Okay ladies, this book is about me, me, me and we’re all tired of listening to your bickering and your put downs. Am I right Drake loving reader? You want to hear about the adventures of Drake the great who, if he were human, would make chocolate cake. My dad’s parents live up in Cascade where we often visit and it is so much fun to go there because it’s cooler than the city, full of wild animal smells and Mimi often drops food on the floor. One time we walked up the high road where the houses sit up on the mountain side and the grade of the road makes walking hard or at least that’s what mom says! This particular day I was off my leash which always gets me particularly frolic-y so I ran up this steep driveway where I found myself at the front of a house looking down on my mom and dad standing on the road way down below the hill. I shook my rump as dad hollered for me to come down immediately which made me excited so what did I do? What any 3 year old spaz would do... I took the short cut and ran off the top of the hill. I felt like a superhero, like Wonder Dog, as I sailed through the air and I was thinking how good I would look if I only had a cape! I noticed the shocked look on my dad’s face as I was mid-flight and started to wonder if I had made a tactical error by jumping from the high mountain incline? The landing was rough as I slid across the gravel and scraped my chin so hard it started bleeding. In my normal fashion, I popped up like I stuck the landing with no injuries. Mom laughed which made Dad mad but he checked me out and I was okay. Years later, Dad can finally relate this to his friends as a funny story.
My life has been full of these “near misses” brought on by my crazy antics but I have been a lucky boy for sure. I love to jump and I can be pretty acrobatic about it especially when I am jumping for the frisbee. I don’t always catch it but I get cheers from my family saying I did a good job. I love getting praise and it makes my butt wiggle.
I’ve worn the cone of shame twice and the shocking thing about them is it wasn’t my antics that got me there. Outside of being the most obedient, loving, protective studs on the planet, Boxers have a condition known as Boxer eye. It’s a corneal ulcer and when a Boxer gets one, he will soon have a second one and I was no exception. I had keratotomy performed on both my eyes within a year so I was blessed with wearing the cone so that my eye could heal. I am fairly certain that during these times, my parents wanted to drop me off at the pound. There wasn’t enough Drake charm to offset the carnage I left behind when I bulldozed my way around the house. I ran into shins, I knocked bric-a-brac around and I plowed over the cat many times to one of her heartfelt loud “meows”. The best thing that happened however was when we were living in Florida and mom and dad were in the swimming pool throwing the toy to Dazey and I. Despite my sizable cone, I could still chase the toy and, upon finding it, I could drop the cone around the toy blocking Dazey from getting it plus she couldn’t steal it out of my mouth because she couldn’t get her head in the cone. As us dogs were standing around the pool looking at Dad’s arm to see where he would throw it, he finally released it and I took off for it. Problem was Dazey was standing between me and the ball so I knocked her into the pool during my turn around. I didn’t mean to but couldn’t have planned it better. Tee hee. Don’t panic reader, she’s a water dog so she swam to the steps where she waited for me to return so she could shake off the pool water all over me.
Another time it was my fault was when Dad threw the frisbee too far and I was too intent on catching it. Problem was, I turned and ran head first into the fence. I bounced up, grabbed the frisbee and returned to Dad without uttering an “ouch”.
One vet visit day, the door to the Avalanche was opened so we could run from the house to the truck. Ahead of the pack (of course!), I jumped into the truck however my weight shifted backward and I landed on the ground on my back. Bad doggie words were running through my head but I got up and dad graciously picked me up and put me in the truck. Am I getting too old for the acrobatics of my youth? 
Need my toys to make me feel better.
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