long shadows

Back in the Sad Place, the season of long shadows came with bitter cold. The ground would turn hard and I would wake up to the white snow and angry winds. My feet would hurt and I had to stay inside my plastic barrel and wait for weeks and weeks until the shadows grew short again. Here in California, long shadow season is much kinder. The people complain about temp-er-a-tures "in the fifties" and tuck me in with extra blankets. That's very nice. I've never been so warm while waiting for the sun to come back.

contemplating comfort

I still hear the sounds in my dreams ... The barking dogs and the wind and the sound of my chain dragging through the dirt. Then I wake up and it's all different. I'm still getting used to it. It's good here.

my first visit .. INSIDE the HOUSE!

For something called 'thanks-giving' the Nice People said I could come inside the thing called the house to see where Elliot lived. WOW!

It was amazing! I followed Elliot everywhere and he showed me what houses were like.

<----- it was like THIS.

Every place in the house had soft places to sit and walk.

I got so excited for a minute that I forgot all about my favorite bush and peed, but Nice Mister said it was a good thing I peed on the hard floor rather than the soft places. I guess that was good.

Miss Sally was in the house place, too. WOW! She came over to see me and I had to stand very still and concentrate REAL hard..."Do not hump Miss Sally ... Do not hump Miss Sally ... Do NOT hump Miss Sally."

This part was extra good ... There's a big cold box-thing in the house that's full of food. FOOD!

Nice Mister opened it and it smelled like a hundred good things to eat. I wanted to spend more time looking inside, but I wasn't supposed to. I spent a lot of time waiting by the box because every now and then, the people would open it again and I'd get to have another look inside.

The people talked about me a lot when I was in the house. They said that they've never seen me smile so much. They said I was going to make a "perfect little house dog" for somebody.

I'll try my best to learn what I need to do to be a house dog because it's the very best place I've ever been in my whole life!

what? ... leave the barn?

I didn't know that doing the thing the people call "Sit" and taking treats out of their hands and being next to dogs without playing humpty dump was so important. I thought it was what I was supposed to do to make everyone like me. So I worked on it real hard.

I even learned how to hold my pee until we go outside since it seemed to make Nice Lady so happy when I did that. It was work, but I concentrated real hard on that and she showed me a special bush that I think about and squeeze while I wait for her to take me outside.

But now that I can do all these things, they want me to leave ... Ugh! They said that I'm ready to live in a house and be a "real dog" and learn what real dogs learn in the houses. I don't even know what a house is!

Maybe I should pretend that I don't know the new things so I don't have to move again? The people said not to worry - that no one had asked for me yet, but someday, somebody wonderful was going to find me and then I could finally start my life. This all sounds very exciting but scary. Who are the new people? Are they looking for me now? Will there be a special bush at the new place to pee on and food to eat? It's almost more than I can think about, so I'm going to go take a nap.

another rule! (this one's for Elliot)

My friend Elliot likes to put me in his mouth a lot when we play and my head fits almost perfect! I like being touched by ANYbody, so this is a fun game for me, but it makes the people sigh a lot and stop our games. They say we both need 'reminders' about nice play. I guess I'm not the only one who needs to learn new things. Geez - there sure seem to be a lot of dog rules in Cal-i-for-nia.

dog party!

Today was dog party day. It was a blast. A bunch of my new dog friends came out and spent time with me in the yard and we ran around until our tongues were hanging out.

I've been practicing my play time manners and the people said I'm starting to act like a real dog. I don't know what I was acting like before, but I really like being a real dog.

One of my new best friends is a dog named 'Lola' who looks a lot like me. She's got funny ears, though. While we were playing, I heard the people talking about me. I think they said that I'm almost ready to start looking for a new family of my own. I guess that means I've been doing a good job learning the important stuff that I came here to learn.

Here are some of my friends. It sure was a great day.

itchy itchy itchy

One of my favorite things to do is scratch my belly. Foster lady was impressed and took a movie of me when I was busy doing this. It feels so good. The people here tell me to stop, stop, STOP ... and I try - really I do.

