Red, White, Blue, and Cool All Over!
By Emma
Hi friends!
Can you believe it is the first of July already? Independence Day is just around the corner, but here in 2026, it isn’t just any regular holiday. We are celebrating America’s big 250th birthday!
Wow, a quarter of a millennium! Dad says that’s a whole lot of history. I’m planning to celebrate by wearing my finest patriotic bandana and maybe extra supervision of the backyard.
By the way, with all the big celebrations and fireworks coming up, Emma here has an important public service announcement: remember to protect and support your pets! July 4th can be a pretty scary time for us four-legged citizens. Those extra loud noises, sudden booms, and bright flashes can make us super anxious. Humans, please keep your pets safely inside, close the curtains, turn on some soothing background music, and give us a safe place to cuddle up. We rely on you to keep us feeling secure when the sky gets noisy!
Dad’s New Kicks
Speaking of stepping out in style, I recently went on a very important mission: shoe shopping with Dad! We visited Road Runner Sports where they did a full, high-tech evaluation to examine his feet and figure out the absolute best size and fit for him. I was, of course, the chief consultant.
The nice young man in the photo took such good care of Dad and made sure he got exactly what his feet needed for our daily desert walks. I made sure to give him my official stamp of approval!
The Great Arizona Meltdown (and a Tummy Lifesaver)
But oh boy, the excitement didn’t end with shoes. After our shoe shopping escapade, we walked through the front door and immediately noticed it was… well, a bit tropical. To be specific, it was 85 degrees inside the house! Oh, the humanity!
Some very nice technicians from Pride Heating and Cooling came out right away to check our air conditioner. It turns out our AC unit was pretty old, and our furnace was even older—definitely in need of a full replacement. Because a whole new system takes time, it didn’t happen overnight. We had to endure one long night and a whole day without any air conditioning right here in the Arizona heat. Not a pretty situation for a fluffy pup!
Dad did his best to help us cope with it though. He set up box fans to keep the air moving and researched all kinds of tips on how to keep me cool. He found one idea that saved the day: he soaked a towel in cold water, wrung it out really well, and spread it out on the floor. At first, I wasn’t too sure about it, but once I got comfy and laid down, I absolutely loved it! Laying on that damp, chilly towel gave me a perfectly cool tummy and kept me comfortable both day and night.
As you can see from the photos, I stayed on top of the installation crew to ensure everything went perfectly. Our new air conditioner is finally in, and it is really great! Dad says it’s highly efficient and good for the environment—which I think is human-speak for “Dad saves a lot of money on the monthly utility bills.” All I know is that it keeps us wonderfully cool!
This Month’s “Ask Emma” Column
Now that we are nice and refreshed, this month’s Ask Emma column is the perfect way to add a splash of color to our lives. I’m tackling a question that might surprise a few of you humans!
Dear Emma,
My husband insists our dog can only see in black and white, but I swear she reacts to certain colorful toys differently. Settle our debate: Do dogs actually see color?
— Color Confused in SaddleBrooke
Dear Color Confused,
You can officially take a victory lap around the living room! Your husband is stuck in an old myth. We dogs absolutely do see color—we just don’t see the exact same vibrant rainbow that you humans do.
Think of my vision as being a bit like human red-green color blindness. While your eyes have three types of color-detecting “cones” (red, green, and blue), canine eyes only have two (blue and yellow).
Because of this, the beautiful Arizona sunsets look a bit different to me. Red, orange, and green don’t register as distinct colors; they mostly look like shades of gray, brown, or dull yellow. However, blue and yellow stand out beautifully!
This actually creates a funny little joke on humans. You love buying us bright red toys because they look so vivid against the green grass to your eyes. But to me, a red ball on the lawn looks like a dark gray ball on a yellowish-gray yard. It completely blends in! If you want a toy that truly pops for your pup, buy something bright blue or yellow. A blue toy on a green lawn is a canine masterpiece.
While we might lose the battle of the rainbow, we completely outclass you in the dark. My eyes are packed with “rods”—the specialized cells that detect shapes, shadows, and movement.
We also have a built-in secret weapon called the tapetum lucidum. This is a mirror-like layer at the back of our eyes. When light enters my eye, it hits this mirror and reflects right back through, giving my brain a second chance to see the image. It’s why our eyes eerily glow green when you take a flash photo of us at night! Because of this built-in night vision, I can see quite perfectly in light that is five to six times dimmer than what you need to avoid stubbing your toe.
All those extra rods also give us high-speed motion tracking. If a tiny lizard darts across a desert rock fifty feet away, I will spot the micro-movement instantly, even if the lizard is perfectly camouflaged.
So, while the world looks a little softer and less colorful to me, Dad says my night-vision goggles and motion-detecting radar make up for it.
Now, after this discussion of color, you’ve probably figured out that I was totally teasing Dad in my last blog post! When I described our day at the car show and how I was trying to convince him that I’d look great in a red convertible… well, since red isn’t actually a big deal to my eyes, I was just pulling Dad’s leg!
Truth be told, I don’t need a red sports car. I absolutely love riding shotgun right next to Dad in our white SUV. I get to sit up nice and high where I can see everything, all while the lovely, ice-cold air from the AC blows right through my fur. Truly, it’s the best seat in the house—or should I say, on the road!
With love and wagging optimism,
Emma 🐾
Have a question for me? I’d love to hear from you! Email emmathewhitedog@gmail.com, and I might answer it in a future blog.
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