Yawn Over Lawn

Tucker is enjoying the long winter nap as best he can. He likes the cold cause it makes him run faster. Or so he believes. But he doesn't like the fact that it means he gets to spend less time outside.

He likes how he seems to get to spend more time on the bed when it is cold because his parents are more willing to let him and his siblings up. But he thinks this is all some ruse they are playing to steal cheap dog warmth instead of turning the thermostat up at night.

As you can see, Tucker is a conflicted gentleman. But what he really wants to do is play fun games with his human friends. And soon Spring will come and there will be warmer days and mud puddles and lots of things to chase in the yard.

So for now Tucker will catch up on his sleep and think about which games he will like to play first when the warmer weather comes.

Chip!

Tucker and the gang had a friendly visitor this weekend. The lovable ragamuffin known as Chip! came to stay for 2 days whilst plans were made for his adoption. You see Chip! was surrendered to the pound early Friday morning by a woman who could no longer afford to keep him. She claimed he had too much energy as well. All his papers were in order and it seems he had been well looked after. The woman had paid a handsome sum for Chip! when he was a baby. She bought the pure bred Wheaton Terrier from a place that sells cute little balls of fluffy responsibility to people who tend to think of animal life as some form of commodity.

Now Tucker and his dad are trying really hard to not be judgmental. Even though li'l Chip! wasn't fixed and likely to meet a nice girl and start a family of his own if the lady had just dumped him on the streets, Tucker and his dad are glad the lady brought Chip! in to get placed. Now this doesn't happen to all animals that people drop off. Most don't get a second chance. And that makes Tucker and his dad incredibly sad. Chip! just happened to arrive when another nice lady was there who happened to know someone who could foster him until a rescue group could place him with a nice family.

And that is what happened. Although Tucker usually snubs his nose at purebreed anythings, he has to admit that ol' Chip! was a good egg and he was glad he got the chance to play with him.

Warming up to Winter

Tucker has not been so active on the Interwebs lately, mostly because he is a dog and preoccupied with other things. These other things include laying about, grooming himself, sniffing the cat, watching his dad and yawning. Tucker sure seems bored with the cold and the dark. He wishes hw could move back to the sunny warm south and west.

Although the crummy weather does afford Tucker some highjinx. Just yesterday he laughed as his brother YHP did a faceplant on the ice-covered snow. Little YHP slid a good 5 feet and faced while chasing Tucker. Tucker, on the other hand can run super fast and turn corners like a ninja. Take that little dog who gets all the ladies -- Tucker has some winter skillz.

A New Day Dawning

Tucker is, on the whole, an optimistic dog. He looks at the glass and can care less whether it is half full or half empty so long as he can get a chance to sniff it and stick his tongue in it to taste what is in there.

And with that perspective in mind, Tucker would like to welcome the new president and his friends. He would also like to know if he could play tennis ball chase at the White House now and then.

The long Con

Tucker has been busted. His dad figured out his game.Tucker, the lovable, fluffy white rapscallion is, in reality, a grifter. No, it's true. After viewing a series of detective shows and such, Tucker's dad put 2 and 2 together and came up with the truth that Tucker's seeming niceness and good behavior is really some sort of con job. And that once he has eliminated the competition, then Tucker will pull the string, push the button, snap the fingers and the trap will be set.

The evidence is in the pudding, as the criminologists say. Every day YHP sneaks downstairs to eat the cat's food, sleeps on the bed when the parents are out and attacks his brother without provocaion; Dexter turns the trash bin into confetti and sleeps on the couch despite barricades and books placed in her way to make it uncomfortable; the Baron...well we all know what he does that is bad. But Tucker? He just stands and stares with his big brown Thurman Murman eyes as says, "pleased to meet you, my name is Tucker." There's something just not right about that sort of good behavior in a dog. He is somehow controlling the others, spurring them on to make himself look better and make them look... more like dogs.

In his defense, Tucker denies this insidious accusation. He says there is no wool to pull over his gumshoe dad's eyes. He is genuinely a nice dog. And Tucker would be sad if his dad were to sell off his siblings to a foreign labor market and/or army because of their routine bad behavior. Tucker says he chooses to be good only because he wants to be. There is no scam old man, he tells his dad.

Laser Tag!

Tucker has been excited about renewed visits from his nocturnal friend lately. No, not "that" friend, but the one with the red light beam that skips playfully along the ground in the dark. Tucker and his nice sister, Dexter, have been playing laser tag (LT) with their dad on the cool January nights.

Since it is dark early in winter, and Dexter is kinda nutso for the LT, Tucker's dad has been entertaining them with it. The red beam makes a dot on the ground and simple flicks of his dad's wrist makes the dot skip up and down the yard like some electric bunny.

Tucker likes chasing LT because it is fun and sometimes there are cookie treats when the dot stops. Tucker knows his dad just drops them from his pocket and the dot isn't a real treat. But it is fun to race crazy legs up the lawn in the dark. It is even more fun when YHP stands there perplexed. Only Tucker and Dexter can see the LT. Baron and YHP can't see it. Probably because they don't believe in magic. But Tucker does. And he believes in LT.

The Real HouseDogs of College Park

Tucker has decided that in the new year of the 2009, he will expand his media empire beyond just the blog. He is actively pitching his reality show concept to the highest bidder. Based on real life experiences and the high drama he has come to know, Tucker is calling his show idea The Real HouseDogs of College Park.

Sure the exotic locale is reason enough for most viewers to be attracted. But it is the heart wrenching true stories of what happens in one College Park home when the humans leave for work or somewhere else that means they aren't there to watch the dogs. The dogs rule the roost and the fur starts flying! Queen diva, Dexter, commands the mayhem from her lofty perch on the couch. Mischievous madman YHP tears about the house like a bandit on 4 legs jumping on bed and couches. Not to be outdone, the Baron climbs on the couch and mashes pillows into a fluffy throne for his royal belly.
Caught in the middle of the drama, excitement, canine somnambulism and trash eating, Tucker stands out as the only hope for sane narrative thread. His "on-camera confessions" give a deeper dimension to the exploits of 4 very naughty dogs.

Rated TV-14 for strong language and suggestively bad behavior, Tucker hopes to get a prime 930 pm slot on a "real" TV network, and not just the current viewing audience of his mother and father.