The alarm went off early as usual, but this was a Saturday , and we are supposed to sleep in on Saturdays, except me. I always get up early and jump on Dad's stomach to make him groan. But Mom and Dad got up and eventually loaded me into the puppy bus (that's what I call the 4-Runner) . It seemed like we were going to a dog show, but I knew we were not since the grooming table was not loaded, just a big black thing, some strange orange things, and my exercise pen. There were some long poles on the top rack of the truck. It still seemed like a dog show but it was not. We headed west into the mountains to our, or rather their, destination which turned out to be Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

We stopped at a park where Dad unloaded the big black thing and my exercise pen. It started to rain so they hustled me into the pen, covered it and they went under a shelter where they could stay dry. But soon the rain stopped, the sky turned blue, and the sun came out, great! Dad unrolled the big black thing, which turned out to be this 17-foot raft. I was going white water rafting!

Dad pumped up the raft, tied everything on, just in case. The strange orange things turned out to be their life jackets. I had a life jacket too, but it was white. My life jacket belonged to my older "sisters" who are veteran rafters. Dad showed Mom where to sit since Mom does not do this too often, what to hold on to, and we were off on the Colorado River.

Mom and I were in the back section and Dad was in the middle section controlling us with the long poles, which he called oars. We were on the river moving slowly, but we were moving. The smells were a little different on the water, they were the best of smells, they were the worst of smells . . . Dad would often get close to the shore where there were some good fishing spots, if you wanted to go fishing. At one of those fishing spots, I saw a little ground squirrel "varmint" up on the bank. I lunged at once for it and tried to spring off the side tube but was suddenly pulled back into the raft by Mom. We were only about 10 feet from the shore to that "varmint" so I could not understand what all the yanking was about. Dad gave the long poles a couple of tugs and we started floating faster.

The river made a big turn and up ahead we saw some white water. We started floating faster and the white stuff got bigger than us. Mom held me tight as we started going up and down and everyone got splashed. The cold water felt good on my backside. This rafting stuff is pretty spiffy ... I can stay cool and bark at "varmints."

We passed some people who were fishing from the shore and then some people in rafts passed us. They were surprised to see a Champion Standard Schnauzer rafting. I guess that this is not your everyday occurrence to see a champ pup like me, and I think that they were quite impressed!!!

Later in the afternoon I saw some cows near the shore - boy are they big "varmints." Of course I barked to let them know that they were on "my" river and they should move their bovine butts. I barked out orders that they should move - some did and others just stared. I think they were born in a barn. Those cows were pretty exciting until I saw the geese floating in front of our raft.

Dad turned the raft around so we were pointing down river and I could get a good sniff and a good look at those floating "varmints." They were honking away as though there was a dog jam, you know, the kind you get just before the group ring at a dog show when everyone is trying to get in the ring at once. They were looking left and right just in front of us and floating and honking like nothing mattered. To me it did matter since they needed barking at - big time. I hung over the large tubes and barked at them. They did not like that and floated out of sight. We finally arrived at our take out point, that is river talk for the end of the trip. Dad brought the big black thing on shore. Mom put me in the exercise pen while they loaded all the stuff into the puppy bus. I sat quietly sipping a cool bowl of water and relaxed after an exciting afternoon on the river.

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