A Play Date At Ralphie's

Look at me!

I'm a wreck!  I'm a mess!  I'm a shadow of my former self!  And why?  Because I'm exhausted from last Saturday.  Allow me to explain.

On Saturday morning, Sister surprised me by asking Ralphie's mom if he was available for a play date and, as luck would have it, he was.  I don't need to tell my loyal readers how happy I was to hear this.  I haven't seen my pal Ralphie for nearly two years now!  He and I always have fun when we get together...we take turns leaning on people, we check out the now defunct pizza tree, and we make dog angels in the snow.  So anyway, an hour later, Ma, Sister, and I set out to Ralphie's house (and yes, I pretty much dragged Sister the whole two blocks).  Little did I know that there was an even bigger surprise waiting for me at Ralphie's house.

Twins (Archie On The Left)

I was greeted at Ralphie's front gate by a dog that was not Ralphie.  Turns out, the nine year old Golden Retriever that was barking at me from inside the gate was Archie, Ralphie's house guest.  Right away, I came to the conclusion that Archie was cool.  First of all, he's a Golden.  Second, he bears a striking resemblance to yours truly.  Yeah, I found out later that he's a bit of a people hog (he kept inserting himself between me and the humans who were obviously all hanging around to exclusively pet me), but I was okay with it because, ultimately, there were enough humans to go around.  

L to R:  Me, Ralphie, & Archie

So anyway, Archie and I ran around the front yard for a while which was an awful lot of fun.  Then Ralphie's mom went inside to get Ralphie.  That's when the fun really started.  Ralphie, Archie, and I took turns getting drinks from the water bowl (I kept sticking my foot in the bowl...why? why not!?), trampling the lone crocus growing in Ralphie's front yard, and begging for attention.

L to R:  Archie, Me, Ralphie

After an hour, Ma and Sister told me that it was time to go home.  I hated to go, but I had to admit that I was kind of tired (and yes, Sister was quick to point out that I was the youngest in the pack and the first to tucker out).  I said goodbye to everyone (Ralphie took an extra turn saying goodbye to Sister) and walked home (all the while wishing that we drove the two blocks rather than walked).

Totally exhausted from my play date, I decided that I'd devote the rest of the day to napping.  Unfortunately, Ma didn't get the memo.  No, she decided that that Saturday afternoon was the perfect time to give me a bath.  Truth be told, I knew that a bath was eventually coming my way--my family had been threatening me with one since January--but I didn't think they'd take advantage of my worn out state to tackle me, clean my ears, and hose me down in the driveway (they didn't even have the decency to take me to the doggy spa!).

Needless to say, I was quite annoyed by this and decided to voice my displeasure the only way I knew how: