Jingle has a lot of fun with her friend Gilda two doors down. They romp and play in Gilda’s big fenced in yard and she comes home happy and exhausted.

And in this weather, she also comes home dirty. Her paws are actually pure white under all that dirt.

That’s after being wiped off. It’s just caked on her. It looks like I might have to throw her in the tub.

Oh well.

The fun is worth it.

Sometimes life is messy.

Every morning, at 7:00AM sharp, Jingle leaves Riley’s room and sits in the doorway to our bedroom. She then begins to scratch. I don’t for one second believe she has an itch each day at 7:00AM. She does this to make her collar, well, jingle, in order to wake us up.

We open our eyes and slap the bed, giving her a signal, it’s time. She can join us. She jumps up, and the kids soon follow. Jingle is not satisfied until she is sprawled across the whole bed (she’s a long dog) and has a part of her body touching each one of us, after which, she basks in praise.

“Good girl!”

“Such a good girl!”

“You’re so beautiful Jingle!”

“What a gooooooood dog!”

We all pet her and love her. Most mornings in our house start this way.

She may have to wear silly t-shirts from time to time but seriously, it ain’t bad being her.

Here is Jingle sporting her new tag from Taglines. Jen at Taglines was so generous she added an extra tag for Jingle’s harness. I’ll post pics of that one after I find a bigger key chain round thing-a-ma-jig. The metals parts of Jingles harness are really thick and I can’t get it on with the small ring.

Todd took Riley to clay class this week and there was trouble. She’d missed last week because Seth was home sick and I couldn’t bring him along with a sore throat.  So, alas, she was behind. She melted. Todd tried to soothe her all the while calling for Jingle, who had been previously given the down command on her mat. Jingle didn’t come. Todd couldn’t believe it. Jingle is very obedient. It’s a small room, but visibility is blocked due to a big table in the middle of it. Especially if you are on the floor. Finally Todd got up from the screaming Riley, looked over and noticed a little boy had hold of Jingle’s leash, and he wasn’t letting go.

Little kids WANT that leash. It happens all the time. If I have her in a down, out in public, Jingle is great. She listens. I don’t need to hold onto the leash, but kids constantly come up and try to take hold of it. They’ll take it and pull her off the down command! At best, it’s annoying. On a day when you need Jingle to work, it is maddening.

This little boy is a sweet kid, who really likes Jingle.

I’ve let him hold her leash in class before. 

New rules.

Live & learn.

and I know you do,

head over to The Pioneer Women’s photography pages.

So many cute dogs, such beautiful photography.

Thank you so much to Jen at Fetching Tags for inviting Jingle to be part of the fun! Find out who won the competition for Jingle’s tagline here! 

Then, order a tag for your own four legged friend. You know you want to.