Molly And The Balcony

Molly had her first balcony experience yesterday afternoon. I decided to be brave and let her outside on the balcony and about that time her fleabag buddy from downstairs walked by. Molly barked, growled, and carried on and the fleabag looked at her with the greatest indifference in the world. I talked to the owner of fleabag, Nosy Old Bat, and she was pretty cool about it but what was she going to do? It seems like Molly would soften up with old age but I guess that is too much to hope for. This is our 200th post on Molly's World and we, to this point, only have one loyal reader and a few visitors that occasionally stop by but we are not trying to start a fan club like Giant George because that much press and attention would really bring out the Diva in Molly.

Wake Up So I Can Go To Sleep

Molly hates thunderstorms. I believe even more than she hates the fleabag that lives on the first floor. We had our first real bad thunderstorm of the spring the other night. I had just gone to bed. The thunder had not even died down yet and Molly appeared beside me faster than the lightning outside.

Normally Molly sleeps at my feet or on the floor. Not during a thunderstorm. She has to make sure I am awake so she can sleep thru the storm. I guess I am supposed to stand guard or something. She makes sure that she keeps me awake with several licks on my arms and getting in my face if she has to. It must have worked that night because I didn't sleep much that night and she slept like a baby.

Molly Meets The Boston Terrier

Molly has started to meet various dogs around the neighborhood and tonight she ran into the Boston Terrier from up the street. I had seen him around before but that was the first time we had ran into him face-to-face.

My posts are starting to sound like headlines at a professional wrestling event. I can see Molly running up to the Boston Terrier and laying him out with a dropkick and then an elbow drop. If the Terrier got up from this combination I think Molly would follow with a creative move invented by me and my little brother, the Flying Double Butt Kick. I think that would be the clincher.

To avoid such confrontation, I hustled Molly into the apartment so he could finish his walk.

Molly The Mountain Climber

I took Molly on a walk this morning and I decided to cut down this trail down a hill to get to the pond and it wasn't the best idea I had all day. Molly cuts down thru there like she is on a mission from God and the hill was much steeper than I thought it was.

When Molly starting pulling me down the hill, momentum got the best of me and if the two trees weren't there to break my headlong rush down the trail, it could have gotten ugly.

Molly was navigating it like Mount Everest and when she slammed on the breaks, she stopped on a dime. She didn't do me any favors, as I left shoe rubber and the skin off my fingers on the trail and on those trees.

Molly And The Early Wake Up Call

It is a rare occasion when I sleep past 5 AM much less sleep late on the weekends like most normal people. Once I am up, whether it be 2:30 AM or something a little bit later, I usually do not go back to bed. I will take cat naps throughout the day, but I never go back to bed for an extended period of time.

In spite of the fact that I took Molly out at Midnight last night, she still woke me up at 4 AM this morning to go out. I do not see how that dog makes it 9 or 10 hours a day when I am at work and yet she can only make it 4 hours maximum when I am at my apartment.

I was so tired this morning, I vaguely remember taking her out this morning but she must have had to go real bad because she didn't smell every bush in a sea of bushes like she normally does before she went about her business this morning. I came back in and went back to sleep for three more hours before I got up for good this morning. When I got up at 7 AM, Molly still needed out.

Molly Meets Beethoven

I am sure most everyone has seen or heard of the movie Beethoven about the St. Bernard and his family. There are all of these little St. Bernard puppies running around and wreaking havoc to the merriment of all.

Molly got to meet one of Beethoven's puppies yesterday and he was just as cute as advertised although Molly was not impressed. The St. Bernard puppy belongs to the Head Maintenance guy at the apartment complex and I had seen him walking the little guy around on the leash for about the past week or so.

Our Maintenance guy drives around in this golf cart to make his rounds and yesterday Molly had just got thru doing her business around the front corner of the complex when the Maintenance guy pulls up in the golf cart with the St. Bernard sitting beside him. The dog was just so cute sitting there.

