Shortest walk ever

Wow. Our evening walk was about this short: front door of hotel -- beach walk -- back. Yet it took as long as our usual meandering stroll. I blame humom, of course. First, she put a red, white and green lei on me. This did not exactly decrease the number of people needing to stop and coo over the "snow dog" and exchange Mele Kalikimakas.

Then, she took me out just before sunset, when every visitor and resident on Oahu hangs out in Waikiki. Everyone and his Boston terrier.

And strangest of all, she was in a very patient mood. She didn't try to march me along, and let everyone pet me who wanted to. Even the sticky kids eating shave ice. Did she let me eat their shave ice? Not so much.

We visited Deena and the circus performers practicing in the park. Handsome Tony the juggler was there and remembered to greet me. I enjoy the jugglers -- tossing balls to themselves. There are a lot of unskilled humans in the parks who toss balls away and expect their dogs to bring them back. They could take lessons in juggling.

Among the onlookers was a family with a young girl in one of those wheelchairs, like the old men in the park hang out in, or the fat lady in the hotel who always smells like cigarette smoke. But this was a super-fancy motorized job. The girl didn't smell like smoke, and looked at me, so I moseyed on over to say hi. The mom and other kids gushed over me, of course, and the mom moved the girl's hand to approximate petting me. I rested my head in her lap so she could feel the weight on her legs and she grinned from ear to ear. For some reason, I felt happy. Weird.

On the way home we met a couple of kids in a "stroller" -- stupid name, the kids are specifically NOT strolling, but sitting down. The little sister had her leg in a cast, a most unusual aroma -- quite musty and unwashed, with bits of food and some plaster and Vetrap. Humom didn't let me get a good lick in. I did get some good snootfuls, causing the mom to coo how sweet that the doggie was trying to heal her little girl. Whatever.

--- Merry Christmas, Missy out

Trades

Today Missy is arrow-shaped, all sleek and pointed. Her ears are plastered back, fur ruffled, eyes slitted. She is moving almost faster than I can keep up -- making her sniff stops joint-wrenching. This is one frisky canine. What roiled the Malamute blood? Cool, even cold trade winds tearing down the mountains, blowing out the vog and sending the sand stinging, rows of sailboats line-dancing back and forth in front of the setting sun, the palm trees tossing ... Missy is loving it!

Our Marathon

Thanks, Jerry, for the img. We had a great Honolulu Marathon. For the first time on Oahu, we got to wake up naturally -- no screech, crash or howl of dumpster trucks, no construction hammering and roaring ... just silence! A blissful foretaste of mornings on Maui, I hope.

Rhoda and I took beach stuff in her convertible and zoomed up to the North Shore, stopping in cute Haleiwa. We watched some excellent surfing at Banzai Pipeline -- Kauai's Sea Bass triple crown champion -- and had decent Mexican food at Chollo's.

On our return, I had a call from Visa that my credit card was being used fraudulently. Dealt with that for a couple of days, then realized that my car was gone. Urk. That's where my card had been. While Rhoda and I were on the shore, someone was busy stealing my car and racking up charges. Nice.

It took Missy several days to recover from all the spandex-clad hugs, kisses and squeals of So Cuuuuute! after the marathon. The neon sneakers are a bit hard to take, but do wake us up in the morning. It'll be nice to get back to regular, casual runners on our morning walks -- it's been weird being invisible to the hard-core runners who are so into their iPods, their pulse or whatever that they don't notice they're about to crash into a Malamute or a substantial redhead.

My poor ears, Part II

So humom is celebrating the end of the semester. Last day of class, rather -- grading still to come, as she never tires of reminding me. Anywooo, now she's running around strewing lists and cash, trying to catch up with holiday obligations. I'm contributing much Malafluff to the proceedings. Smirk.

Today the antique Autumn Gold fire alarm went off and wouldn't stop. EARSPLITTING for the delicate Malamute ears, and not happy-making for the migraine-prone huperson either. So what better idea than to visit the groomer? Humom searched for a Petco online, since all I really need is a nail and Sam-I-Am-hair trim. Got directions and everything. We had a fun drive through downtown HNL, me in the front seat. One way streets, not exactly a crow-flight, but I managed not to barf all over the car. So we get to the address, by several adventurous and not entirely legal maneuvers, and there's not a Petco in sight. Humom drives around a while, but downtown is clearly Petco-free.

