—-

Once in New Jersey we decided to go on a trek to Amish Country because, well, why not. It’s not a long drive -unless you make a wrong turn and end up in Delaware (oops!), good thing we were pretty much always in it for the journey, not the destination!

So when we finally got there, we were tooling around seeing what there is to see, but Kylie was really not happy with what there was to see. There were two things that got Kylie really riled up when she was riding in the car, one was pedestrians. You see Kylie loved going places in the car, it didn’t matter where she just liked to go! So she couldn’t understand why everybody else didn’t ride around in the car too, it seemed suspicious to her that anybody would choose to be on foot, or riding in a horse drawn buggy for that matter. Which brings us to the other thing… horses (and cows too). And what do they have more than anything of in Amish Country? Pedestrians & horses!

She was barking her head off the whole time!

Then we had stopped to do some shopping, and touristy type touring and we were at a stand where they were selling homemade candies and goodies and root beer of all things. And there was a cute little Amish girl working there, maybe ten years old, and of course she was instantly captivated by Kylie. So she came out and knelt down to say hello and Kylie who was hot & tired and already on high alert because of all the horses and such started barking like crazy at the little girl in black & white and scared her silly! Poor little girl didn’t know what hit her, we felt terrible so we bought a big jug of root beer and didn’t let Kylie have any even though root beer is her favorite.

That was, needless to say, our only trip to Amish Country!

Whenever Kylie was just lying around the house, meaning not laying on her couch or one of her many beds, or curled up somewhere comatose; you know just hangin’ out, nothin’ much going on… She would almost always have one leg out behind her.

We called it her kickstand..

We think she did it so she could be comfortable but all she had to do is stand up and she was already taking a step forward.

You know Kylie, always ready for action!

A Kyliedog in her natural habitat.

We drove around in “The Hills” for hours to get the perfect shot of Kylie under the big sign!

Helping with the laundry is exhausting.

As a follow up to The Cookie Bar story, here’s a video of Kylie complaining about the lack of service she was getting..

She was one crazy customer (and noisy)!

We had a really difficult time getting through the anniversary of losing the sunshine of our lives, our rock star, our unicorn. And I wanted the next story to be something really special, and there’s nothing more quintessentially Kylie than The Cookie Bar..

In Jersey we moved from Edison to Lawrenceville, and on the first evening I was making dinner in the new condo I got a surprise. Kylie hopped up on some boxes in the dining area, put her paws up on the service window looking into the kitchen, which putting her face about a foot from what was cooking. She had a big grin on her face like she had found the best place ever to play peek-a-boo, so I laughed and of course gave her a bite of what I was preparing because she was just so darn cute! So the next day when she hopped up there again, looking cute again, she got a cookie, and just like that she had trained us. So we put her customized, indoor dog house (we’ll have to tell you about that later) under the window in the dining room to give her access to the service window, put her cookie jar on the ledge, and presto.. The Cookie Bar was born!

We would tell her, “go to the cookie bar,” and she would run over, hop up put her pretty paws on the window and wait for her treat. Of course then she started to take the initiative and run over there, hop up, tap her pretty paws, a little insistently and request a treat. Then of course that became her m.o. when company would arrive, “Oh, hello, nice to see you! Now go to the bar and give me a cookie!” And then, it became the only way you could apologize to her, whether you offended her on purpose by giving her a bath; or on accident by stepping on her tail or something. She would go straight to the cookie bar!

You can see how that first cookie bar in NJ went from plain to fancy. Then everywhere we moved after that, a location for the cookie bar had to be immediately established…

..until that is, we moved into this house that has a tiny kitchen but a big back yard. Once Kylie saw that big yard there was no looking back, she no longer needed a cookie bar, she had her Own BACK YARD!! I think we actually missed having The Cookie Bar more than she did, But don’t worry, she still got plenty of cookies!

This time of year our favorite family outing was a trip to Breckenridge for the International Snow Sculpting Competition. Kylie loves snow, so the amazing sculptures were just a bonus!

There were always plenty of other dogs around but Kylie, especially in her backpack always attracted attention. One of the things we miss the most is being around little miss congeniality and the life of the party! But really, we just miss everything about her.

My favorite song to sing to Kylie..

You are the sunshine of my life
That’s why I’ll always be around,
You are the apple of my eye,
Forever you’ll stay in my heart

I feel like this is the beginning,
Though I’ve loved you for a million years,
And if I thought our love was ending,
I’d find myself drowning in my own tears

You are the sunshine of my life,
That’s why I’ll always stay around,
You are the apple of my eye,
Forever you’ll stay in my heart

You must have known that I was lonely,
Because you came to my rescue,
And I know that this must be heaven,
How could so much love be inside of you?

__

We got a good deal, but it was still way expensive, but Kylie deserved it so we brought home her very own couch. And she was totally NOT interested…

We think she thought ‘why would I want that little thing when we have this great big couch in the living room’. Then gradually she figured out, ‘hey, this is just my size and I don’t have to share’!

She loved that couch!