Happy Birthday to me!

Again I find myself apologizing for slacking in my blog posts. I am going to try to make an effort to set aside 5 or 10 minutes a day to keep my faithful followers apprised of my activities. Make no bones about it, I have been a busy boxer this summer and love every minute of it. Basically, I am on my fourth vacation since Memorial Day. We kicked off the summer with a week in the OBX with the rest of the Knowlton Klan.

Then in July, Mom and I went camping with Pappy John and Jasper at Stony Creek Campground in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. We had a blast hiking some seriously steep trails and wallowing in a local water hole. Since I'm not a swimmer like Jasper Phelps, I really didn't do much more than wade but it was still fun.
Here are a few pictures of our camping trip.


In August Mom and I went to our first ever Blue Ridge Dog Scout Mini Camp which was organized by Carlisle Troop 161. What a blast! I spent almost a week with the founder of of Dog Scouts of America, Lonnie Olson and her boxer mix, Kozi, who taught me how to paint earning me my Art of Shaping badge. I'm no Picaso but Mom thinks that I really have potential. I entitled this work of art "Wipe out at the Daytona 500." If you're interested in purchasing a copy, just shoot me an e-mail.

"Wipe Out" by Newman Knowlton
I also earned five other merit badges -- CPR, First Aid, Backpacking, Overnight Camping, Dog Care and Maintenance. If you are interested in learning more about Dog Scouts and the requirements for earning badges, etc., I encourage you to visit the DSA website which houses a host of free, educational information on getting involved with the organization, responsible dog ownership, training videos and guides, and much more. Here is just a brief album of some of the activities that took place at Mini Camp. Enjoy!


And as tradition has it, we say goodbye to summer and celebrate my birthday with two weeks in the OBX. In addition to my birthday, today was also Grandparents Day. So Happy G-Day to all you grandparents out there. While I'm on the topic of holidays, I love presents just like anyone else, but I do not care for the brown, fly-ridden ones left behind by other K-9s and their irresponsible owners here the past two weeks. While I have already accumulated the requisite 50 stray piles of poo to earn my Clean Up America I Merit Badge, Thelma Lou and Roger have really put a dent in their logs over the past week and a half. 
My 5th Birthday Celebration
You know the old saying, "The early bird catches the worm," well tomorrow morning this early bird is going to catch the turd -- meaning that I plan to get out early and patrol the neighborhood looking for those who neglect to clean up after their four-legged friends. It saddens me to say, that this is one of the worst years in my history of visiting the OBX that I have spotted and cleaned up so many stray piles of poo.

Photos of vacation in the OBX to be posted later this week. I promise.