You’re 3 (or 21) today, Coco Jo! You have brought more joy into two middle-aged lives than you could possibly imagine. And, thank goodness for your Aunt Laura….or we would be saying “Happy Birthday Sparky” today. We love all of your dogiosyncracies — your habit of turning your nose up at tasty tidbits, your dislike of the cold & snow (you got that one from your mom), and your love for the UPS guy. We’re so glad we have you in our lives!
Coco’s response when I told her she was getting a haircut this week.
Coco has a lot of passions in life. More than I do, if you really want the truth. Her latest way to pass the time involves spending time at the beach. At first, she wasn’t quite sure that she was down with the whole ’sand’ thing and the whole ‘water’ thing, but once her beloved ball was thrown into the sand and water, she decided she was completely down with the whole beach thing, sand and water included.
Here, she’s making her way through the beach grass. She just loves it when the grass is taller than she is.
Here, she braves the mighty waters of Lake Michigan. BTW, this is as far as she’ll stick her toes in. If her ball lands in the surf, she looks at us as if to say “you don’t think I’m going in after that thing, do you?”
A little beach nap is always welcome on the perfect beach day.
And, finally, just to make you jealous that you’re not spending your summer in northern Michigan, here’s a photo of the view from the beach. Hard to take, isn’t it?
To those of you who shake your heads sometimes at the things that we do with and for our dog, Coco, I say to you: you are completely right. Two years ago, we took a dive off the cliff of sanity into a world of, let’s just be frank about it, ridiculousness. Ridiculosity. You know what I mean. As my mom would say, we need to have our heads examined.
So, here’s the thing. We live in Traverse City and, believe it or not, we have access to the meat from a herd of buffalo owned by the Oleson’s. Ground buffalo is really delicious and lower in fat than regular beef, so we have burgers from it pretty regularly. And, this year, we made a baby burger…for our little baby. The funny thing is that Little Miss Precious Perfect wasn’t really interested at first. She sniffed her usual delicate sniff, disapproved, and moved away. And, then daddy (this is where it gets ridiculous) cut up her meat for her into small little Coco-sized niblets. To which she responded: “It’s just right”. And proceeded to snarf it up.
This little lap dog of ours loves a good hike in the woods. There’s something about the freedom of being off the leash, the smell of a thousand stinky things, and the rustle of of a plump chipmunk that just gets her blood going. If she could smile on these walks, she’d be grinning from ear to ear.
On Sunday, we took her for a “stroll” on the Whaleback Trail, near Leland. It’s a beautiful trail that leads uphill to an even more beautiful surprise.
Surprise! A new vineyard halfway to the top….
Almost to the top….
Finally…the view that makes it all worthwhile!
