Hi Everyone!!!!  Hope you all are well and are enjoying the first days of our fall season! I think that Summer and Fall may have gotten their notes mixed up because it's feeling a lot more like summer time these days but we shouldn't complain too much, fall weather and the cold temperatures of Winter will be here soon enough. I still can't believe how quickly the summer season flew by, but it was a really great summer and I'm looking forward to what adventures the fall season will bring my way.  

Well hello Everyone!!!!  Can you believe that the month of July is just about coming to a close already?  The summer season always seems so short but I hope everyone's summer has been filling up with lots of fun and special memories!!!  We can all hold on to those forever!!!!  My summer has certainly been very awesome so far.  July was a quiet month for us travel-wise and we've been sticking close to home but it's been a fun month nonetheless.  One of the great things about living in Sussex County is that there are so many fun things to do, especially for an avid outdoorsman such as myself!

Happy, happy summer Everyone!!!!  I hope you all have had a great start to your summer season so far!  I have certainly had a very fun start to mine and I am really excited to see what the rest of the summer will bring!  I got to visit the New Jersey shore a few weeks ago and it was so much fun.  My Mom, Dad and I really had a really great time!  The weather was pretty nice already for the beginning of June and even though the water was super cold, the sunshine made it plenty warm enough for me that I didn't mind getting into the water at all.  It's a little bit of a drive (it usually takes us about 2.5 hours with ligher to medium shore traffic) but we always go to Island Beach State Park near Seaside Heights.  Although dogs are not allowed on the bathing beaches, leashed dogs are allowed on all of the fishing beaches further out onto the peninsula.  It's a very popular place for people with dogs as I was able to meet and great with quite a few other dogs throughout the day.  Mom and Dad played a lot of frisbee with me too which was so much fun in the sand, although I will admit running around in all that sand made me tired a whole lot faster than I usually get when I'm playing frisbee!  Mom and Dad made sure to bring me plenty of water too because all of that running around sure made me thirsty!

Hi Everyone!!!!  I can't believe that Memorial Day is almost here and that June is right around the corner!!!  Even though summer isn't yet in full swing, I've still been enjoying a lot of the fun things I love most about the summer.  I've had lots and lots of playtime in the yard which is one of the things I really love best of this time of year. It's now light out for so much longer and that means that I get even MORE playtime.  My favorite toys are my soccer ball and Frisbee but this week Mom decided to change it up for me a little and she let me play with her stability ball out in the yard.  It was the biggest ball I've ever played with and while Mom thought I might be a little afraid of it rolling around down the hill at me, I showed her and Dad that I'm every bit as tough as I look!!!  I was absolutely fearless in the face of that huge ball and I muscled it around the yard like a champ!!!!

Hi Everyone!!!!  Happy Easter to all of you who are celebrating this weekend!!!! It's been an absolutely beautiful weekend so far to celebrate springtime and all the wonderful things it brings such as longer days, outdoor fun and flowers.  I was lucky to get outside a lot during the Winter but now that it's Spring, it's even that much nicer to play and romp outside with my toys.  One of my favorite toys is an awesome soccer ball I got for Christmas.  Santa picked it up for me at Amy's Animals and I've been in love with it from the moment I first laid my eyes and teeth on it.  I love when my parents join in my soccer games, but to be honest, I can play a pretty exciting game of soccer all on my own.  I bounce that ball all over the yard with my nose and sometimes even manage to bounce it way over the five-foot fence and into the woods behind our house (which slightly exasperates my Mom and Dad given they have to trek out to retrieve my prized ball). 

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!!!  I hope everyone has been having a very special day!!!!  Aside from Valentine's Day, my February has been filled with lots of excitement and fun, thanks especially to the recent snow we've had.  I know many of you may not like snow much, particularly at this point in the season.  I'll admit that it can make for dangerous driving and much care must be taken by everyone to ensure that we all stay safe out there on the roads, even when there's snow or other winter precipitation falling.  The DeBoer's Auto Team has released some useful videos with tips on maintaining your vehicle for safer winter driving, so definitely check out the DeBoer's Auto video library for this great information!  My Mom was especially displeased and fretful over the ice/snow mix that we received over the weekend and I agree that the icy mix was particularly dangerous. I was also upset because it really messed up the nice fun fluffy stuff that fell last Thursday.  Thankfully, my Mom was home with me on that day so she didn't have to worry about driving and could focus all of her energy on entertaining me!  Using my charm and cute looks to persuade her, she stood out there in the cold for a good portion of the day while I romped around in the awesome fresh powder.  Even some of the more grumpier snow haters have to admit that a fresh blanket of good powder can be a lot of fun if you don't have to worry about driving around in it and can take the opportunity to PLAY!!!!