When we get home, the damn fire alarm is still screaming! Humom lets me hang out in the hall while the Front Desk gets around to sending up the nice maintenance guy, who sends up the manager, at which point we head for the park ... Good, if slow, thinking, humom! When we get home, the silence is thick. We curl up for a cuddle. Humom does sneak in a paw trim, then it's relaxation time!

--- Missy out

Into the Vog ...

We are seriously vogged in today -- the ships are all ghosts, and the waves roll in out of yellowish soup. Missy snarked at Leo, her Golden buddy, this morning. Where are the Trade winds when we need them?

I had my buds at The Bench on the beach walk hold Missy for me so I could take pictures. They thought it was hilarious that, when I called her name, she would woooooo. Well duh. She's a Mallie, not a dachshund. As usual, the Mallie photo shoot attracted quite the crowd, with the Miss hamming it up and the guys insisting that she's a wolf/werewolf and posing her with her butt to the camera. The current Twilight movie is not doing much for the Mallie's reputation -- to the consternation of Oahu's youth, she consistently fails to transform into a handsome young man ...

Irma

Monk seals -- humom thinks they're soooooo cuuute. Urgh. I'd like to take a nibble, but humom is strongly opposed.

So is NOAA and the Marine Mammal response team: 1-888-256-9840

Today we walked past the Natatorium and Aquarium, and were somewhat taken aback to see some police cruisers and cops at Sushi Beach. They quickly left without doing a thing, and voila! a chubby, very large banana-slug-shaped creature smelling of fish reclining on the beach, surrounded by a large crowd cooing a chorus of "aaaw." I'm familiar.

My Uncle Steve was there telling telling the hupeople what a monk seal is and why they couldn't go up and cuddle with her. He also petted us people and mentioned to us that we could go up and chew on her because she would bite us too, which was considerate.

My humom lent Steve her phone to call the Seal Response Team, who needed to drop off their kids at school but would then come by and cordon off the area. We've never seen monk seals on Maui without cordons and posters, so I was thrown off at first. Uncle Steve, humom and I stayed for a while to protect the seal -- Irma -- but then humom had to leave to get ready for work. We were happy to see on our evening walk that Irma was still there, sleeping on her back with her whiskers in the air. I had a good chat with the GSD seal guard dog (he doesn't know how she tastes either, lame).

--- Missy out

Akroteria

We walk past the zoo every morning on our way to the beach. There are many subtle Mallie ways to lead the huperson in the direction one wishes to go, but alas! I have yet to enter the enticing precincts where so obviously reside many fragrant and vocal people of many species, some no doubt delicious. We have tried the

My this fence is fascinating; the

Shouldn't we visit the homeless person sleeping behind these well-placed bushes? and the

Nobody here but us Japanese tourists

ploys, but so far, humom has proven strangely adamant, a material that is, I believe, stubborn and nasty-tasting. This morning, to our delight, but perhaps for different reasons, we noticed silhouetted against the sunrise the usual outline of the roof, canted upward to east and west, and perched on the ridge line a handsome duck, motionless as if carved of the best koa wood, doing his King of the World impression. Humom was laughing her fool head off, but I kept mine and just looked further, and indeed, more ducks were out, a few perched on the rooftop greeting the dawn, but others out in the park, a-a-a-a-lmost within reach. Drat.

--- Missy out

Our tsunami

Earthquake in the Queen Charlotte islands! I don't know where that is, but humom was worried -- she loves her tattooist, Bart Willis, and the wonderful Haida people he works with and hopes everyone is okay. All these rocks in the middle of the water seem awfully precarious to me -- and am I right? hmm? Here we are in Hawaii and what is that? It's a bunch of islands and whenever we want to go anywhere I have to get squashed into a crate and stuck on a plane. Is that a system? I ask you.

Anyway, over there in Canada, where you would they they'd know better, they go and have an earthquake, and that means we're going to have a big wave here. Small rock in the middle of the ocean + big wave = not good news for the Mallie girl who likes to keep her feet and fur dry. Apparently many people agree, since immediately all the roads turn into parking lots, more so than usual. We live on the 5th floor so we "evacuate in place." In other words, humom goes up to the roof to watch the mayhem, which consists of some news people and fools messing around on the beach walk.

