Dear Poppy,

These are my two best friends, Pickles, the giant, and Sophie, the shrimp. 

You sure do live a dog's life. Wish I could say the same. Life just seems harder in America. I too thought I was going to have a great weekend, after all, Puppaw must have thought it was Christmas last week when he came home with more treats than I have ever seen. I thought surely they would be generous with the treats over the weekend with so many in the house. But no. Just the same old rationing system. Why so stingy? I wonder. So, here's what happened during the weekend. Saturday was great. We all slept in a little and then we went to the house on the water. I walked right on to it without being carried by my life jacket. I did so because I did not think that my life jacked would hold if Puppaw tried to lift me over the water with it. So, we went to the water, came home, watched tv. All good stuff.

On Sunday, it got even better. We met auntie Mercedes and uncle Matt at the dog park and I played for hours and hours. My usual friends were not there, but I made some new ones. Then we had lunch outside because it's nice and warm out now. We did some furniture shopping and I jumped on a wonderful showroom bed. Mummy looked worried, so I got off right away. We were out all day long and I was exhausted. So exhausted that when I heard the inside rain, I didn't want to go play. Puppaw wanted me to go play in the inside rain, so I thought something was up. They grabbed me and soaked me and put soap all over me. I know I usually act like I like this, but I was tired and not in the mood for it at all. Then, they squirted some horrible liquid in my ears and cleaned out some gunk that was inside. Frankly, I'd been trying to scratch the gunk out for weeks, but it doesn't mean I wanted help. I must remember not to scratch when the two legs are looking. I should have known they would take matters into their own hands. That's why I leave my big warty wartison alone. Do you have any of those? I think they come from the dog park. Mummy tells me to put it away, because it's not attractive, but it's on my lip and sometimes I forget to keep it on the inside. I'm worried that mummy will take me to get it snipped off. It would surely hurt, don't you think? Anyway, back to the horrible ear cleaning. My ears were ringing all night and I didn't know what to do with myself. Mummy and Puppaw wanted to cuddle with me, because I am very soft when I'm clean, but who can relax with all the swooshing going on in my head. It is just horrible.

So, now it's Monday and I am all alone again. I will be naughty so my two legs feel bad for leaving me.

Lots of licks from your hard-working, American cousin,

Mugsy.