that way.)
Whew! I'm pretty tired from such a busy day. When is your birthday? Invite me over. I LOVE celebrating birthdays!
What a season I've had. Do humans enjoy Christmas as much as dogs do? Because I had a fine time!
My people gave me good presents. (They gave one another presents, too - I'm not quite the center of the universe.) I have a beautiful new collar and leash.
I have a new piggy (Olivia and I demolished the last one).
I have a bear with FOUR squeakers in him!
And I have - er, had - a brand new filled bone that made my heart go thumpity-thump and my taste buds go all happy. I can't show you a picture because I've already, um, taken care of that present.
We spent Christmas Day with my PRs' children and grandchildren. My mom couldn't take pictures of me racing around the house with excitement, grabbing what I could in my mouth along the way. She was too busy giving her grandchildren their presents back after I ran around with them. Oops.
Actually, it was my job to love all of them.
Of course, I wanted to play Wii with everybody else. That gizmo is small enough to fit in my mouth.
But also I needed to help entertain my kind of company - my cousins, Loki and Odin. They're Norwegian Elkhounds from Texas. Odin's on your right; Loki's on your left. Odin likes to play with me. Loki likes to be boss. I'm saying, "Won't you come in, please?" like a polite service dog.
Can you believe - they wanted to say hello to our other cousin Fiona! Fiona doesn't like to say hello to any visitors.
(Sometimes she says words a cat shouldn't say.)
Loki and Odin brought their people along. This is Kimmy.
I also played with Katie outside. You'll see Jenna and Megan in future blogs.
At last, at the end of the day, Loki, Odin, Kimmy, and Kimmy's parents came to stay at our house.
Kimmy was learning how to scratch tummies properly. She's not very good at it yet, but it's best to start training humans early.
Ahhhh!
Kimmy did silly things, too. She was using spoons to pretend to be a drummer with. Everyone knows that spoons are for putting peanut butter on to give to the puppy!
Sometimes Kimmy got simply too much attention. Then I had to employ drastic measures. It gave my PR mom a chance to practice saying, "Don't! Drop!"
She's not tall enough to let the dog in, but I like the fact that she's interested.
The day after Kimmy and her family left to go home, something wonderful happened...
It snowed!
My kitties didn't like it. Cetty looked annoyed (she doesn't like the cold)...
... and Mr. Grey camped out in MY crate!
But I had a great time! Happy New Year, everybody! If things like this keep happening, 2011 is going to be fun!
My PR Mom calls us the Trouble Trio. We really like to play! Loki is easy to play with as long as he gets to be the boss. Odin doesn't care who's boss as long as he gets to play.
Then my dad took me to the circus. Lights, sounds, and smells! It was pretty weird. (But it looked better than the photo. My dad says circuses are hard to take pictures of.) I was pretty tired from my playgoing adventure, so I slept through most of the circus. Dad said that was good. He wished, though, that I could have met more lions and tigers and bears, O my.
