To our friends scattered to and fro:

It’s me again, Detroit Snapbarker Mendoza. Have you missed me? It’s been forever since I’ve written. In fact- the last time you heard from me was when I received a Purple Heart during harvest by getting several toes amputated. Read that dramatic tale here Dog Tales: Part 2- Literally Chewed Up 🐾 Ugh that was a low point. Sorry to leave you wondering how I was surviving for so long.

Well anyhow I’m here to report that I am. Surviving that is. And busier than usual. And to be honest now that I’m minus on the toes, it takes the joy out of writing. You ought to try typing one time without all of your fingers. Miz.er.able!

It’s no small job to be in charge of border patrol at our farm in Singers Glen. No sir. My assistant Rolo and I take our job very seriously and stage ingenious barking attacks on every farmer who.even.considers to work in the fields bordering our farm. Day and night we are vigilant with our surveillance duties.

Anyhow. So obviously the family around here didn’t think that was enough responsibility. Because next thing I knew- they were working down at the pond. I’d slide down to check on progress, take my daily swim and nose around a bit.

Fascinating. I must say that it was only because of my perseverance that this place finally got up and running. They are quite excited about “Pondside Paradise” as they call it. More on that here Legit cabin fever

And it has been a lot of fun. But guess what happens whenever they host a pond party? Somebody has to do the sniff test on every single vehicle. And do you think the family even thought of that? Rolo and I have a pretty good system worked out. But man it’s tough.

And then they opened this thing up on AirBnB. I have no idea what that stands for. Because I haven’t seen anybody arriving in the air. They just drive in the lane. But my assistant and I have the BnB part down to a science (Bark n Bark).

Again we had to develop a careful strategy on the deal but I think we’re getting it perfected. It goes like this:

Just kidding. Did you really think I was going to divulge our battle plan on a public space?

I will say this: we’ve loved our Airbnb guests. The family doesn’t often meet them, so it’s up to the assistant and I to represent the whole 9 yards and we take this very seriously. We don’t stay long, but just long enough to get bragged on and our ears scratched.

We’ve witnessed some pretty cool stuff: families watching the stars by the campfire; people enjoying a break from busy city life. One couple even came from the U.K. and caught a fish “straightway” they said in the funniest accent. Also got in on this: (I guess they noticed my missing toes and didn’t trust me to take pics of this big event 🤷🏻‍♀️)

See the little glow to the left of the pic? This couple brought their own lights along. It looked great and made us fit into our neighborhood a bit better 😅😂

And it jump started the Christmas spirit.

We had so much fun bringing some Christmas cheer to the place. But you know what they say?

“But the prettiest sight to see is the Holly that will be on your own front door.”

I’ve never been called “Holly” before but that’s the song I heard playing as I supervised the festivities right outside the front door 💁🏻‍♀️

Come see us when you get the chance. I promise to go easy on my interrogations.

Merry Christmas,

“Holly” Seasonal code name for Detroit Snappenbarker Mendoza, Head of the Singers Glen Security Division