We watch some TV -- reports of accidents on the roads and all the stores selling out of toilet paper (eh?) -- and a conspicuous absence of big waves. Then everyone gets together to exchange war stories about The Tsunami That Wasn't. Your first clue not to panic: We animals slept soundly, unlike when there's an earthquake or a real tsunami. We'll let you know.

To those hupersons who thought it would be a good idea to tie up your dogs in the yard and lock your cats in the house in the flood zone while you drive up to party on the high ground, think about it for just one second.

--- Missy out

Fire!

What a smell! Our hotel caught on fire. A cacophony of smells. My poor nose was totally overwhelmed! Even a few humans noticed that it stank! Some police cars showed up, and then some fire trucks, all of which tried to squeeze into the little alley beside the hotel. They ended up parked all over Kapahulu too, lights flashing, drivers out, malasadas in hand. A Mallie trying to go for her morning stroll did not have an easy time, trying to thread her way through all the emergency vehicles. It did not turn out to be a very big fire, but humom has been very irritable. Wiring was damaged and the wifi has been down, which has a very bad effect on the human temperament. Let's hope it's fixed soon!

--- Missy out

Early walk

Early morning walk -- the clouds in the Ko'olau range valleys smoldering red, glowing pink behind Diamond Head. The early surfers are already out hungry for the better waves, but the beach is blessedly empty. Here and there cocoons of homeless lie anonymous under a tree or behind a bush. Missy and I scoot along, past the Aquarium and the odd egg-shaped ornaments out front. We pause to admire the old Natatorium, a fine classical swimming theater, sadly dilapidated. A great old Hawaii landmark, echoing with the cheers of those privileged to watch our greatest swimmers, and with the soft swooshes of their sleek bodies slicing through the water. Now the water is still and algal within the crumbling walls.

HoyHoy

My humom has declared war on the six-legged bugs overrunning our hotel room. I don't care about them myself, as long as they leave me and my food alone. They don't taste good and are too small to bother eating anyway.

Humom doesn't scream or jump around or do anything truly amusing when she sees these bugs. Usually she just says, "Oh for heaven's sake," which ranks alongside a pretty typical response to a student essay. The last really impressive screaming and jumping around she did was on Maui when she found a massive centipede under the sheet. Hawai'i centipedes are like scorpions with double stingers and a LOT of legs.

Here the bugs are small but numerous. She's put out a bunch of black boxes called HoyHoy. I watched her put them together and she wouldn't let me help, even though they smelled interesting. When she came home from school today and had to extricate my paw from one, I thought it was mean of her to gloat "caught a Malaroach" ...

-- Missy out

The Mayor & the Mallie

Saturday was a big day for the Mallie. Humom took me out to watch the Aloha Flower parade. We were right at the end, at the Queen's park, and stood around with a whole lot of people -- even more than are usually in our park! Some even brought chairs and food -- but none for me. I did scarf up a chicken bone, but as usual humom dug it out of my mouth before I could chew it up and swallow it.

What most of the people were doing was cooing over the Mallie, petting me, photographing me, and talking nonsense about my being a Sibe. I am not a Sibe! Humom was talking non-stop: no, she's not supposed to have blue eyes, she's a Malamute. Her ears are small because she's a Malamute. She's big because she's a Malamute. Thanks, and yes she's pretty, but she's a Malamute.

So when a guy came by in a car and yelled over, "pretty Husky," humom automatically yelled back, "Malamute!" Then she noticed that the sign on the car said "Mayor Peter Carlisle." She was kind of embarrassed, but honestly, is the guy fit to rule?

Then some beautiful horses came by, and I went into complete Mallie ecstasy. Humom does not understand how I feel about horses, she just knows that I really like them, because my ears and tail fly up and I get all prancy. And in this case, the horses were esp. lovely, and so close. So humom walked with me over to where their trailers and handlers were waiting to go home, and I got to talk to a couple up close. What we talked about will remain between us!

Of course we could not avoid talking to hupeople as well. A very nice man with brown Mallie-like eyes called us over to a group from a ranch in another part of Oahu to talk about Mallies. We ended up being invited out to the ranch. I hope humom will remember and take me there soon!

