Blessing of the Animals

Gillis on Cadillac Mt.







Satchmo enjoying a bone.







Ava's song "I'm so pretty, oh so pretty"!




Well, today was Blessing of the Animals at our Church in Hopkinton, NH. I ended up taking pictures of all our animals, as the Boys were with Alice, and Ranger is always too much for me when we socialize. Rosa was all set to stay home with a large raw bone so she and Ranger could have "brunch" with Dad while he read the paper, but she "decided" that we should go so she could see CATS. Of course once she saw the cats, she was a maniac, so spent the time in the car! I did bring pictures of all of our animals and had them "blessed" in abstentia. It was a fun morning.
We have had reports on most of the pups, so I'll post a few of the notes today.
Ava, our NJ girl, has moved in with Emily in Mass. She is wonderfully social, very smart and "Knows" she is Queen! We are all trying to go to the Pet Expo Oct 25th..if you want info, email Emily at pickle8505@yahoo.com , and she will give you the particulars.

This is from Gillis's mom (Bar Harbour, ME) "As I said, he is getting bigger. He now is able to stand on his hind legs and see what is on counters and tables. Last weekend he wasn't right in the room with us (he always needs to be with "the folks") so I went looking for him. There he was, on the dining room table. When he saw me, he ran to the other end, snatched a bunch of napkins out of the napkin holder as he whipped by, and dove off the end of the table and hid behind my chair. I was laughing so hard I couldn't discipline him! He is very good about going into his crate at night and in the morning we now have a routine. I open the door and he comes out and sits between my feet so that I can pet him and tell him how wonderful he is. Then he needs three belly rubs (He stops at the same three places every morning) before he will go downstairs to go out."

Satchmo, in Mass, has really settled in. He is a big boy, and just loves life. He has a large extended family who adore him. He is learning "manners" and loves walks. According to his Dad "He now weighs close to 28 lbs more or less as I was holding a squirming IWS, so who really knows. He is doing well with training, walking on his leash (treats really did trick). We think that he finally figured out that rocks are not worth eating and mushrooms can make you ill..(he is just so smart). He sits, stays briefly, does down, paw and comes when he feels like it (I am working on that). During the summer he found that he loved the beach and ocean, and running in and out of the waves, he was really good about coming on call out of the surf. As you can tell from our comments we like him a lot we just can't wait for him to get over chewing what he should not (we are working on that also)."

We have heard from Sophie's parents, in Maine, and she continues to delight her family! Our California Dude caused the comment from his "Dad", "I had forgotten how much energy a pup has and how much you need to keep up with him!".

Harley is enjoying life, he is laid back, happy to do everything or nothing, what ever suits the moment. Topper on the other hand loves "a job"! He enjoys our classes, as he sees what his job is and does it happily. He brings back the ball, the bumper and looks for the praise. One really funny moment happened this week up at Marion's. Ranger has a "lady friend" in for breeding and I had gone up with all the dogs to see about the "wedding". Topper and Harley sat at the fence and watched as Ranger licked his lady from stem to stern and then back again. So having watched this they both started licking each other and then turning back to watch "Grandpa" do his thing...it was like they were in "class" and had to take notes. I just laughed and laughed!

All in all, this group of brothers and sisters are a wonderfully happy energetic bunch. I'll post comments as they come in.
Talk to you soon.
Pam