This just in

My dog is absolutely adorable, but I have to share this guy with you and my new favorite cute site, the Daily Puppy. Actually, since this is a Golden pup, I am sure my boy looked a lot like this guy only about a year ago. Now he is a big, gangly, 70 pound pup.

Swimfest 2007

I have finally attached some pictures of our new dog Grady. It is hard to believe we have had him 6 weeks already. Every day life with Grady just gets more and more fun. Last Saturday I took him to the rescue groups semi-annualy swim fest at a farm out side of town. The thirty or more Gold Retrievers in attendance frolicked in the creek while their human companions ate breakfast tacos and fruit salad while discussing their dog rearing experiences with other Golden owners. Grady was in heaven bounding around where ever he wanted off leash and I was also pretty content watching all the cute Golden heads bob up and down in the water. Although, none of those head's were ever Grady's. He was much more comfortable chasing other dogs on the dry ground than diving into that scary, wet pond. I am not sure he had ever seen open water before. He certainly didn't act like he knew what to do with it. It was fine for putting your feet in but going in farther was not a good idea. I also think this was the first time he had ever been around a horse. He barked hysterically at them when we passed a couple on the road. When a couple came near our little gathering all the dogs went nuts and chased after them (of course). The owner of the farm told us to call our dogs and I shouted a little panicky for Grady not seeing him anywhere. I felt a dog by my legs but there were a dozen around me. After a coulple more yells I look down and realize he's been right there by me the whole time:). What a good dog. In fact, he was by my side most of the picnic- like my little pal, people and dog watching with me. Right now he is chomping on a bone by my feet while I write this.

In the company of puppies

So now that I have my very own big dog to walk every day, I have decided to move my attention at the shelter to puppies. Yeah, I needed a lot convincing to decide to spend two hours cuddling, playing, and petting puppies but after I relented and admitted it was for a cause I took the puppy training and donned my official Puppy Socializer badge. I am not kidding, I really have a badge that says Puppy Socializer.

So, this weekend instead of walking big dogs around the field, I scrubbed down the "real-life" room, gathered an armful of toys, treats, and towels and "socialized" three darling terrier mix puppies. When I took the first puppy out of his kennel, I was sure someone was going to say "hey girl put the dog down". In fact, I was showing my badge to every staff member I walked by just so they knew I was officially allowed to pet puppies. You see, for the last 9 months, the pups have been off limits and marked with big red stickers on the kennels. Don't even look at them the stern looks from the staffers seemed to say as you neared a pup's kennel. However, after lots of convincing from the volunteers and promising to be very careful and use liberal amounts of bleach in the real-life room, the shelter staff has agreed to let volunteers play with puppies. This is a win-win for everyone, the puppies get that all important socialization so they can be good grown ups and not end up back in the shelter and the volunteers will be even more compelled to stick around. And in case you were not aware, a little mopping and sanitizing is well worth a good cuddle with a pup.

My Monthly Post

OK I have been very bad. I am sure you are shocked to actually see a post here since it has been a MONTH since I last posted. Ugh I have to get back into the habit of writing here. I love doing it, it's just after all the wedding planning and trying to train the dog, I don't have energy to get back on the laptop. Whine, whine, whine, huh? Anyway, it has been a busy month. We finally adopted a Golden Retriever boy, named Buddy who we now call Grady. The first week with Grady was fairly hard. The first night he made his way out of the yard and played a "fun" game of chase with me for about a block and a half. When I brought him back home I was livid and in tears, just sure we had made a terrible mistake giving up Sasha and adopting this young Rascal. They say the first 2 weeks of adopting a pet are the honeymoon stage... in our case it was a rocky honeymoon but I now am completely enamoured with his adorable little blonde face. Our biggest complaint about Sasha was that she was so low energy we really couldn't interact with her a problem that Grady does not have. He goes for a good, energetic game of frisbee while still knowing when it is time to lay nicely by our feet while we watch tv or surf the net. We start obedience classes this Tuesday at the Humane Society and I hope we can improve his recall and few other basic manners.
Anyway, as you can tell I could go on and on about the dog but there have been other things keeping me from the blog. This is actually my first weekend at home in over 2 weeks. The weekend before last I drove to New Orleans for a friends steam boat bridal shower and crawfish boil. What a blast that was. New Orleans is such a fun place to spend a weekend and it was a special treat being there with natives who knew all the great "hole in the wall" type restaurants. Last weekend we went to Charleston, South Carolina to watch the Mamester graduate from the Americorp. I cannot express how proud I am of her for sticking with that program. I am sure it didn't always feel like it was worth all the trouble but I think the skills she learned and the people she helped was more the worth the inconviences she had to endure.
Anyway, I have to run for now but I will honestly try to write more I promise.