Bare All…

Okay, now that I have your attention, I’ve  decided to  BARE ALL regarding my 2012 resolutions.  You know, those “things” we make up our minds to do or not do, based on past experience or new aspirations?  Well, I decided long ago that resolutions are for the birds!  I plan to carry on as usual:

• taking a daily constitutional with The Mommy
• eating two hearty meals a day and charming my way to as many treats as my humanoids will dispense
• taking as many cat naps as I can fit in between guests who think I’m simply The Best!
• getting and giving as much love as I can imagine

Now, really….who needs resolutions with a life like mine?

Happy New Year!

Miss Noelle

It’s the Holiday Season

If I could sing, I’d be howling my way through the Christmas carols….But I really don’t need to because the inn is filled with the sights, scents and sounds of the BIG season.  Humanoids are always happy here, but I’ve noticed a special zip in their zap, a spring in their step. Maybe it’s the warm, white Christmas lights, or the pretty tree.  I don’t know, but I think it’s just great!  In fact, I’ve been sporting my red and white argyle sweater as I mosey down Litchfield Road.  After all, “it’s the holiday season, da-doop-de-doop, da-da-da-da da….” Okay, so I can’t sing, but it’s the heart that counts.  Merry Christmas everyone, from my heart, to yours!

Thanks…a lot!

A girl like me has so very much to be thankful for:  A perfect day that begins well before dawn, a big breakfast and a slow gallop in the wilds of Norfolk with The Mommy.  Snooze, snooze. Check paw-watch: beg for snack.  The Mommy responds.  She is SO well-trained.  Saunter into the Great Room.  If Daddy’s there, I get to catch up on the news. Take a quick mid-day trip to the yard for “business.”  Snooze, snooze.  Check paw-watch: Beg for dinner by pawing at The Mommy as she taps away at the keyboard and stares at the screen.  Chow -down.  Watch football with Daddy.  Another “business” trip, then take myself up to my room for a good night’s sleep.

It’s a good life! And maybe I’ll even get a smidgen of turkey today….

My Secret Passion…

Inspired by the “tell all” culture I observe on television (I am an avid fan of the tube!), I thought it was about time I came clean: I am a CHOCOHOLIC.  Really, it’s true.  In spite of the warnings specifically targeted at canines, I just can’t help myself.  My Daddy loves nuts; My Mommy loves ice cream.   So you see, I am no different. 

Except that lately, there’s a problem.  It seems that I have become altogether too brazen in pursuit of those precious morsels.  It used to be that I’d simply mosey on down the long corridor and pop into a freshly-made -up guest room.  There I’d peruse with my well-attuned snout and reach over for the perfectly-placed Hershey’s Kisses.  I’d work my way easily through the wrapper and savor those delicious tidbits…like nobody’s business.

That’s when the trouble began….you see, My Mommy  has an eagle eye.  What she can’t sniff, she can certainly see.  She’d eye those  tiny wrapper remnants and think that a guest had mistakenly dropped a piece of wrapper, or that the dang vacuum cleaner was on the fritz again. She was clearly baffled.  During the BIG POWER OUTAGE NOR’EASTER that swept through here in October (like nobody’s business, I might add), My Daddy caught me, red-handed, or, snouted, as the case may be. 

Life hasn’t been the same ever since.  When My Mommy returned from her business trip to Atlanta, she made quick business of moving those luscious morsels to higher ground. 

I’ll tell you, life without my secret passion takes some getting used to…maybe you can relate.

 Yours truly,

Miss Noelle

Let it snow, let it snow, let it…oops!

Sorry, Mom…I meant to say “Oh no!, oh no!”  

But really, I just love it.  My Mommy frets as the gardens haven’t been put to rest and the pumpkins are freezing, and the guests may be stranded somewhere, and, and, and.  But in my little pup world, all is well.  When I take high leaps into the cold wet blanket, I am reminded of my Agility Dog days.  Talk about dog days… all that pressure to perform was just too much for a sensitive soul like me.  But a brief, animated frolic in that lovely white stuff, and I am like a pig in…well, you know the rest. Okay, well, I have earned another snooze, but not in the snow.  I think I’ll just mosey on over to that roaring fire and call it a day.  How about you?

