Littlest Ninja and Me...

Here's a photo from this last August...of the littlest Ninja and myself! As you can see, I began my Ninja training quite early in life!




Well, Suzuki tagged me for this award, with these instructions: "When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to said person so everyone knows he or she is real. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have 7 friends. Show the 7 random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog”. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on!"

1) I am eight months old. (My first birthday will be on June 15.)
2) I am fearless (though I do occasionally exercise CAUTION).
3) I'm not quite as good a tracker as my sister, Gabby--but I've gotten a lot better! (And I am going to be getting special tutoring from a police canine trainer for search and rescue work. Tracking is like Gabby's ONLY talent, so it isn't surprising that she excels so dramatically at it...I, on the other hand, am extremely diversified in many talents! I'm no "one trick dog"!)
4) I can run faster than a speeding bicycle.
5) I can jump high enough to grab my toy off a branch that is almost 8 feet off the ground. (It's pretty awesome...I torpedo my body straight up like a dolpin.)
6) Standing on all fours, side by side with the hundred pound Newfie, I can jump sideways over her and pop right back again to my original position with utter ease. I have so much pent up energy that I just have to do a few hundred rounds of this sometimes to let a little of that energy out! I can also jump over the two smaller Ninjas. I bet I could jump over the bigger Ninja, too, but she is so intolerant of nearly everything FUN, that I haven't tried jumping over her. I NEVER jump ON anyone, though...that would be rude. I just leap happy circles AROUND them, over OVER them, but never ON them! Even with my graceful gazelle-like horizontal leaps (as opposed to to my vertical dolphin-like leaps), my head rises above the Spokespeople's with each bound.
7) I quickly capture and dispose of any mole anywhere near the vicinity of my territory. (Don't hold that against me, Bea Bea...it's my sworn duty and the first thing the Border Collie assigned to me when I first arrived. Now, fortunately, I am in charge of assignments, instead of that half-crazy Border Collie, but, since the taste of moles sort of grew on me, I have opted to keep THAT job rather than delegating it out!)
8) I have a "coyote" spot on the back of my right ear. It is a spot about the size of a nickle that is light brown (instead of black, like the rest of my ear is) and the fur in that patch is soft and LONG...lots, lots longer than any of the other fur on my ears...and it tends to stand straight up! My sister Gabby sniffs her haughty nose up in the air as proclaims it "bizarre", scraggy, and just plain horrible--but I think it gives me character! (Can you believe, Gabby's Spokesperson even asked my Spokesperson if she had considered shaving it off? Can you believe the nerve? What is with some people?!) ...I also have a small notch in that ear where GABBY got a little carried away when we were playing together. Gabby and her Spokesperson were both aghast at it, but, I thought it just added to the overall, "Better not mess with ME" look that I come by rather naturally, anyway!
9) I have a nifty reversible coat. If you pet me the "correct" direction, I am black as night, but, if you pet me the "wrong" direction I turn light brown! My guard hairs are black, but my undercoat is a soft brown. This is very handy during covert operations...I can choose which color will blend most closely to the environment I am sneaking through!
10) I live with two Spokespeople (one that says she likes me--emphasis on the "says" for a reason, if you catch my drift...the other Spokesperson doesn't even bother making the pretense of liking me), three fierce little Ninjas (the littlest one of which, at least, likes me--she is definitely the most sensible of the three!), a fiesty border collie mix (that sometimes likes me) and an amazingly boring Newfoundland mix (that never met anyone or anything she DIDN'T like...except maybe me when I am jumping back and forth over the top of her). I figure they are all stricken with some measure of personality disorder (except the littlest Ninja), as clearly evidenced by their strained attitude towards a dog as delightfully pleasant, refreshingly intelligent, and amazingly talented as myself. They need me, poor dears!

The border collie and I do all the work around here (even though she is a sneaky little varmint, I have to admit she IS an energetically hard worker). The Newfoundland just sleeps continually, except for mealtimes...even then, she is more likely than not to lay down to eat, resting her head in the bowl...utterly disgraceful! Honestly, it is a bit embarrassing being associated with the Newfie.

As you can probably easily imagine, I have to spend most of my time just supervising the other two dogs around here. I mean they NEED supervising! They say a picture is worth a thousand words...well, just look at our attempt at group photo shoot this morning and you will clearly see for yourselves that the Border Collie has a connivingly, sneaky mean streak and is more than just a little off balance...and the Newfoundland is about as springy as a wet mop (not to mention almost as bright as a box of rocks)...



*****************(Gloria, myself, and Rivendell)***********************
(I fear it is all too apparent which of the three of us is the most alert and has the strongest work ethic and the most intelligence...not to mention which of us is the most stunningly attactive. My heart goes out to my two less fortunate backyard companions...they can't help it that they were short-changed.)



I will admit that the Border Collie is pretty smart (we won't discuss the Newfie!), but, as you can clearly see just from these three photos, I am the only SANE one of the three. I have a LOT on my plate...supervising Rivie and Gloria AND keeping track of the three fierce Ninjas. But, I am up to the task!!!

Now, as to tagging seven other people, I'm picking on...
1) Khyra (from Khyra's Khorner)
2) Stormy, Dave and the other two (from Army of Four)
3) Marvin (from Return of the Hollow Hound)
4) Adopting 1 Soon (from Ethiopian Adoption Journey) (She is having surgery--today, I think--and would really appreciate our prayers. Fortunately, if she does meet an early demise, she has given her Blogger password to her dad so he can fill us all in on the horrifying details...so, either way, it should be really interesting reading over on her blog!)
5) Bae Bae (a spunky little hamster that I would NEVER, ever considering snacking on...even when the oldest Ninja forgets to fill my food pan...even though she looks so fluffy and delicious...much more delectable than those scrawny, flea bitten moles that occasionally tunnel under our fence...not that I have EVER thought about snacking on my dear friend Bae Bae for even a moment!)
6) Scruff (from the Adventures of Scruff the Wonder Dog)
7) Noemi (of Living the Florida Life)




August 2008 and a mere six months later!