My next few days were once again uneventful, that is until Thursday night.  I noticed when I was running through the house having full butt-tucked zooms (this is the process where a dog runs around the house at full speed with their butt tucked under them, zooming at the nearest objects and then running away barking) that my parents were packing.  It would have appeared to the uneducated mind that they were planning on going on a trip of some type.  Hmmm, this was curious.

As it grew later in the evening, my Mom went down to my room and began packing my food.  Was I going on my first trip?  Oh yeah!  I’m hoping for somewhere warm, after all I was freezing my little butt off here.  

Well, the next morning I found out what was going on.  I was going to visit my sister Abby.  I’m not particularly sure what the deal was here, but my parents (of less than a week mind you), decided that they needed a vacation away from me.  As things go, I wasn’t all too upset because I like spending time with my sister and that Ron guy from my puppyhood was there too.  Life was not all that bad, but I sure hope my parents come back for me.  It’s kind of nice being an only puppy and getting all the attention.

Anyway, the week with my sister flew by without much happening.  I learned that something called deodorant isn’t all that tasty.  I learned to piddle on paper and not on the floor and I learned that my sister had the same sharp pointy teeth that I had.  No wonder my humans yelped when we played chew-toy!

My humans came back the following weekend and picked me up.  They were tanned and looked somewhat well rested.  I just bet that they went somewhere warm.  Oh well, I guess there are some things that will just be kept secret.

It was at this point that I started to realize that something was happening to me.  I was becoming uncoordinated.  I could hardly walk without falling over.  When I had zooms I couldn’t stop quick enough and started running into doors and furniture.  I really didn’t understand what was happening to me. 

The strangest thing about all this was that the ground was getting further and further away when I stood up.   It was especially far away when I fell down or tripped.  My Mom kept telling me how much I’d grown, but until this point I really didn’t realize that this was what she was talking about.  I would go to bed at night and I wouldn’t recognize my feet when I woke up in the morning.  I looked liked I was wearing snowshoes because my paws were so big.  Lucky thing too, because the snow was awfully deep out there in the yard and these big feet were the difference between running in the hard snow and sinking into a snowdrift. 

The one thing that didn’t particularly grow was my bladder.  I still had to go out in the middle of the night.  It got to be a pretty regular event at about four in the morning.  I would scream and Mom or Dad would come down and let me out.    There was a two-night stretch that I had them fooled.  I screamed at about two in the morning and got them to let me out.  Then I screamed again at four.  They let me out.  You talk about two unhappy people.  After the second night my two o’clock screams went unanswered and I just went back to bed.  It still pretty much sucked to be me once again.

With my feet and legs were growing at an alarming rate I had to take some precautions when I went out to play.  I had to make sure that if I were going to run into anything, it would be my Mom or Dad.  Hitting them hurt far less than running into a wall.  I guess my brakes weren’t fully developed yet and my airbag (my head) didn’t like to participate in ramming exercises.

It was about this time that I discovered a new den area at our house.  The couch in the living room had a special Maggie sized spot that I could crawl under.  I could retrieve balls from under there, I could chew bones undisturbed and I could scare the crap out of people.

How this worked was really pretty simple.  I would pretend to go behind the couch, but in reality, I would sneak under the couch.  There were some small openings in the front of the couch that fit my paws really well.  When the humans would sit on the couch, I would sneak under there and paw at their feet.  I think the record for the highest jump was when one of Dad’s friends was over.  I’m pretty sure I heard him hit his head on the ceiling.  I got yelled at big-time for that one, that is until Dad’s friend left.  Then he told Mom how funny it was and petted me.  I’m pretty sure that I was his hero for doing this.