Coming Up for Air…

So many have asked: Where is Miss Noelle, the Blogger? At last I put paw to pedal and attempt to rouse myself from a guest-induced haze….so much greeting, snuggling, and supervising of the comings and goings at MVINN that a girl has very little time to reflect and post! Mommy and Daddy are always in such a flurry of activity that I get dizzy just watching them. But the temperature is falling, the fires are being lit and I get walked in the cold crisp air of Norfolk. What, I ask, could be better? Well….now that I think of it, I was given some new treats by a nice man at the Village Feed Store in Canaan just the other day. Talk about reading a girl’s bubble!

Summer Siesta

I know, I know…..It’s been a very long time since I’ve written. But summer just takes the wind out of my paws, what with SO MANY guests coming and going. Not to mention nearly twenty different Infinity Hall performing artists rubbing my head and befriending me, what’s a girl to do???? Meanwhile, The Mommy is busy with her binoculars, eyeing all of the wildlife (as if I weren’t enough!) This season’s sightings –in our very own courtyard– include:
an indigo bunting, a pine siskin, a family of grackels, a family of cowbirds, cardinals, bluejays, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and titmouses (or is it “titmice’?). And, there have been not one but two broods of phoebes hatched in the rafters of ye old inn. And was that a hedgehog-sighting at dusk the other night? Whatver “it” was,it hadn’t checked into the inn–not the official way, in any case.

Well, time for a nap, I’m exhausted just thinking about all of this activity!

Yours truly,

Miss Noelle Anjelica Johnson

They call me “Mooch Pooch”

It’s true….I know.  Every time my mommy walks down to the kitchen, I am hot on her heels for a treat.  She just can’t help herself.  Last week, she offered me clear options.  She put a milk bone biscuit on the right, a  Lobo Bone in the middle, and a Beggin’ strip on the left.  She told me to sit.  I stared at these delectable treats, wondering when she’d release me.  Sure enough, she said “OKAY!” and I leapt for the Lobo.  I thought I’d run off, deposit it in the Bar Room, then come back for the rest.  But when I returned, the other treats were long gone.  I think I need to modify my strategy…..

Pup Ambivalence

I must say that I am of two minds of late.  My bro, Chris, is painting a portrait of my predecessor, Madame Butterfly.  I never had the pleasure of meeting her as she went to Pup Heaven long before I arrived on the scene.  But my Mommy insists on telling me about her all of the time.  Apparently, she was quite a character…more fox than canine, and a true diva who literally sang for her supper!  One time, my Mommy almost had to call the fire department to rescue her.  The story is that she was chasing a poor, innocent chipmunk who ran into some antique house columns that were in the backyard.  Well, in wild pursuit, Madame Butterfly went after it and squeezed herself into a column.  My Mommy was frantic, I’ m told.  And as she rose to make the call, Butterfly came wiggling out, ass-backward.  I know I shouldn’t use foul language as I am a TRUE LADY, but, I can just picture that scallywag!  Anyway,  My Mommy is ooowing and ahhhhing over this portrait.  Hmmm, maybe my bro will paint one of me, too…to resolve my ambivalence, that is!

Much ado about nothing…

My mommy tuned into the Westminster parade of pups last night…but I have to tell you that I was totally unimpressed. All that trotting about, for what I ask? What a pup wants is a warm bed…or two, or three, now that I think about it; humans to feed, walk and adore me at all times, and GUESTS! I love Guests, with a capital G, that is. Once I get over my initial nerves, I just love the way that they love me. ANd I love them right back, smooch for smooch, pat for pat. This is the life. As some of you already know, I AM a former showgirl, yes sirreee. And this life beats that one, PAWS DOWN!

Happy belated Valentine’s Day…I slept through it, I admit.