Dogs don’t really think about time too much. As you’ve probably figured out by now, linear time isn’t really our thing. When dad tells me to “stay” it can take a solid week before he says, “OK,” even though he swears it was only 15 seconds. When mom leaves for the store, she’s always gone for about a month even if she’s home in an hour. Then again, snuggle time at night can last all night and still be over in a couple of minutes. I guess that’s why dogs don’t wear watches.
Anyway, imagine my surprise when I found out I was having a birthday, and that it meant I’d been around for a whole year! That’s at least a week! Maybe even several hours! Definitely a reason for a party.
Look how much I’ve changed! The picture on the left was taken as we drove home after leaving my practice mom & dad on the first day. The picture on the right was on the eve of my birthday.
If you’re new to my stories, here’s where it all began.
As it turns out, the Kansas City Royals ball park decided to honor me by having a “bark in the park” night where anyone could bring their dogs to the game! A ton of people showed up! A lot of people there were confused and thought they were attending a Kansas City Royals baseball game, but I barked and pointed out that it was really all about me.
We went with other members of the Kansas City Dog Club, who organized a little tailgate party prior to the game just for fun.
There were a LOT of dogs in the ballpark. When we first arrived and found our seats, I had to sit on dad’s lap. Apparently the ticket agent screwed up and “My” seat was in a totally different section, way, way far away from mom and dad’s seats! Dad said, “what am I supposed to do, tell him to go to his seat and meet back here after 7th inning stretch?” I mean I’m training and learning stuff all the time, but that might have been tricky. And who would hold my seat if I need to go get a beer or a hotdog or something?
So after sitting all cramped on dad’s lap for a few minutes, we jumped rows and took over some seats nobody was using. There I had my own seat and was much more comfortable.
I watched the game as closely as I could. Baseball, in my furry opinion, is a weird game. It’s basically an elaborate game of catch. A guy in the middle throws the ball to a guy squatting down by a fence. Normally that would be an easy catch, but there’s another guy from the other team there with a big stick, and just before the squatting guy can catch it, he tries to smack it back out on the field.
Most of the time, the squatting guy catches the ball and throws it back to the guy that threw it; but, sometimes the guy with the stick hits the ball and it goes way out in the field. (Or up into the audience. They don’t seem to be very consistent about that.)
Here’s the weird part. If the ball flies out in the field, everyone cheers if the person who tries to catch it MISSES. If they catch it, hardly anyone cheers. Hello? Isn’t the point of playing catch to actually catch the ball?
Anyway, if the guy in the field misses he runs to grab it because the guy with the stick has no patience and will already be running into the field. I think that’s because he knows the guys in the field are going to play more catch and he has to stop them. Then the guys in the field usually give in and try to give him the ball back by throwing the ball straight to the place he’s running. There’s another guy there waiting for the runner guy to arrive, and he’ll try to be nice and catch the ball and hand it to the runner, but he never takes it. I saw one runner actually throw himself into the dirt to avoid taking the ball that was RIGHT THERE for him! Sometimes they even touch him with it, and he just walks off like they did something wrong by trying to be nice.
It’s so bizarre. Just play catch like normal people huh?
A couple of days later my actual birthday arrived, and we had cake! I tried to act surprised, but I was actually with dad when we stopped at the dog bakery and bought it, so I knew it was coming.
It was still yummy. It’s all made with human food-grade stuff, and the frosting is some kind of yogurt. I even caught dad sneaking a bite of it!
Oh, we also didn’t have the cake at home; instead, we took it to our favorite pizza place and we all had birthday cake out on the patio. (Well, mostly Raven and I had the cake. Mom and dad had pizza, but we might have had a bite or two of that as well. 🙂 )
The lady at the pizza place took my picture with my cake and put it up on their Facebook page. I’m going to be famous!
On Saturday we capped off my birthday week with at party at Transparent Brewing with the KC Dog Club.
I had my own “Dusty’s 1st Birthday” event and everything. You see, this brewery has their own attached dog park, so the humans can get a beer and the dogs can play! Now that’s a business model I can get behind.
I think they said 15 dogs and 19 people showed up! It was quite a party. Someone was breaking up treats and throwing them out in the grass for us to find, and then dad got out some oatmeal/blueberry snacks we also got at the dog bakery, and we gave them out to all the dogs.
Afterward, we went to the brewery patio and I got to be cute and meet people while mom and dad and their friends had dinner. Their friends even brought a gift bag for me with a card and a couple of toys in it. (Apparently I’m supposed to share one of the toys with Raven. I’m still trying to find a way out of that.)
But wait, there’s MORE!
On the way home we decided that a birthday isn’t complete without ice cream, so we stopped at Andy’s. The line of cars was really long at the drive-up, so we walked up to the window and ordered on the patio. Lots of people said we were adorable while we were waiting, and then we sat on a bench and ate our “pup cups” of vanilla while mom and dad ate their cups of chocolate poison-infused glop.
So birthdays are fun! I think I’m going to have another 1st birthday next year! Or next week? I’ll probably be ready for more cake by then.
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