My daddy and I love to take long walks together.  It is one of the highlights of my day.

When we were out at Stephie’s house, we would get up early every morning and start our walk by walking with Garrett and Lillian down to the bus stop.  I would get so excited when I would see Garrett and Lillian in the morning.  Daddy and I would get up early in the morning and walk from our house on wheels up towards their garage door and wait for them to come out.  When I saw them, my tail would start wagging so fast and so hard, I sometimes thought that my butt might fly off, but luckily, it hasn’t yet.  You can tell that I’m really happy when I’m wagging my tail so hard that my butt is flying around too.  When they see me wagging my butt and tail like that, they get really happy too!  They start smiling from ear to ear and say, “Good Morning Youkie!” and start petting me and then I just get more and more excited after that.  I love when people pet me!

This is the morning that mommy joined us to walk to the bus stop.

Once we get down to the bottom of the driveway, we meet Michael.  He goes to school with Lillian and Garrett.  He gets a big smile on his face when he sees me too.  One morning, he was sitting on his book bag and I snuck up behind him and gave him a big kiss.  That really made him smile.  He got up and started petting me right away.  He was petting me really hard too.  I like when people pet me lie that.  I like it so much that every part of my body starts wagging!  It is so awesome and feels great!

After I make sure that everyone is smiling and happy, daddy and I stand there with all of the kids for little bit.  Then I start to make my rounds to each of them so that they can all pet me one last time before they head off to school.  That helps to put an even bigger smile on their faces before they get on the school bus.  After that, Daddy tells them all to have a good day, and we start our walk.  We walk a little bit down the road and the school bus passes us.  The driver waves and smiles when she goes by us.  I can even brighten people’s days when they drive by me.  I have a special power like that, you know.  I can make people get big smiles from close range or far away!

Daddy had found a few neat long routes for us to walk up there in Perry County.  They are all neat routes.  They have a bunch of hills and all kinds of neat things for me to smell.  I love to stop and smell things.  I really like flowers, they smell good.

I really like to take my time on a walk, sometimes Daddy wants to rush and I don’t know why.  I often think to myself, “We live in a house on wheels, man.  What’s your hurry?”

I do convince him to slow down and take his time though.  I’ll never understand what the big rush is for anyway?  Most of the humans that I have met in my life always seem to be in such a big rush and I can never understand why.  Humans need to be more like dogs when it comes to that sort of stuff.  Stop rushing around and slow down so that they can take some time to stop and smell the flowers, or really anything else for that matter.  Flowers are the best thing to smell, but if you want to stop to smell the grass, or dirt, or poop, that’s ok too as long as you slow down and take the time to smell something.

What fun is life if you’re always in a hurry and don’t have time to enjoy the little things?

One of the reasons why my mommy and daddy bought our house on wheels was to start to slow down and enjoy their lives.  It took me almost 11 years to make them understand that and I’m finally starting make some progress with them.  Humans can be so stubborn sometimes.  Mommy and daddy are no different, they are tough nuts to crack at times.  Just when I think that they’re starting to make some progress, then they seem to want to rush somewhere else.  Then I have to step in again and make them understand that life is to be enjoyed.  All of these big things that everyone gets all worked up about are really just a million little things that stack on top of each other to make up the big things.  If you’re not paying attention to the little things, the big things won’t ever come together.

Some of the little things that I love the most are family, connection to God, friendship, love, nature and naps.  I love my naps.  I love my snacks too.  I also love breakfast and dinner.  I love my walks too.  Those are some of the best times of the day for me.  The other best time of the day for me is anytime that I’m with my mommy and daddy.

Every day when I first wake up, I am so happy to open my eyes.  My first thought is, “Thank you God for giving me another day with my mommy and daddy!”  My second thought is, “When am I going to eat breakfast?”  After that, I walk right over to my daddy and nudge him with my cold nose and say, “Good morning daddy, when are you going to feed me breakfast?”  I can’t get over to my mommy’s side of the bed easily, so I have to keep nudging my daddy with my cold nose.  If he doesn’t get up, then I jump onto the bed and try to get mommy up to feed me my breakfast.

I’m so excited every morning because I know that I’m about to eat breakfast.  That is so exciting for me!

There are some mornings though that once I jump up on the bed and get in between my mommy and daddy, I decide that I just want to lay down and snuggle with them instead.  As much as I love my breakfast, I love my mommy and daddy more.  If I get a chance to snuggle with them in the morning, I’m definitely going to take advantage of it.  Those are the days when breakfast can wait a little bit.

I just love every day of my life.  It’s such a great life.  I mean how many other dogs get to travel around in a house on wheels with their mommy and daddy?  Man, do I have it good.  I thank God every day for my awesome life!

My brothers, Buddy and Tucker, and my sister, Cheyenne were all the same way.  They all just absolutely loved life too.  I miss them so much and sometimes wish that they were traveling around with us in the house on wheels too.  I mean how cool would that be?  My mommy and daddy and all four of us dogs traveling around in a house on wheels.  Wow, that would be the only thing in the world that would be cooler than me and mommy and daddy traveling around in our house on wheels.  But it just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.  Buddy and Tucker and Cheyenne had to go to heaven so that they can be in front of us in the house on wheels and making sure that the path ahead of us is safe.  Those are our roles, they go ahead of us to keep us safe and I keep teaching mommy and daddy to slow down and enjoy life.

Buddy and Tucker and Cheyenne always taught me to be grateful for the little things.  They also taught me to enjoy every moment in life.  I don’t really like any other dogs now, but from what I’ve noticed, all dogs really know how to love and enjoy life.  Even if I don’t like them, all dogs do seem to have this “slow down and enjoy life” thing figured out.

I just don’t understand why humans aren’t more like us dogs.  Why can’t they understand that you just need to slow down and really embrace the little things in life.

Even my daddy, who has made incredible progress over the past few years, still gets caught up in the hustle and bustle at times.  I know that he’s still a work in progress.  I can tell when he’s in a hurry on our walks or if he’s worrying about something that he shouldn’t be in.  That’s when I have to step in and make him slow down again.  On those days, I stop more often.  He starts to get a little aggravated with me and says, “Youk, let’s go!”  But I don’t change my pace at all.  He’s just going to have to get over it.  If anything, I slow down even more.  I need to make sure that my daddy slows down.  I’ll stop and smell even more flowers, dirt, grass, and anything else that I find even remotely interesting.

It’s working.  Change is slow, so I have to be patient with my mommy and daddy, but they are making some progress.  They might slip up at times, but they’re getting there.

I just have to keep teaching them to slow down and enjoy the little things.