The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Most dog owners grow accustomed over the years to the painful fact that these wonderful creatures are not blessed with long lives. Depending upon the breed, they average as little as eight, and...

It has become exceptionally clear over the years that as much as we give of ourselves to Cookie in terms of time, love, and care, she will always out-give us. It's the nature of her dog-ness, the...

Not long after Cookie had settled in, and I’d become infatuated with the idea of dog ownership, Mrs. G presented me with a slim volume entitled “101 Dog Tricks: Step by Step Activities to Engage,...

It’s a wet and windy afternoon in early November. I’m sprawled out on the sofa, and between my legs is a small blonde dog, flat on her back, legs up, ball in mouth, sound asleep. It occurs to me...

As every dog owner knows, we can learn as much or more from our fur brothers and sisters as they learn from us. It’s often noted how some of us actually come to physically resemble our dogs. But...

Over many decades I’ve been the proud parent of many cats but just one dog. And though cats are big-time nappers (who do you think invented the cat nap?) I don’t ever recall wondering if they...

One of my favorite comics features a genial mutt named Satchel. A recurring theme involves his housemate and nemesis, an arrogant siamese cat named Bucky, who encourages Satchel to eat (or at least...

There is one thing that gets Cookie-otherwise, the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)-repeatedly into big trouble. We call it the Walkabout. The word has fallen into general usage but initially referred to...

As chronicled in Chapter 16, August 27th was Cookie's tenth birthday-the Big One - O. Which translates, more or less, to age 64 in human terms. So if 60 is the new 40, that's not all that bad. It...

In about a week, on August 27th, Cookie will turn ten years old. I remember when I celebrated my tenth birthday, my main gift request – the thing I wanted most in the world—was a baseball glove....

Working from home has become so common, so ingrained in such a short time that it has already earned its own acronym – WFH. The Urban Dictionary defines WFH as “a concept where the employee can...

Next Stop – Hollywood Mrs. G and I have long believed that Cookie has that something extra that sets all celebrities apart from the rest of us. The “It Factor”—personality, pizzazz, and the...

Although Mr. B will always be Number One among all of Cookie’s (surprisingly numerous) possessions, there is another favorite pastime, not involving the ball, which is tug-of-war. Our discovery of...

Take me out to the ballgame In Chronicles #2 and #3 I introduced you to Mr. B, Cookie's lifelong companion, ward and wing man. And I may have mentioned that Mr. B generally hits the sack earlier than...

Nostradamus was a 16th-century mystic whose predictions of the then-distant future are still quoted in some quarters. His detractors, on the other hand, say that his predictions are so vague they can...

In my daily work as a wine reviewer, I pay particularly close attention to the scents of a wine and the finish of the wine. The better the heads and tails, front and back if you will, the better the...

(On The Road Part Four) Dawn came awfully early the day after Mr. B went tumbling down the ravine adjacent to our motel room. And I was kidding about rounding up crampons, carabiners and quickdraws...

(On The Road Part Two) Having hunkered down in our peaceful Nye Beach cabin after an exhausting first day on the road, we awoke to a bright winter sunrise and the sound of waves crashing on the shore...

(On The Road Part One) Mrs. G and I would be the first to admit that we are not RV people. But we do like long road trips. Just during the six year long process of moving out of a 2,400 square foot...

"Music soothes the savage beast" is a common expression with an uncommon history. It's a misquote from The Mourning Bride, a poem by William Congreve written in 1697, which opens "Musick hath charms...

Chapter Three – Mr. B N'est Pas Une Boule! Mr. B is the name we gave to Cookie's ball in a failed effort to keep her from going ballistic every time we said the word ball. But more importantly,...

I've concluded that there are really just two types of dogs - those who like playing with balls, and those who do not. From the first day we spent together, me tossing and Cookie chasing a ball...

The first book I ever read cover to cover was Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, and now, many decades later, it remains the best book I ever read. I mention this because the special relationship between...

I found the following "World Today" article listed on eBay, and I thought it was especially remarkable because Karen and I have talked about how interesting it would be if someone created a line of...