--- Missy out

Pouring rain

I'm here today because it is pouring rain. That's right: I'm not out exploring the zoo park, visiting the Queen, talking to the visitors on the ocean walk, refraining from eating snack dogs, or comforting visitors who stupidly left their Mallies behind. No, I'm languishing (isn't that a beautiful word) here in our tiny hotel room, and why? Because we're not on Maui any more.

It hardly ever rains on Maui, and when it does, it's a soft misty drizzle "like a benediction" humom says. She's grumbling now that we would be on the beach at Keawakapu, me exhausted after a good run, her ready to go out for a languid snorkel around to visit the honu. It does sound nice.

--- Missy out

Blue paws

So here's the difference between Maui and Oahu: on Maui I got green paws, on Oahu they're blue.

Humom figured out that Maui paws came from walking on grass treated with some green stuff meant to make it look even more lush and non-Hawaiian.

Blue paws, on the other hand, come from big chunks and pools of colored chalk left in the zoo park by the noisy groups humom calls Hairy Krishnas. They bring loudspeakers and drums with them and when they get loud, I have to go inside, but when we go back out the next day, the ground is covered with the colored chalk that I like to walk in so I can get it all over our white sheet and observe humom's reactions. Humans are amusing!

These Hairies seem interesting, and I will see if I can join them one evening to gather more data.

--- Missy out

Best Buy

What Hawaii does supremely well is rainbows. Where else would I find myself standing in the parking lot of the Best Buy staring up at the mountain range mauka, gobsmacked by the beauty of the sky? The mountains ewa are softened by huge black clouds that segue into rain; to the east the green ridges glow before bright white cumulus in peacock blue sky. The evening's rainbow arcs high and thin, in soft pastel shades, embracing land and sea in a gentle baroque accord.

This morning's rainbow was much more Sturm und Drang - a jagged neon rocket thrust from the ocean into the clouds, wide and commanding, a deafening fanfare of colors.

Eye Level

Typical sights on a Waikiki sidewalk:

Knees
Bicycle wheels
A surfboard
A surfboard attached to a bicycle
A little child running straight at me squealing
Cameras pointed at me
Phones pointed at me (sorry, I don't talk on the phone, haha)
Hands
Hands containing coffee cups (yum if with milk)
Hands containing food (yum)
Hands containing various items (worth exploring)
Butts (also worth exploring)
Crotches (ditto)
Other canine people
Various stationary items of interest - trees, poles, rubbish bins, hotels, etc.

Today's walk featured items in motion:

A bicycle loaded up with many colors of yoga mats
A crate dolly without the crate
Another crate dolly with a wobbly wheel
A lawn mower riding around lazily in circles
An old lady on a scooter riding around lazily in circles
An elongated golf-cart with bags from the rubbish bins
Ana from the Zoo grounds and his little wagon with plumeria leaves
A poi dog with one eye and an attitude
A guy from the mainland running up missing his Sibes
A group of Asian ladies doing yoga, led by a blond haole boy
Volleyball players wearing practically nothing and jumping around like puppies
A big bus screeching brakes to let the Mallie cross the road to the hotel, which is still there.

--- Missy out

The Banyan Tree

Last night as we walked through the park in front of the zoo, humom got upset as usual at the tourists who were photographing each other swinging on the air roots of the beautiful banyan tree, our good friend and spreader of shade. The hupeople are hard for me to understand. They seem to be deaf to the tree; they do not smell its distress; they laugh at it; they carve sharp wounds into its hide -- and yet they take pictures of it like a sunset or a Mallie.

Well, this morning we went out and that same huge branch of the tree was lying on the ground, with a big splintery end like a fresh bone fracture. Some people sitting on the bench came over to talk to me for comfort and told me all about it. They were sitting under the tree and there was a sound like whirring pigeon wings. I enjoy this, but they did not, and the tree limb fell to the ground beside them. They were very shaky and it took some Mallie therapy to make them feel better. I liked the soft warm lady with the tattoos and piercings, she smelled very good, and the young men were nice about talking to humom who was very angry indeed.

Later we walked again. The huge limb was gone, just the pale splintery fracture still exposed where it used to be. And next to it, giggling tourists swinging from other air roots. Humom walked very fast.

