Tatum Tot Spice

My brother Levi is getting old, and he doesn’t like to walk up and down the stairs anymore. And so the Mum and the Dad (well, mostly the Dad) build this cool ramp for him so that he doesn’t have to go down or up the back yard stairs anymore.

The Dad built the ramp and then the Mum looked at it and said that it wouldn’t do. Because it was pretty high off the ground and she was afraid we would fall off. Well I wouldn’t fall off, but Levi might ’cause he’s kinda a dork. So then the Dad pup up sides on the ramp so nobody would fall off.

It took us all a while to realize that we couldn’t go around the ramp anymore to go up the stairs. But I figured it out really fast. It took Levi about three days to figure it out. See, he’s kinda a dork, and the ramp is for him! Jet and Chase and Muffit figured it out pretty fast, too.

This picture is of me sunbathing on the ramp. It has a flat spot right out of the dog door so that Levi doesn’t bend his back going out the door. His back had an icky arthritic bridge forming between a couple of his vertebrae on his spine and so it hurts him. The other day Chase pushed Levi over and then Levi hurts for a couple of days and that’s sad, because I don’t like it when Levi hurts ever. Or anyone else either.

Maybe if Chase had some surge protectors he wouldn’t rush out the back door and push Levi over. But it doesn’t take much to push Levi over, which is sad. Levi was a big strong boy and sometimes I can see the Mum leaking from her eyes because she doesn’t want Levi to get old. The Mum loves Levi with all her heart, as she does all of us, and she wants us all to live as long as she does. I wish we all could, too.

Here’s another picture of the ramp when the Dad was building it:

The Mum has been asking me lately if I still want to do agility. She says that sometimes she gets a little bit tired of having to be so happy to get me to go around the courses and trials. She says it’s a lot of work for her and sometimes she doesn’t have much fun doing it. So she wants to know if I have much fun doing it, or if I’d rather do something else, maybe like pulling a cart like I did at camp. Which was fun and I didn’t have to go fast at all.

I told her that I do like to do the agilities but I like it more when we go and play at the practice area better. The trials are a bit stressful for me and so I don’t feel comfortable running really. I’d rather walk and do all the fun things, but the Mum says to really do it we are supposed to run. But when I get out there I just get worried and I just can’t run when I worry!

Maybe I need some breakdown service when I am out there to have someone help me get moving faster so I’m not so nervous. But the Mum says she’ll never get mad or make me do what I don’t want to do so that’s a good thing. So I think I’d like to keep doing it for a while. The Mum says she can retire in a year and a half and then she can do more practicing with me too which would be lots more fun anyway. I like that she’ll be able to be home more!

This is our little agility tent for when we do agility and need to set up outside. It can be cold and rainy outside, and so we have to have someplace where we can get warm and have our crates and stuff. The little grey tent in the middle is ours. That’s where me and Jet had our crates at the last trial and it was snuggly warm in there. But then again I like it cooler than Jet does. He has a fluffier bed than me and sometimes he wears a coat.

The Mum has a coat for me too but she got it for me when I was lots younger so now it doesn’t really fit much anymore, it’s too tight! But it’s pink and it’s really cool and I like pink, pink is my best color. When we are in the nice snuggly tent waiting for our turn to go and have fun doing agility, we don’t think much about term life insurance, instead we read course maps and eat yummies and drink some water to get ready. Though agility has been rather stressful for me lately, the Mum hasn’t had much time to get us out training, and I do lots better when I can get out training!