yes. my hooves have not touched the keyboard for almost a year.

well, well. the nasty hooligans that roughed me up about a year ago are moving away! (perhaps they've already gone.) can i just snort a while? maggie and i never liked the lot of them anyway, and don't even ask how mommy feels about them. she will go off!

mon dieu! so much has changed since the last pigblog. most notably, i have another sister whose name is millie. she is a black labrador that mommy bought for $50 at the dawsonville outlets right before christmas. funny, that...daddy told her we couldn't possibly manage having another person in the house so he told her to "return" millie. even though she wasn't happy about the decision, she complied (amazingly enough) and returned the wee puppy. she called daddy to update him on the situation and he answered the call with a "woof". naturally, this made mommy hit the roof and she ran back just in time to scoop millie out of some stranger's hands and return the check to the labrador selling kid.

so the family tree now reads like this: daddy, mommy, mathilda (moi), maggie and millie. i must say that i do love my maggie but for some reason millie and i have a real connection. i think it's because she is as self absorbed as me, but she still makes time to hang out beside my rooting areas to keep me company. maggie is certainly supportive (as a sister should be) but she is reticent to join in all the fun. she is more of an observer than a participant. no matter, we all have our places in the world and the three "m" sisters are doing just fine.

mommy has gone missing a great deal of the time lately. daddy says she has gone back to art school to build a portfolio. i have no problem with that at all, but i do miss her a great deal. the past few days she has been visiting and it's been terrific to get the old rubdown and scritchy-scratchy massage with the brush. she also remembers how i have her trained to give me carrots when i sit down and pretend to be a good girl. she still remembers! so, i like to do that as much as possible as she seems to be quite proud of herself for doing the trick so well after all this time.

daddy has taken up kayaking bigtime. he is always on the river it seems. he bought mommy a kayak too, so they will probably be trolling down the hill to hit the river together. they still take walks with maggie and millie in the woods (daddy goes almost daily; mommy joins in when daddy guilts her out enough). sometimes i join them, but it can be a bit of a bother as i like to leisurely stroll to be certain i haven't missed any delicious rooting areas. last time we hiked to the stream, i found a lovely sandy patch that was heaven. the family paused for an acceptable length of time for me to enjoy myself, and then it was off to finish the remainder of the hike. i know mommy likes to take me on the journeys but i think daddy feels as though i don't enjoy myself and that i would rather stay in my pigloo. this is absolutely not true; i enjoy anything that we can do as a family. mind you, this does not mean that i have given up on the mathilda show. nosiree bob! i am still all about mathilda yet i have grown up enough to know that family is almost as important as me. so i do like to indulge in the outings.

i'm going to sleep now as it's almost 3am. i've done my last food reconnaisance mission for the night and will make the first morning rounds at the crack of dawn. after that, daddy will bring me some proper food and maggie and millie will join me for breakfast. i like it when the kids all eat together. good times, good times.

bon nuit, mes amies. lovely to see you all again!