I heard them say that I'm about to get "the treatment" because of the itch. They said I'm in 're-cov-er-y' from the place where I lived in the dirt. Today I got special wipes and a new friend rubbed cream on me that made my belly feel cold and quiet. I slept good after that. I heard that I'm going to get special food too. Special food!

I better keep itching since it makes everybody run around and try to fix me. I love that. Almost as much as I like itching.

I get to stay at the barn!

My friend from O-hi-o named Robin got to do something called 'grad-u-ate' to a place called a foster home today. Everyone seemed really excited about that, although I'm not sure why since it means he has to leave the barn and all his friends here. Good bye Robin.

My good news is that I didn't have to graduate! I get to stay in the barn!

I have important work to do here. The nice people smile at me a lot and say I need some "so-cial-iz-a-tion" with other dogs. I think that means I'm not supposed to play humpty-dump with the other dogs. I loooooove playing that game and used to do it all the time in O-hi-o.

But the people say we don't do that in California, and I have to learn new games. So my new friend is this big tall furry dog named Elliot. He's very kind and is showing me how to play with different rules. He's teaching me about "chase" games and "wrestle" games. When I forget and try to play Humpty Dump, my people remind me and we start over. In the beginning, we used to start over a LOT. I hope I can get this figured out so I can make everyone proud.

good-bye cone of shame

Last week, Nice Mister put something called 'the cone of shame' on me after I went to the veterinarian place. I got real sleepy there and when I woke up, it hurt to walk and I had this crazy thing on my head. Everything seemed wrong.

I couldn't get my ears scratched like I used to and the sounds that I heard were weird. I slammed into my people's legs a lot and had a hard time eating my food. Nice Lady said I was "depressed" in this cone, but all I know was that I felt sad most of the time that it was on.

Yesterday - WOOO! - the cone came off and I could hear and see like I used to. Even better, I could push my head up against the Nice People and get my ears rubbed.

The people said I was acting much happier and showing more of my per-son-al-ity now. I jumped up on the sofa and pushed my head into Nice Lady until she started to talk sweet to me. Then, everything got fuzzy and I was as warm and happy as I've ever been in my whole life.

I am Chunk. And it feels really good to be me today.

man boobs

Nice lady Berenice from a place called Animal Farm Foundation and Nice Lady Diane from the BADRAP place had to look me over before I could go to Cal-i-for-nia.

They laughed a lot when they e-val-u-ated me and said that I had "man boobs." Man boobs? ... Is that good? It must be, because it made them smile at me a lot.

I'm glad they decided to like me. Now I have to make sure and learn what all these new words mean. Here is a fancy movie of us at the o-hi-o place, before my big journey.

Note: The skin on Chunk's belly has been irritated from years of neglect .. Hence the swollen nipples. We're working on getting him better so we don't have to buy him a little Bro-Bra. :-)

how did I get here?

This guy here is my new friend, Nice Mister. Before I came to live with him, I lived in a place called o-hi-o. LOTS of other dogs were there with me - two hundred dogs! I lived outside and couldn't go too far because of a big chain that held me to my spot in the yard. Sometimes I got to chase things like butterflies, but mostly, I practiced running round and round and kicked up big dust storms in my spot.

One day, I got moved to a big barn in o-hi-o with all my friends. I heard something about "dog fighting charges" and "cruelty and neglect." Those are big words for me. I was just so happy that in this new place, I got food every single day. Food is GREAT!

This here is the man who took me off my chain and told me about Cal-i-for-nia. His name is Chris and he knows Nice Mister, so they both said it would be good for me to leave the Sad Place and go start a new life. So many people were talking nice to me that I figured something good was happening.

So this page is where I will tell you about Cal-i-for-nia and the dogs and people who live here. Thank you for reading about me. I had no idea I had so many friends who cared about little old me!