A Note from Gus

Hi! I'm Gus. I was just reading over what Gimli wrote and feel like I need to clear up a few things. First, I snore because I have a deviated septum...I can't help it. Maybe one day I can convince mom to let me try those strips you put on your nose that I saw advertised on T.V. one day. As for the drool thing, I do NOT drool...that much. Again, I think it might be hereditary. Listen to this from http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/mastiff.htm: "The Mastiff tends to drool, wheeze and snore loudly."
I don't wheeze so two out of three isn't too bad, right? And listen to this little tidbit from the same website:

The English Mastiff was founded in Britain. A very old breed, it was depicted in Egyptian monuments as early as 3000 BC. The breed fought alongside the British soldiers in 55 BC. Caesar brought a pack of Mastiffs to Rome where the dogs were put on display as an arena gladiator and forced to be in fights with human gladiators, lions, bull baiting, bear baiting and in dog to dog combat. They later became popular with the peasants in England where it was used as a bodyguard, protector of wolves and other dangerous predators and as a companion dog. In the eighteenth century the Mastiff was described: "As a lion is to a cat, so is a mastiff compared to a dog. "It is believed that a Mastiff came to America on the Mayflower. Later more were imported. Like most breeds by the end of World War ll the breed was almost extinct in England. Dogs were imported from the USA and Canada and are once again well established in England. Some of the Mastiff's talents include: watchdog, guarding, police work, military work, search & rescue, and weight pulling.

My great-great-great-great grandfather may have come here on the Mayflower. How cool is that?!

Another thing that I want to set straight is that I am NOT a puppy anymore. I'm tired of everyone treating me like a puppy. I weigh almost 120 lbs., I'm taller than Gimli, and I'm super smart. I just wish the rest of the family would see me as a big dog NOT a puppy!

An introduction

So I recently blew out my knee. There was this cat, see, on the other side of the fence. He was swishing his tail around taunting me, "Cats are cool...la,la,la...Dogs drool...la,la,la..." so I decided to join him on his side and have a little chat with him. Nevermind that I'm nine years old (I'm not going to say how old that is in dog years)! Well, apparently my body did mind and now here I am, laid up and bored out of my wits. So the kid, Gus, gets this idea that we should start a blog. We see mom typing away on her blog all of the time. She says it's therapeutic. So, in order to get the kid off my back, I decided to start this blog. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say exactly. Gus says I should write down my feelings. Well, I feel that he snores too loud, and I feel that he drools a lot. Seriously, swallow your spit...Gus says that these are observations not feelings. Whatever.
I guess I'll start by telling you a little about the family. There are five of us: our people mom and dad (I don't remember a lot about my dog mom and dad, but I hear they were real nice), the baby, the kid, and me. My name is Gimli Ociphus. The name comes from the tough dwarf character in mom's favorite movies/books, Lord of the Rings. Gus' name comes from one of dad's favorite movies, Lonesome Dove. I was all about naming the kid Gollum to keep with the naming trend and it kind of fits his character. But instead, he ended up with Augustus McCrae. Now I realize that he is a Gus all the way! I'm what you would call a Bull Mastiff. Gus is an English Mastiff. Supposedly Gus will get much bigger than me, but I'm better looking. I have coppery brown hair and a very distinguished black mask around my eyes. Gus is black with a white spot in the shape of a heart on his chest. Like I said before, I'm older but wiser. Gus is going to be two years-old in a few weeks. He looks all big and tough, but on the inside he's still a puppy. That's okay though. Kids grow up to fast these days! Our people mom, we just call her mom, is pretty nice. She likes to read and do stuff on her computer. She can be a little high-strung once-in-awhile, but we love her anyway. She used to be a middle school teacher, but now, with the baby and all, she stays home and spends the day with us. Dad is cool. When I was younger we used to wrestle around and play this game to see who could get lower to the ground. We would butt heads and dive under each other. He tried hard, but I am the champion of that game! We don't play as much--I think dad's getting older, and it's probably too rough for him anymore. Dad is big into jeeping, and we've gone on many a jeep trip. It's fun, though, I'll admit some of those trails were a little scary. But I've always loved the feel of the wind against my face, tongue and ears flapping along as we go. Anyway, then there's the baby. He is almost a year old now. A while back I had noticed that mom had been putting on a little weight, but I didn't want to say anything. Imagine my surprise when I found out that she was carrying around a little human in her belly! I'll write more about that another day. Suffice it to say, besides the crying, puking, and funky smells, the baby is kind of cute.
My job in the family is to watch over everyone. This is not an easy job, believe you me! I have been trying to train the kid, which sometimes seems like more work than just doing it myself, but he's catching on and will be a real good guard dog one day. With the new baby, the job is even harder, especially since the baby has become mobile. Which reminds me, I better hobble over and check on everyone. Sniff ya later!