--- Missy out

Lilikoi

My humom spent lots of time talking to my Auntie Shel on the phone. They were cackling about how funny Tiggr looked, harvesting and biting lilikoi even tho the taste is not exactly dog-friendly. Not a kiss or squeeze for The Miss, no discussion of my perfection. Tuh! Well, after they hung up (hung up what? what does that mean?) it was clearly time to make my presence felt, so I began to barf. On the bed. Humom unfortunately grabbed a map as a landing pad, so she caught the barf, which was of course bright yellow and lilikoi-scented. Hah! Solidarity!

--- Missy out

The Dog Bed

My humom came back from a shopping trip with a big round pillow that she put on the floor. It's very fluffy and soft, and exactly matches my toy "owl." She calls it a dog bed. I've given it a few tries and can report that:

a) it is very comfortable for the curled-up Mallie; however,
b) the stretched-out Mallie can rest either her front end on the bed or
c) her back end on the bed.

I tend to choose option c), keeping the Mallie hips on the soft padding while the head is on the cool tiles. Humom gets a good chuckle, but she could have shelled out for a bed that fits.

--- Missy out

Or Missy can just continue sleeping on my bed ...

Art Show!

Our daily walk has certainly changed a lot! Instead of an empty park with lots of places to read the news, talk to other dogs and pee and poop, the place has been invaded by humans with tables and tents. Some of the tables smell really good, like food, but humom won't let me get near those. Others smell interesting, like flowers, soaps and candles. Humom won't let me eat those either. There are tables with nice wood smells that remind me of my Uncle Clay, and others with pottery and glass smells like Uncle Nathan. Humom is most fascinated by the tables with the stones and wires -- she even bought one pair of earrings called "tourmaline," which must be a kind of trampoline. Like she doesn't already have a whole bunch of earrings! Whatever, as long as she doesn't try to get ME to wear them! At least all the nice Art people had a great appreciation for the Malamute, giving me lots of lovins, declaring me a superb work of Art, and taking lots of pictures of the Mallie face. I don't mind adoration from the cognoscenti ...

--- Missy out

Toed Car

Never noticed any paws on the car before, but humom came back all kerflustered yesterday because it got toed. I guess that means she couldn't drive around, and she does like to drive around. She made some calls and tried to find people to take her to the Toe Lot, but ended up taking a Taxi, paying Hundreds of dollars for the Toe and getting a Ticket on top of all that. Whatever. It all sounds like one of those typical human messups: high blood pressure, adrenaline, sweat ... and for what? I prefer a nice walk under the trees myself.

--- Missy out

Manoa campus

Yesterday was my first visit to the UH Manoa campus. Had heard about the extensive construction going on, but found it lovely - beautifully landscaped, set in the spectacular Manoa valley with glimpses of the sharp-ridged mountains ... And there's a nice bookstore with Mac section! Like.

On the Peer

Yesterevening humom took me walking on the Peer. This is not the same Peer where she picked up the car, but a smaller Peer just down the road from our house. I think it may be the one where you Peer around the Corner. Anywooo, I had eaten some misc bones, cig butts, what humom calls "ick gross trash don't eat that" over the past couple of days and wasn't feeling too great. Amazing what hupeople leave lying all over the grounds of the Zoo and the park. Dead rats and birds I can understand, but all this other treasure is just plain wasteful. So I scarfed down some salty sand to settle the Mallie stomach and was looking forward to a nice treat from human Steve, who always has some in his pocket. Too late! When we ran into him, he was feeding some dumb birds, and the sight made me need to hurl. I began to drool, pulled back the lips in the "I need to hurl" smile, and started to heave. The Peer was well occupied by lots of tourists and locals, as always. Everyone backed up in a big circle and up came all my dinner, unchewed, as well as my souvenirs. Humom was embarrassed, but Steve cleaned up my production in a twinkle -- before I could sample it again -- and I had to go home without my treat. No fair!

--- Missy out

A Horse, a Horse!

So there we are, strolling along, reading the usual news, me being yanked away from the dead birds etc, cars & buses roaring everywhere, when what do I feel?? Yes indeed, a certain rhythmic trot trot trot. Head up, ears at maximum swivel. I have the direction, a few trucks move out of the way, and there he is! Even humom can see him now. A big, white friend with hooves, all long mane and leggings, prancing along in front of a frothy carriage. I give him a big Wooooo and prance along at the end of my leash, tail and ears high. Humom doesn't know I used to have friends with hooves before I adopted her. She's pretty surprised, but delighted that I like this guy, and we prance all the way home.

