Formal pictures

Emily was spayed on Monday the 14th and while there, Kris took some formal pictures of the little one. She looks like a dog in these, rather than a little puppy. We also weighed her...36 lbs then so I bet she's 37 or 38 lbs now and eating 3 1/2 cups of food a day. Yikes!

I'm extremely biased of course but I think she's absolutely beautiful.

Puppy Size

'Danielle keeps repeating it over and over again.
We've been back to this animal shelter at least five times.
It has been weeks now since we started all of this,' the mother told the volunteer.

'What is it she keeps asking for?' the volunteer asked.
'Puppy size!' replied the mother.


'Well, we have plenty of puppies, if that's what she's looking for.'
'I know... We have seen most of them,' the mom said in frustration...
Just then Danielle came walking into the office
'Well, did you find one?' asked her mom.
'No, not this time,'Danielle said with sadness in her voice.
'Can we come back on the Weekend?'


The two women looked at each other, shook their heads and laughed .
'You never know when we will get more dogs.
Unfortunately, there's always a supply,' the volunteer said.
Danielle took her mother by the hand and headed to the door.
'Don't worry, I'll find one this weekend,' she said.
Over the next few days, both Mom and Dad had long conversations with her.
They both felt she was being too particular.
'It's this weekend or we're not looking any more,' Dad finally said in frustration.


'We don't want to hear anything more about puppy size, either,' Mom added.
Sure enough, they were the first ones in the shelter on Saturday morning.
By now Danielle knew her way around, so she ran right for the section that housed the smaller dogs.
Tired of the routine, Mom sat in the small waiting room at the end of the first row of cages.
There was an observation window so you could see the animals during times when visitors weren't permitted.


Danielle walked slowly from cage to cage, kneeling periodically to take a closer look.
One by one the dogs were brought out and she held each one.
One by one she said, 'Sorry, but you're not the one.'
It was the last cage on this last day in search of the perfect pup.
The volunteer opened the cage door and the child carefully picked up
The dog and held it closely. This time she took a little longer.


'Mom, that's it! I found the right puppy! He's the one! I know it!'
She screamed with joy. 'It's the puppy size!'


'But it's the same size as all the other puppies you held over the last few weeks,' Mom said.
'No not size.. The sighs. When I held him in my arms, he sighed,' she said.
'Don't you remember?
When I asked you one day what love is, you told me love depends on the sighs of your heart.
The more you love, the bigger the sigh!'
The two women looked at each other for a moment.
Mom didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
As she stooped down to hug the child, she did a little of both.
'Mom, every time you hold me, I sigh.
When you and Daddy come home from work and hug each other, you both sigh.
I knew I would find the right puppy if it sighed when I held it in my arms,' she said.
Then, holding the puppy up close to her face, she said, 'Mom, he loves me.
I heard the sighs of his heart!'

Growing Up

It's amazing to me how quickly Emily grows. She weighed 32 pounds a week and a half ago so I'm guessing she's between 33 and 34 pounds now. The changes in her size are noticeable from week to week and right now, her back legs are longer than the front so I call her 'Hot Rod'. In fact, she's starting to outgrow the size medium dog crate we have so we purchased an extra-large, the size recommended for labs, which is a huge crate.

Recent adventures

We've been having loads of fun lately, especially hanging out with the Brookses. Magnusson Park has a 9-acre off-leash area and we've gone a few times. Emily is warming up to the water:



while Lucy already loves to swim:

The two dogs get along great (as do the people).

Here's the dogs on the way back from Magnusson:

And they clearly wear each other out...

Jenny and Steve (aka 'The Brookses') are remodeling their kitchen and I've been helping out. Of course, one needs to take a break now and then, too.

A tooth!

Emily and I were hanging out at home last night. At some point, I looked down at an odd looking object on the floor and upon closer inspection, it was a tooth! And not just any tooth, it's an upper canine. So tiny looking now, hard to believe it fit in her mouth properly. Pretty dull too, at least compared to a month or two ago when those things were like little razors.

Why so exciting? Until ~6 months ago I was unaware that dogs lost their puppy teeth just like humans. And, it's another sign that Emily's growing up.

Many of her front teeth are coming in and the new canine is too.

Sleepy girls

Makayla went to her folks a couple of weeks ago and we took Emily to the breeder's (Kris) to be boarded for a few days as I was working during the day. Kris has three adult dogs and also Zoom, one of Emily's littermates. The two kiddies had loads of fun playing and sure tuckered each other out.

Zoom's on the left, Emily on the right.

About time

Been a while so I figured an update is in order. We've been enjoying our time with Emily, going for daily walks, attending puppy kindergarten, and generally hanging out. She's mostly potty trained and now we're starting to teach her to ring some bells when she has to go out. Just started that today so no real news.

Puppy class has been a huge help for us. We've learned about how to limit biting (put her in timeout), show dominance with some holds, and general interaction tips.

Emily has grown so much since we got her. I can see a difference in her size from week to week. Here's a pic from four 1/2 weeks ago next to a pic from today.









There have been a few play dates with dogs and it's fun to watch Emily's confidence grow. The first play date was traumatic for her...she got flipped over a couple of times and then hid out. After about an hour, though, she started warming up to Nika, a yellow lab mix.




And we've had two interactions with Lucy now (see link to "The Brookses" and also picture at right) for more about Lucy and her minions, Steve and Jenny. In fact, the picture above show Emily sleeping as she's exhausted from hanging today with Lucy. Here are more pics of the dogs playing together.





As you can see, the dogs like to chase each other and also eat plants together.





Some of the pictures look vicious...










But really, the dogs are just playing and we hope they become good friends with lots of interactions.

Family Picture

My Mom's birthday was last Saturday and Phil took some pictures, most of which are adorable but one in particular stands out. I'm dubbing it Family Picture.