Dog-Sitting My Cousin Dakota

This is my cousin Dakota. Uncle Matt and Aunt Kiana asked Mom and I to dog-sit for them last weekend, so Mom and I stayed with Dakota at their house. We've dog-sat before, but it had been a while. I forgotted what it was like to have a big doggy around a lot.

Dakota is a silly, silly boy. You know what he did when we got to the house? He actually peed on my Mom! He was a little scared, I think, 'cause he didn't recognize us. He was probably missing his family, too. So when we got there and Mom went to pet him, he peed on her leg. Then he did it again and got Mom's other leg! Almost peed on her another time, but Mom jumped out of the way in time. I couldn't believe he did that. (It was a little funny, though.)

He sure liked sniffing me. All weekend long, he sniffed and sniffed my booty. I don't think he sees little doggies very much or something. I snipped at him once. I was just tired of the sniffing!

And he tried to steal my Mom just like Hossy does, too. Dakota kept sitting between Mom and me all weekend so that she couldn't pet me. He was actin' like he had to protect Mom from me, but that's just silly. I got jealous of him...but I think he was just jealous of me, too. At night-night time he jumped in the big bed with her. I just roamed around, checking out the house and stuff. I don't like big beds anyway. They're too high off the ground for me!

Dakota loves to play with balls. He has a little one that Mom threw for him lots and lots and he has this big one, too. Look at how he chomped a big hole in it from carrying it around! Anyway, Mom kept kicking this big ball for him and he'd chase it across the yard. They did that all weekend. While they were playing ball, I set off to explore the yard. Uncle Matt and Aunt Kiana have a really, really big yard with a fence around it. I had a LOT of stuff to check out and sniff!

Here's a picture of me checking stuff out while Mom and Dakota were playin' ball. Aunt Katie calls me a "free-range doggie" when I get to explore like this. (She said that when we were on our vacation in Galena. I did lots of exploring there.)

Look at how brave I was this weekend! Can you see me in this picture, all of the way down by the slide? I was a long, long ways away from Mom but I wasn't scared!

Each day, Mom said that we needed to go out and get the paper and check the mail, so we headed down the long lane to do that. Dakota and I loved to run out there, too, but Mom got after us if we ran too fast towards the road. She didn't want any cars to get us. We didn't see any, though, so I think she's just a worry-wart.

After we got the mail, Dakota and I had to wait for Mom to let us back in the house. I wanted to be first this time, so I jumped up on the porch before Dakota could get there!

We even went to Grandma and Grandpa's house while we were dog-sitting. I liked that. I got to ride in the front of the car like always, but Dakota had to ride in the back. My cousin Hoss was at Grandma's, too, so that was cool. I like Hossy, and Dakota and Hoss like to play together. That let me have some time with Mom -- since Dakota was playing with Hossy, he wasn't always stealing Mom from me. Mom took some pictures of all three of us in Grandma's backyard, but she didn't notice that Hossy was going poo when she did. (That's so funny!) So this picture is just Dakota and me. She wouldn't let me post the picture of Hossy going poo. He he he!

Mom and Grandma thought it was cool that we had three doggy cousins together in one spot. We were only missing Pheebs. She's Uncle Mark and Aunt Kari's pug doggie. If Pheebs was there, we would have had all of the cousins together!

Anyways, Dakota-sitting was cool 'cause I loved his big yard. I didn't like him stealing Mom from me, but that yard might just have been worth it for the weekend! I was really happy to get back home on Sunday. I walked in our door and then just fell asleep on my doggie bed in the living room. Mom said I didn't move for five hours!