Crow Pie

Well now, consarn it, can't a feller be wrong ever now and then? I mean, this ol' Pdog is just a regular critter like the rest of y'all, you know? I guess that extra long fall threw me off my form just a bit, confused me like, maybe. Mama Pdog is just makin' me miserable over it. Didn't even hibernate this year. Just stayed up and played with the pups 'til the snow hit and then had to wake me up to point out just how wrong I could be. Danged females anyway.

This Okie weather is one for the books. First, that derned Christmas Eve snow and now this dagnabbit Spring Blizzard. Makes me just feel foolish, don't you know? And I didn't get much shut-eye this winter neither. Pups tumblin' over one another, Mama Pdog off in a huff, last year's babies anxious to get out on their own--makes for one crowded Pdog hole, I can tell you.

But, I gotta say that the crocus was bloomin' in January and the birds was all come back from down south, so I weren't the only one to get it wrong. I tol' Ma that spring really did come early, it was just those cold snaps I predicted all got together to make me look bad.

She just asked me how I'd like my slice of crow pie.

Brrrrr....

Oh, man! This is just what happens when you don't get down to the business of hibernating early on. It has been just double-dog cold down the pdog hole. That extra long warm fall caught us all unawares, you know? Sunny days and warm nights. Couldn't pass up those extra seeds and grasses. Got plum fat. Mama Pdog had got all soft and round and I'll be darned if I wasn't feelin' pretty mellow, then Ouch! Down went them temps like a deflated balloon and here I sit wide-awake and freezin'. Shoulda sacked out when I had the chance.

Mrs. Pdog has taken a notion that she wants a Christmas tree like those two-legged critters up topside. Where does she get such foolish ideas, I wonder? She's drug in some sticks of red cedar and stuck some berries or something all over. Just makes me itchy. Think I've got me one of them prairie doggone allergies. Dang rash just under the fur. Makes me powerful testy.

Tol' the missus that she could stay up all winter if she had a mind to, but, me? I'm burnin' daylight and gotta hit the sack.

Y'all stay warm this winter, now. Drive careful when the ice hits. Always does, you know. I'll be up before that Punxsutawney fellow and tell you just what I think about next year's spring, but right now I'm takin' my itchy little body down deep and chasin' me a nap!

Uh oh--Where'd the Summer Go?

Gotta tell you, it's been a quiet summer down the pdog hole. Dern hot to start with. Just laid around and cooked for days. For sure, you could smell simmering pdog all round the town. Even the hawks headed for shade and we weren't too sure but the end was on its way.

'Course I told folks they didn't have to worry. All things pass, even scorchers under the sun. And sure enough, we've got them autumn rains freshenin' up everything now. Roses are puttin' on their last flashes of bloom and the grasses are growin' tall and sweet. It's a good time, time for takin' stock, you know? Totin' up the summer and checkin' the storerooms.

I'm telling you, this ol' boy didn't get a whole lot done this year. Gotta get after it now to make it through the winter. All of us workin' together. You gotta keep together if you want to make it through the tough times, you know. Watch those skies and look out for one another.

You never know what the weather's going to do.

Whoa, Nelly!

Tornadoes in February? Who'd a'thought it? Man! when I called up an early spring, I didn't figure on this! Mama Pdg is enjoying the crocus and tells me the daffodils are not only up but getting ready to bloom. What'd I tell you?

February 5th, the way you folks reckon, some time in the night, spring came tippy-toeing in. I felt it down in the burrow, slipped up topside and smelled it coming, wet and warm and early. The birds come in that night, the robins and the doves and those dang grackels. Dove song makes me misty, but those dang grackels just give me the calf back shivers.

Don't you get all excited and put out those tender plants yet, though. This is Oklahoma, don't you know. There's still cold weather ahead and, I'm tellin' you--watch out for that late freeze. It'll get you every time!

Karaoke, Anyone?

Oddest thing happened the other day, before all the ice came in--when it was still a warm Okie January day. There's this feller comes over to the pdog holes and sets out little microphones. We all wonder what the heck he's up to. Keep real quiet down below. You never know what kind of fool trap some of them human critters is going to come up with next. Don't want to end up in some pet store cage, y'know?

Anyhow, didn't seem too threatening, so we checked it out, talked it over, played with it a bit. Thought we might get up a quartet or two and try howlin' at the moon like the coyotes, but decided that might not be the best idea a pdog could come up with. The guy came back just before the ice came in. Guess he'd listened to his radio and figured he'd better collect his gear.

Come to find out, those human critters are studying our lingo! Imagine that? There's this Slobodchikoff feller out at Northern Arizona University who's researching our system of communication. Thinks we're smart! Huh! Coulda told him that if he'd come around these parts.

Sure wish now we'd got that quartet together.

**yawn**

What a summer we had. Gotta admit we stayed hunkered down during the campaign season. Too many human folks up and down knockin' on doors, comin' and goin'... Big doin's for the country. Hope things turn out for you.

It was long and hot for Pdog folk. Just our kind of weather. But now, we're ready to tuck it in for the winter. Been cross as a snake ready to slip its skin--it's that time of year. The wind's up today. Dern near picked up Mama Pdog and carried her off. Testy as I've been lately, I mighta just watched her go... But, naw...that's just temporary cussedness...it'll pass. I 'spect that wind is going to blow in one powerful storm.

Think ice.

You human animals don't have the sense of Pdogs. Ya'll ought to just shut it down and sleep through the bad stuff--get after it again come spring. But, no, you just keep on keepin' on. Better lay in some provisions for next week though. My bones tell me we're in for a real cold snap just before Christmas.

Ya'll take care.

Rainy Day

Well, I've lollygagged through March and April, just can't seem to get my get-along to get along. Still pretty sleepy from this chilly spring we've had. But things are lookin' up. Lots and lots of wheat to eat--and tall enough to hide us little critters from the bad eyes in the skies. Rain today all over the state, I've heard tell. It's off and on here by Hennessey. Good day to lay back and take stock of life.

When you're a Pdog, life can be purty tenuous, you know? Ten of them, not enough of us. Ever' body and ever' thing is out to get you. Farmers and cowmen and athletes don't like the holes. Owls and hawks and durn fool kids want to catch you up and take you to dinner, or worse (leastwhys them kids). You'd think we'd be a pretty new-rotic lot--scared of our own shadow like our cuz, ol Puxatony Phil.

But you just gotta roll with the hard knocks, you see. Gotta keep your little Pdog feet under you, duck into the burrow when time's are bad, graze on green things when you can, enjoy the pups playin' round your feet. They's new pups ever year. New babies to get to know. Ever' one different, ever' one a promise. And old friends down the way. Ever' body watchin' ever'body else's back--looking for that hawk in the sky and just cussin' the weather and laughin' together.

We've all been around here a bit, been together in this here last little Pdog town in K County a long time. We're easy with one another. Know who the hotheads are. Know the wise ones. The silly ones. The loners and the compatriots. We don't got no losers here. The yips and barks are easy to hear, 'cause we've heard 'em since we was born.

So, let it rain in Oklahoma today. Let the water come drippin' down into the Pdog hole. Let ol' mom snap and fret at the pups. I got my feet up and my head back and my belly full and life is good.

Yes, sir and madam, life is durn good.