Molly takes one look at him and starts off in her boxers stance, and the puppy looks at her and starts barking at her except it was a baby bark. Molly did not know what to do and she did something she rarely ever does and that is start barking back. Normally she just growls. The puppy sat there like he owns the place. In a way I guess he does. He gets to ride around in the cool golf cart and has access to the whole complex. Thats right, Molly hates him and all his cuteness.

Molly Gets Mugged

We were out at 3:30 the other morning doing our usual pre-work walk. We took a longer walk than normal because we walked the lower and upper end of our apartment complex and we were heading back to our building when I looked over and saw the gargantuan white dog out with his owner ("A Man and His Horse"). All I saw was the dog because the owner was blocked by a garbage dumpster and a large bush.

About the time I looked over, the big white dog saw us and immediately trotted over in our direction. I did not know what his intention was and I was really not that anxious to find out. He did not give me much of a choice.

I had Molly on her leash like he should have his dog on his. The dog went right around me and was all over Molly but not really in an aggressive fashion or else he would have had her for lunch. Molly is not a small dog but this dog towered over her and she did not know how to react. He was just on top of her and Molly started growling but it was a scared kind of growl.

The owner took his own sweet time getting over there and he mumbled "Sorry" and pinned his dog to the ground. I hustled Molly away from the scene and into the apartment and headed back downstairs to talk to this guy. He disappeared.

I went back inside and Molly was kind of beat down by the whole experience which I do not want that. We went back out a little bit later and she had shaken it off by then.

Leash laws exist for a reason and I would like to think that I can walk my dog in relative safety and I want to impart this piece of wisdom on my ownership impaired neighbor. Be a responsible pet owner. Put your dog on a leash.

A Good Walk Wasn't Spoiled

Sports Author John Feinstein penned "A Good Walk Spoiled" about life on the PGA Tour. Golfers should take a dog with them and the walk would not be spoiled. It would be nice and slow, maybe even relaxed, and it would definitely redefine stop and smell the roses.

I took Molly for an Easter walk this morning after I came home from work and it was very fitting for a religious occasion. We were able to commune with nature and it was so quiet and peaceful.

We walked down the hill to the pond and I decided to take a shortcut down the hill and thru a small patch of woods. It was a well worn trail but because of all of the recent rain, the footing was a little bit treacherous, at least for me. Molly walked down the muddy path like a billy goat.

There is a dogwood on the far side of the pond that is big and beautiful and in full bloom. When the sun is out and you stand across from the dogwood, it has a perfect reflection in the pond. The resident duck was floating around on the upper portion of the pond but his mate wasn't with him. I hope nothing has happened to her.

We also talked with the fishes and the frogs, the birds and the bees, and we made it back to the apartment. It was a good walk and befitting of An Easter Sunday morning.

The Spirit Of Easter

Molly decided to get into the Easter spirit a day early this year. I took her out for her usual 5 AM walk this morning after only getting about three hours of sleep but I am used to that part of my life now. By sleeping all day, Molly more than makes up for the sleep I don't get.

While we were out on our walk this morning, we ran into the neighborhood stray cat. I don't know if he is a stray just an escapee, but the feline fleabag struts around the complex like he owns the place.

A brief chase ensued with Molly hot on his large, gray tail and me tethered to Molly by her pink leash, when all three of us ran into a rabbit. The rabbit was trying his best to mind his own business and remain as inconspicuous as possible but that just wasn't meant to be.

After a very brief period of chaos, the scene turned into a four party chase. The rabbit, the cat, Molly, and I all went tearing across the parking lot and into the grassy knoll where Molly and I got left in the dust and sucking wind.

Molly and I have kind of let our physical condition deteriorate and we retired from the chase scene a few years ago. Molly likes to come out of retirement once in a while when instinct kicks in but reality usually kicks in shortly after that. Since it is Easter, Molly and I hope the rabbit made a clean get away.

Walking In The Rain

Molly does not like the rain. At all. This morning she had no choice but to make an exception. It rained all yesterday afternoon (luckily it slacked off enough for her to do her business) and was raining steady when we got up this morning.

