Special Guest Saturday!!!

It is finally here!

The BIG DAY!

I've been furtunate enough to get an interwoo with a furry famous 'writer'

I know many of woo know Ari and her humom Kathryn!

Fur those of woo that don't, please khlikhk H E R E fur the link to her blog.

Anyway, Ari has pawmitted her hoomans to be inkhluded in many adventures in their beaWOOtiful state of MAINE!

Ari's mom is a professor at Unity Khollege which had a book launch on Friday night for this furry special literary labour of love!

Well, immediately following the reception, Ari and I got together to kikhk off her tour to spread the woo's about HER book!

A young Ari above!

******

And Ari - (after graduation from SZK Skhhool of Photo Studies) and her mom below!

******

We chatted about many things - she showed me the window she uses to watch fur all the wildlife that khomes by her khorner of the khountry. I will admit I was a bit disappointed in that it was dark so I khouldn't see the magnificent view! As a regular reader of Ari's blog, I know she has many khool khritters at which to gaze!

And now khomes the special part...Ari has pawmitted ME to share an excerpt FROM THE BOOK!!! Khan woo believe it??? The book's chapters are the months of the year. Since we are khlosing in on the end of March, Ari thought March would be khwite appropriate

. . . . Ari dances crazily around my feet, stopping only to chew on my fingers when I try to lace up my hiking boots. Just shy of four months old, Ari is small—about fiftee pounds—and her proportions remain infant-round. One of her ears stands up wolfishly; the other flops over like the RCA dog’s. None of this, however, makes her any less of an opponent when it comes to getting things done. Ari’s teeth are still the temporary ones allotted to baby animals—jagged little numbers that pierce the skin with little effort. They hurt. A lot. As she bites at my hands, I pick her up and set her on the floor near the kitchen table, wrongly thinking that she will stay seated there. She doesn’t, of course. Instead, she springs up again and beats me back to where my other boot rests, eager to continue complicating my attempts at getting dressed and tumbling over our other shoes in the process.

I try reasoning with her and am rewarded with a play-growl and more pouncing. I suggest that this is not helpful. She gives an even bigger, goofier gurgle: Come on, silly! We’re having a ton of fun, right?

“You may be, but I’m not,” I correct aloud, as if to cure the puppy of her naiveté. My response rouses Greg in his office upstairs. His voice wafts down, asking playfully if everything is okay. I assure him that it is—I am in perfect control. My voice belies this assertion. It also prompts Ari to offer an even bigger play-growl, then to topple over onto her back like a clumsy bug. She looks first alarmed and then pleased with this inadvertent floor show, and soon tries it again for the amusement of us both before ducking for cover under a chair.

Like just about any mammalian toddler, this baby dog is nothing short of a rolling ball of contradictions. She vacillates between fierce and terrified with a speed that would dizzy an Olympic Ping-Pong player. Also like other kids her age, she clowns and tests limits and seeks maternal security all in a single instant. Her attention span is limited to a few bursting seconds; her confidence is as much predicated on mine as it is anything else. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, then, that biting shoelaces, clamoring to go outside, and flopping onto the foyer tile are all equally interesting to her right now.

Further complicating her child-like tendencies is Ari’s life before moving into our house. Animal behaviorists tell us that a puppy’s cognition begins in the womb and reaches its first crucial peak at around twelve weeks. What happens along the way has a lot to do with how that dog views—and responds to—the world. Puppies birthed by mothers under a fair amount of stress can exhibit more timidity and emotionality. Those who spend their first weeks without a lot of human contact can grow to be fearful or at least unsure of humans and what they want. Both factors can affect things like trainability, ease of entering domestic life, and ability to bond with a caregiver.

From what we know of Ari’s life at the shelter, her early days were far from a doggy Head Start program. Prior to our arrival, she had never left the four-foot-by-four-foot enclosure that was home to her litter. Once they were weaned from their mom, the only contact they had with other creatures was their time together as siblings and the occasional attention of an overworked shelter employee. They had never been inside a house or on any surface other than concrete, nor had they been given the space to distinguish between where they slept and where they pooped. Factor in the DNA of her two primitive-breed parents (both of whom were under plenty of shelter-induced stress during conception and pregnancy), and what we have is something a whole lot like a feral dog on our hands.

Does this affect our feelings about Ari? Only insofar as it makes us want to love her all the more. We want to give Ari the kind of affection and security she should have had from the moment she was born. We would probably want this for any animal who had endured such an experience, but it doesn’t hurt that this particular one is beyond adorable in just about everything she does. Like other infant dogs, Ari is a perfect example of Mother Nature’s warranty program: She is just too cute in her boxiness, her floppy ear, her curious blue eyes to elicit a reaction other than love, particularly at times like this, when she wags a little puppy tail from under the nearby chair. Momentarily suspending my project to get my hiking boots laced, I reach down and stroke her tawny coat—more fleece than fur—and am rewarded with a warm lick of my palm. Sheer bliss

(From Adventures with Ari: A Puppy, A Leash, and Our Year Outdoors by Kathryn Miles. Skyhorse Publishing, 2009).

I think Ari's entertaining me took a toll on her - or was it khonsuming the soupsikhle?

All I khan say is WOW! But don't take it from me....chekhk out THIS REVIEW

So, now that you've read what Ari shared with me...and the great review, I think woo owe yourself a khopy!

Would you like a khopy of your furry own??? Please khlikhk H E R E


Mom and I were extremely flattered and happy to have had the opportunity to introduce the BLOGosphere to Ari's Adventures!

Tank Woo Furry Much!

Hugz&Khysses,

Khyra and Her Mom Phyll