As soon as I got home, the first thing I wanted to do was take a bath! In this picture, Milkshake is helping me get the bath water cold enough:

Here I am relaxing in my nice, cold bath. Boy, did I ever get dirty in Iraq! Polar bears are very clean animals. It’s important for us to keep clean because if our fur gets dirty, it can’t keep us warm! Unfortunately the showers in Iraq were not big enough for me, so I had to go without for most of the tour.

A few days after I got home, my friends put on a parade for me! Here we are getting ready for the big parade. You can see Snort and I are riding on the hood of a car so that we can wave to the crowd. My friend Toby, the Beagle, is walking ahead of us carrying the flag, and also serving as an honor guard are an Eagle and another Bear from the Minnesota National Guard. Milkshake got to ride inside the car.

Here are some of my friends getting ready to watch the parade. From left to right are Big Owl, Doogan, Reba the Golden Retriever (hidden behind the flag she’s holding), Tiger, Owl, Fiona the Irish Setter, Harry the Spider, and Red Rover:

Amy got to drive the car in the parade!

Amy loved driving the car and waving her banner!

Hooray for parades!