I put on my Indiana Jones hat and raincoat and I leashed Molly up and out the door we went. We got to the bottom of the steps and she started whining a little bit. She took a few steps out into the rain and she tried to turn around but I wouldn't let her. It was now or never because I didn't like it any more than she did.

Molly has that nice down undercoat that keeps her skin fairly dry but she hates it when it rains in her face and on her ears. She squints her eyes and lays those ears back to try to keep them dry. We made it the length of the sidewalk and I actually had to make her come in. She picked up the scent of something and forgot all about the rain.

A Man And His Horse

Molly woke me up about 3:30 AM this morning to go out which is a little later than she normally does which I was thankful for. I got my clothes on and I went to the balcony to test the temperature to see if I would need a jacket or not.

I look out across the balcony and into the parking lot and I see a large, solid white dog and his owner in the light of street lamp. The owner looked like he was stretching to go jogging or something. He probably could have rode the dog rather than jogged. I am guessing the dog is a Great Dane.

I was hoping he would see me and Molly come out and politely go the other way. Instead the guy was playing fetch with his dog in the parking lot. That raised a couple of issues for me. The dog is supposed to be on a leash at all times and I am guessing that is why he was out that time of morning because nobody else would be. That was the first time I had ever seen them out that time of morning.

Molly usually growls and woofs at other dogs but she took one look at this horse and never made a sound. Molly is a smart dog. The size of the dog also made me worry about mine and Molly's safety. He was off his leash and I have no idea if he is aggressive or not. He ran over near us a couple of times but never paid us any attention. I took Molly over into "our" corner, Molly did her thing, and we came back inside.

Fill My Bowl

Molly has been quite demonstrative recently about me making sure her food bowl is full at all times. When her food bowl reaches the maximum state of emptiness, she pats it rather furiously and if that isn't immediately recognized, it is followed by short and loud barks.

Molly has even gone so far as to turn her bowl on its side, and roll it over to me so I could fill it. It reminds me of the scene out of the Snoopy comic strip where Snoopy takes his food bowl in his mouth and goes and kicks Charlie Brown's door. If you are going to be hungry, do it with style!

Summer Is Early

Molly sits at the keyboard again to post this entry.

Dan took me for a walk as soon as he got home today like he always does but it was so hot. It just sapped the energy away from me. Some of the Ankle Biters from across the parking lot were out and I didn't even have the strength or the energy to fight with them.

I am a cold weather dog. I love a nice, cold morning to where I can run and rip and chase things. I can feel the cold down in my fur but I am still comfortably warm. We skipped right over winter this year and went straight from fall to spring.

I also love the snow. I love playing in it and sticking my nose way down in it and touching the grass. I love the way the snow feels on my nose and I can taste it with my tongue. I love the way the wind blows in so many smells from all across the neighborhood. The winter is Nirvana for me! Now I have to wait about 7 or 8 more months....

Molly Finds Some Weed

I came home from work early this morning and decided to take Molly on a walk down by "Old Man Kelsey's Pond." (For the uneducated that is a reference to a scene involving Ernest T. Bass from the Andy Griffith Show).

We had been out for about 15-20 minutes and we walk down by a stand of bamboo at the end of the lake. Molly is nibbling on some grass and stuff like she always does and she starts nibbling on this plant. She is spending longer than normal on this plant while I am trying to urge her to move on to something else.

I take a look at this plant and I am thinking this looks oddly familiar. It has 5 leaves, it is shaped in a particular pattern, and I am thinking "I wonder....."

Since I am not familiar with marijuana growing in its natural habitat or what it looks like in a sandwich bag, I took a picture and sent it to a female friend I work with who is more familiar with marijuana in both of its states. For the purposes of this blog, we will call her the Pothead Hooch.

Within a few minutes her reply came back and it was "Poison Ivy." She must have taken a second look before I could respond and texted me again and said "Wait a min..." Upon further inspection she wanted me to "Dig that shit up and plant it in a pot with Miracle Gro!" My answer was "and put it on my balcony right?" Molly wanted me to invest in some rolling papers after she got some snacks and for some reason she slept most of the morning.