We Scotties rarely watch the TV in our living room, but there’s one thing that we do find absolutely riveting.  Nothing captures our attention like the two squirrels that hang out in our trees in our backyard and run across the top of our fence.  Those little demons constantly taunt us by staring at us and chattering.  They seem to have figured out that we Scotties will run like the wind to chase after them, even though there’s no chance that we could ever catch them, so they torture us from their perches on top of our six foot fence or from high up in the trees.

It’s exciting when we see the squirrels jump from the tree limbs to the fence and when they make a mad dash across the top of our fence to our neighbor’s yard and we Scotties with our eagle eyes fixed on them love to bark and chase after them.  That’s usually when Wen shows up to usher us inside for our excessive barking and play time’s over.

The squirrels aren’t always around when we are outside, but we’re usually looking for them, just in case.  I’d have to say that squirrel patrol is one of our most important daily duties and if one of those little devils ever fell off the fence into Scottie territory, look out!

I was born with a serious expression and it hasn’t changed.  Of course, five years ago, Wen found my serious puppy picture on the internet very endearing and it actually led to her contacting my breeder, but in general, I’m just a serious kind of guy.

Wen has taken a ton of pictures of me over the years and she says that you can count on one hand (or paw) how many photos she has of me where I look happy or goofy, so I rest my case.  Even when I’m excited or absolutely ecstatic, I seem to seriously look serious and I guess that’s just me:  serious Riley.

My youngest sister, Sadie, is definitely the clown of our crew.  She like to do silly things such as flipping over on her back and kicking all of her legs while she rolls her eyes in a ridiculous way.  Her eyes are very expressive and she has a whole repertoire of goofy Scottie expressions.

Sadie will suddenly jump up and run around as if she’s possessed and she’s constantly right in everyone’s face.  She has a language of her own with the funny sounds that she makes as she “talks” and she’s quite comical with her playful antics.

Without the Sadie circus around, our lives would be much more calm, but much less entertaining!

“Four inches” they said.  The TV weather forecasters got it wrong again.  Wen shoveled the snow from our driveway, sidewalk, and the deck three times yesterday and once again this morning and after we Scotties plowed our way around the backyard this morning, we must have more like 10 inches in some places.

Since it’s been a warm January so far, everyone wanted more moisture.  Well, we got it!  We got serious snow and for us Scotties, let the good snow plowing times roll!

 

Yesterday, Wen had planned to take Sadie to the nursing home for a visit.  Just before they left, she spent some time scrolling through the photos that she had saved on her iPad.

When they arrived at Wen’s friend’s room at the nursing home, her friend was organizing and rearranging some of her things and she lamented the loss of her favorite quilted bedspread that she and her daughter had shopped for together.  It had been taken to the nursing home laundry several weeks ago and had never been returned.

About that time, the young man who was in charge of collecting laundry appeared and Wen’s friend once again inquired about her missing bedspread and tried to describe it. Wen realized that she had just seen photos of Sadie lying on top of the bedspread on her iPad and after scrolling through the photos on her phone, the pictures popped up.  She sent the best photo of the bedspread to the laundry guy’s phone and off he went to try to locate the bedspread.

Wen and her friend continued talking and were giving Sadie treats when the laundry guy showed up with a large clear plastic bag.  Inside the bag was was the missing bedspread!  Wen’s friend was ecstatic and amazed that after weeks of asking people to try to find it, the missing bedspread was back on her bed where it belonged.  What a coincidence that Wen had just been scrolling through her photos before she and Sadie came for a visit and that she had come across pictures of the bedspread.  An ironic chain of events had produced the missing bedspread that no one could seem to locate for weeks.  Case solved!

Yesterday, I got a big surprise!  Wen opened the door to our kitchen pantry and there, pushed way back on a shelf, was a toy that she had bought a long time ago, specifically for me.  It was one of those long fish toys with a plastic bottle inside and anything with a crunchy bottle inside is my favorite kind of toy!

She tossed the toy to me and none of the other Scotties had a chance to play with it, because my jaws were clamped onto it and I wasn’t going to let go.  I walked around, chomping and chewing on the toy for the longest time, until it was soaking wet, the plastic bottle inside was totally flat, and there were a few holes in the fabric cover.  In other words, I was having a blast until all of a sudden, Wen noticed the sorry condition of the toy and she jumped up from the couch and grabbed it from me.  The next thing I knew, my fish toy was in the trash.  I guess the toy was double trashed because I trashed it first and then it ended up in the trash!  Oh, well, maybe she’ll get me a new toy to trash….

Hey, you woke us up!!  We were all snoozing and you just had to disturb us!  What’s so important that our nap time is suddenly over?  Whatever it is, it had better involve food!!

Years ago, Wen had a demanding work schedule, having jobs at two different animal hospitals.  When she would come home at night, there would always be a little wheaten Scottie sitting in the window, waiting for her.  The Scottie was Frostianna MacDuff (also known as Poo) and she was Wen’s very first wheaten Scottie.

No matter how exhausting the day had been, seeing Poo waiting in the window always brought a smile to Wen’s face and instantly made the day a little bit better.  They actually moved four times during Poo’s life, but at each house, Poo seemed to find a window where she could sit, look out, and wait for Wen to come home after work.  Seeing her doggie in the window meant a lot to Wen and she wondered if Poo had any idea what her little waiting in the window gesture meant.  I think that she did!

 

Wen’s first wheaten Scottie, Frostianna MacDuff, also known as Poo, loved to spend time looking out the window.  In their first house in Denver, Poo sat in the same living room chair every day, because that chair gave her the best vantage point for her favorite looking out the window pastime.  Several years later, when they moved in with Wen’s parents in Missouri for awhile, their house had a huge picture window in the living room and Poo began to occupy a chair by the window that gave her a perfect view.  Unfortunately, it happened to be Wen’s mother’s expensive velvet chair, but that didn’t dissuade Poo from her favorite pastime and she was in the chair many times each day until Wen’s mom chased her out of it.  Eventually, Wen had to switch the velvet chair with Poo’s favorite chair from their Denver house (which was rather worn by this time) and since Poo spent hours in her chair each day, it was named “the Poo chair” from then on.  “The Poo chair” didn’t look very fancy, but it certainly saved the velvet chair, which made Wen’s mom very happy!

 

It’s 2019!  Happy New Year!!!  We hope that this year is the best ever for everyone!