--- Missy out

Ticked at Target

Okay, this isn't about dogs, it's about shopping on-line at Target.com. Since we had to downsize a lot, I looked for clever space-saving furniture I wouldn't mind getting rid of if I have to in 6 months or a year. Found several at Target.com, was very careful to order "free shipping" items, nothing that mentioned a skittish horror of Alaska & Hawaii. Was astonished to see a shipping charge of over $50 for just 3 items. Wrote to Customer Service and a small exchange later, got the reply that Free Shipping doesn't apply to Hawaii. Well, there goes my motivation to order from Target.com!

Rats!

Today we walked by the Zoo as usual, and one of the people was outside!! I had a good sniff in the grass and SNAP! my jaws clamped around a small furry prey. SHRIEK from humom, Drop It and I had to let it go. No fun! Of course it was dead already, so I let it go. Humom yelped that it was a Dead Rat, and she met up with T and they yapped about how the Zoo is poisoning rats and should be careful about dogs eating poisoned rats and getting sick. Do they think we are stupid? Huchildren put everything in their mouths, I see this in the park every day, they should worry about them! I didn't pay much attention to the yammering, since T's yellow Lab was in a down-stay and I was dancing around giving her the eye and trying to get her to break it. She is way too much of a Good Dog ...

--- Missy out

Oh my poor ears!

Mooooooaaaaannnnn!!! I'm lying on the bed with my head shoved under humom's pillow trying to rest up my poor ears. Don't hupeople realize how sensitive doggie ears are? We were in the park, minding our own business, humom wandering along, myself reading the news & being gorgeous, when a group of hupeople came up and did the usual "isn't she sweet what is she can we pet her?" thing. Well, I'm fine with that. One of the ladies was particularly fabulous -- lovely, pillowy when she cuddled me, sweet-smelling, knew just how to pet me right -- but the voice, oh my doG. It was high and just kept getting higher, til I had to pin the ears back just to keep the drums from exploding. "I wuuuv yooooo yes I dyoooo I'm taking you home you're so cyuuuuuute my sweeeeteeeee ..." Every "I" like a knife in my head. Humom finally rescued me and took me home to recover. No praise for not biting the torturer or anything. Sheesh.

--- Missy ouuuuuut

Not Fair

So we were walking on the beach and a really intense huguy stopped to talk. He was almost shaking with energy. He wanted to know a bit about me, naturally, and then proceeded to inform my humom that he really wanted a dog, didn't have a dog, wouldn't have a dog in an apartment, thought a dog should have a lot of space and a big house, thought it was totally unfair to the dog to have a dog in the city in an apartment without a house and a big yard. His voice got louder and louder and more intense! Then he said it was nice to meet her and left. I looked at her to say, "give him the speech about we get a lot of dogs into rescue from houses with big yards who are totally neglected, it isn't the space that counts, it's the attention, and furthermore, Mallies are great apartment dogs," but she just shook her head and took me home. A very unMallie attitude.

--- Missy out

Testosterone

Yet another handyman in the house. It's been three solid days of handymen and plumbers, and today even a cable (okay, DSL) guy. All of them have been really nice to me and appreciated the Mallie, but the place is tiny enough to get a bit claustrophobic with all the muscles flexing in here.

We are living in a hotel. But we are renting from a person, D, who owns the room. Humom says that I have to leave the room to turn around, it's that small. That's not quite true, but almost. I prefer to be outside walking around the park and plotting how to sneak into the zoo, don't tell humom.

When humom came to look at the room a couple of weeks ago, it was small then too, but pretty much everything functioned. Between then and when we moved in, it seems to have been thoroughly trashed. The shower drips constantly, the stall finish is coming off, the toilet was running ... whine whine whine. When Squeaky's friend Daniel brought us home from HNL, he manhandled the sliding glass door to the balcony open, and of course humom can't close it -- there's a mangled piece clogging up the base. D is having freakouts from all the things that have to be fixed, but I don't mind the visits and petting from nice guys.