Happy, happy 2017 Everyone!!!  I have been having a really great start to the year and I hope your 2017 has also started off really well!!! I've still been getting out a lot on our local rail trails despite the colder and snowier weather we've been having.  Running in the snow has actually been really fun for me, although my Mom and I have to be very careful about where we go as the Sussex Branch and Paulinskill Valley trails have been pretty icy during this last month. With all the running/walking/biking traffic that the trails see, the snow on them melts down and then freezes again overnight. We've ventured out to the trails a couple of times only to find that ice skating was about the only activity that appeared feasible.  Given neither of us had brought ice skates, we had to opt for some road running instead. My Mom got herself a pair of Yaktrax to put on her running shoes so that she is more surefooted on the trails when the conditions aren't perfect but not so bad. They work really well when there's patches of thinner ice or harder packed snow on the trail (the design is based upon coil traction footwear an outdoor adventurer spotted on a Himalayan Sherpa) so it's a good idea for anyone who would like to get out more during the winter months and be safer doing so.  The Yaktrax come in designs that are specifically suited for walking or running.  Just still be careful when you're out there and please always look out for your four-legged companions!!! Although our four legs help us get across slick surfaces a little better than humans can, we can definitely take a spill on an icy patch and a bad fall is is a very bad thing for anyone, furry or nonfurry.  We are so very fortunate to have a lot of great parks in the area with beautifully cleared roads like Kittatinny Valley State Park, Stokes State Forest and High Point State Park (thanks so much to our local park officials for taking such great care of the park roads!!!) because they are great places for a walk when the trails are impassable.

Hi Everyone!!!!  I hope everyone has been staying warm these past few days.  We went from not so cold of a winter to a brrrrrrr-freezing one very quickly!!! The cold really doesn't bother me much at all though.  I have quite a warm coat of fur which works out well as I like to be outside no matter what the weather is out there.  I was super excited to get outside and play in the first dusting of snow that we got a few weeks ago.  I also got to run on the trails one day when we got some snow and although Mom seemed a little perturbed over how wet her shoes were at the end of our run, I thought it was really fun to slosh through the snow. 

One of my very favorite places to play outside is the Wantage Dog Park.  My Dad takes me there a lot and it's just so much fun playing with all of the other dogs.  I love running with my friends and chasing balls through the very large and open areas within the park.  Wantage local Stu Baker spearheaded the creation of this park and I, as well as all of the friends I've made at the park, are most grateful to him for doing so!!!  The park is very appreciated and well used as it gets approximately 1,000 visitors a week!  It is a truly great addition to our local community!!!

Another fun outing I very much enjoyed recently was a trip to get my first Christmas tree with my Mom and Dad!!!  The Hamburg Fire Department has been doing an annual Christmas tree sale for a while now and we stopped by the department's pavilion to get our tree on the Friday after Thanksgiving and it is a very, very beautiful tree!!!  I helped to decorate the tree with my Mom and Dad on the Saturday after turkey day (I actually did more snooping in all the decoration boxes than anything, but Mom and Dad didn't seem to mind) and it was a very fun time.  I am so excited to have my very own home to celebrate the holidays in this year.  I was born last year just before Christmas and I spent my first holiday with the wonderful people at the Kindness for Homeless Paws rescue organization.  They took very, very good care of me of course, but it's especially nice to have my own forever family to spend the holidays with this year!!!

I'm really getting revved up for the next couple of weeks because my birthday is coming up (Mom and Dad think I haven't heard them talking about it, but they are planning a special trip to my favorite store, Amy's Animals for a birthday treat and toy!!!) and of course the holidays are coming up.  I can already see that the best part of the holidays is spending special time with family and friends.  I'm so looking forward to all of these good times and I wish all of you a very, very wonderful and safe holiday season!!!  May everyone's season be filled with so much peace, love and joy!!!  I will check back with you all in January 2017!!!

With the warmest regards and sloppiest of puppy kisses,

Piper the Rescue Mutt

Hi Everyone!!!  I hope you all have been enjoying the Fall season!!!  Winter will be upon us soon so my parents and I have been getting out as much as we can, although we certainly hope that we can still get out in the winter too!  We've been doing lots of running on the trails (I just finished my first 8-mile run today!) and we've been getting out for a lot of fun hikes as well.  One of our favorite places to hike is High Point State Park.  High Point is the highest peak of the Kittatinny Mountains and is the highest elevation in the state of NJ at 1,804 feet.  A leaf peeping trip to the top of High Point will provide spectacular views of Fall foliage in three different states (New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania).  I certainly like the view from up there because I definitely like to keep my eyes on things and there's plenty to see from that vantage point!