My friend, Shirley!

Shirley lives on the slope going down to the creek. She skitters about from place to place. She's one of my friends that doesn't like to get too close to humans or pups, but we have a mutual respect for each other. I sniff the groundcover outside our building and my nose can tell if Shirley's been there or not. She was nibbling on the agapantha flowers on Tuesday morning until she saw me. Then she headed for the trash bin shed to see what was there. We were pretty lucky to get a picture of her, but she stopped to say "hi" to me for just a second. She's the nicest squirrel I've ever met..in California, that is.

This week has been pretty uneventful so far. On Monday, Dirk came to visit and our moms let us have a brief sniffathon in the hallway. I am everly so fond of Dirk even if he is about 6 times my size. He's pretty nice and gentlemanly.

Then yesterday I went to Miss Cathleen's place with Mom, and got my tummy and paws all lotioned up. That feels so good. If you never had your tummy rubbed with nice smelling lotion, you ought to get your moms to do it for you. And your paws. I felt like a princess the rest of the day, and my tummy is oh so soft now.

Hmmmm....that's about it. Mom's so busy she's thinking seriously about turning down new work for a few days to give her a chance to catch up. And we have a new person coming in on Friday who maybe will help out part time. She's Mrs. Lillard's daughter home from college. You remember Mrs. Lillard, right? She's the one who calls before she comes over to make sure I'll be there.

Oh yes. And Mrs. Graff told Mom that my good friend, Buddy, went to the Rainbow Bridge. That was last week. I'm so glad I got to give him some loving before he left to keep him cozy on his journey. He was pretty old and sick, but he and I got some good time together in his back yard. At least at the bridge he'll be feeling his old self again. I'm so sad for Deacon, though, now that his friend is gone, he's all alone. Maybe I should go visit him?

Hope you all have a nice week. I'm just sort of bored, I guess. Everything is like "same-o, same-o". Think I have the summer blahs?

Love ya..

Mary-Margaret