Even tho so much is wrong with the place -- even her wifi wasn't working -- humom is strangely calm about it. She seems to really like it here and to be enjoying herself, or at least to be taking everything in her stride. Must be my influence.

--- Missy out

Space Invader!

It may be time to get the sliding door fixed. Humom has to leave it open when she leaves, and at all times, since it doesn't slide. Today she came back from yet another shopping trip to find a rather large bird with extremely tattered tail-feathers fluttering around the room. She became rather fluttery herself, trying to guide the avian out the door making squeaky noises the while. I tried to preserve my sangfroid, and smiled at humom's praise of me for not slaughtering the visitor. What happens in Waikiki, stays in ... The flustered creature finally tired of humom's ineffectual wavings and squeezed out between the window louvers. No doubt to visit the Zoo across the street, where it's calmer. What does a gal have to do to get her zzzs in?

--- Missy out

Car is here!

This is so weird. Humom made a huge kerfluffle about going down to the Peer (??) to get our car. Well, dammit, if the car was coming with us, why didn't we just drive ourselves? I bet humom didn't trust herself to drive this far, but the driver she got sure took a long time. She says they put the car on a fairy boat to bring it over the water, which you can tell because the car is covered with ocean salt. Tastes pretty good, if you're in the mood.

Anywoo, humom's friend Sav set her up with L to drive to the Peer and get the car, whole big deal (sheesh). Humom came back all stoked, not just because all our stuff is in the car -- MORE stuff?? Where is she going to put it?? -- but also because she really enjoyed meeting L, who seems to be just the kind of gal humom hopes to have as students in her course. Nice to know they're out there in the wild. I just care if they like Mallies ...

-- Missy out

Arrival

Humom and I have arrived in Honolulu (or as she says, (HNL). I'm writing this because she is POOPED (when I'm pooped, I get a time-out, but whatevahs).
We were greeted by a huge, almost vertical technicolor rainbow as we flew into HNL. Or so she says. I have to take her word for it, being incarcerated in my house in an Aloha Air Cargo flight at the time.

Missy exaggerates. She was safely on the tarmac; her flight was delayed for over an hour. The lovely people at Aloha in HNL were clearly used to dealing with pet parents quietly having nervous breakdowns while conspicuously NOT asking "is she here yet?" every 5 seconds ... They also thought it was hilarious that she had her own carry-on, but a girl's gotta have her stuff. They were all quite as nice as the lovely blonde lady in OGG, unlike the dude, who was a real bastard and desperately needed a good biting or maybe a nice case of mange. Sarcoptic.

I was greeted by many admirers, of course, and my house was sent away with greetings to my Auntie Shel. She is not here. I don't understand that. What is here is rain. For my friends in Kihei, that is moisture that falls from the sky, and not from sprinklers. It is cooler than sun. You cannot drink it, tho, even if it makes puddles on the ground, because Humom says, "ick, no, dirty."
We have a LOT of dogs in the house. I've only fought with one of them, but have chatted with a couple of shepherds and lots of hors d'oeuvres. There's a Sibe named Paradise (snicker) and a boy Sibe named Jake. Right across the street is the Zoo with other people I've read but haven't met yet. We shall find a way, no doubt ...
There is also a beach about a minute away but the sand is grainy and like pieces of shell -- I'll have to get used to it. We walk on it a lot, but try to find times when it is not TOTALLY crowded. I know I'm beautiful, but really, it would be nice to be able to exit the building without being mobbed by popperatsy (sp?). Those are a species of hyena who travel in packs carrying cameras/phones that they shove in my face, taking pictures & grabbing at me without even asking or talking to Humom & screeching & cackling the whole time. Sometimes I have to act like Ghost & just hide behind H's legs ...
-- Missy out

Missy's togs

We're moving to Honolulu this weekend. We'll probably only be there for the semester, and the apartment is tiny -- a former hotel room -- so we have to downsize. Predictably, the place is a mess as I'm going through everything to decide what stays here and what goes. Just discovered some big, Malamute-sized bandanas I'd made out of beautiful, soft colors that exactly match Missy's coat. So yesterday I took her with me on errands and she was strutting around the UPS office, etc, all spiffed up and fancy. Not that she doesn't look lovely all naked!