Chet's Excellent Birthday

Oh my goodness! It is me, in mocha! Am I allowed to eat the whole thing?

Chet started his birthday with a good game of dog basketball in the mild winter weather. Dog basketball involves trying to get a good enough grip on the ball to carry it, and eventually pop it. There is a lot of slobbering, grunting, pawing and growling involved. People are used to occasionally kick the ball for a good chase, and then the slobbering and grunting starts again. There is no scoring system, but whoever pops the ball wins.

This time of year, there are not enough hours in the day, or hours of daylight. Every time I look up at the clock it seems like it's past (lunchtime, dinnertime, bedtime).'Twas a big day. The Christmas book and print orders are pouring in, and I treat them like the work they are. Fielding the emails and filling the orders is a big job for a one-man band. Sometimes I wonder if it's going to get bigger than me, which is a pretty good problem to have. But everything stops for birthdays and holidays. Chet's birthday was a small, family affair, but it did not go unmarked.

Most of what we do for our dogs we actually do for ourselves. Including making him a rump roast with gravy and a very ugly homemade portrait cake for his birthday. Brace yourself: I know, he looks like a deranged cat, but it served the purpose and amused the kids. I don't think the Quilted Giraffe is going to call up here looking for a pastry chef any time soon. The cake was mostly for the kids; Baker got a tiny slice and a few filched pieces. In a bow to Chet, I made a yellow cake with a very light mocha icing, because chocolate (the birthday cake of choice around here) is bad for dogs.No it is not bad for dogs. That is just something veterinarians say so they can eat it all themselves. Will someone please do something about this fire on my cake?

Instead of chow, Baker got rump roast and green beans (he loves green beans). And he finished it off with birthday cake. He was only too happy to sit at the table, and to try to wheedle a little more cake out of his girl.

Presents included a barbecue bacon-flavored giant corn Nylabone (he LOVES this new line, which also includes a rack of nylon ribs). He has been working on his corn most of the day. Charlie also enjoys these Nylabones, as we have seen.

Another big hit was the six-foot Boodabone, which is likely to turn up in cotton threads all over the house for years to come.The appeal of this toy seems to derive from the joy ancestral dingoes and jackals (possible dog progenitors) take in dragging ungulate entrails around. I'm glad it's only cotton rope, if it's going to be dragged around the living room. I'm sure Baker would be happy to drag deer intestines around the living room if he could only find some.

It was a fun party. Baker knew he was the star, and he probably knows what "birthday" means now. Presents, rump roast, green beans, cake, and many kisses. Thus ends Chet Baker's second birthday.