Welcome to our Winter Wonderland

I wish I had this much enthusiasm for all the new snow!

Because I just don't have enough poop to scoop .....

Just kidding, although with two dogs and a cat scooping poop has become a daily chore around here! 

But Gracie really needed a playmate, and we have the room and the time now so we decided to adopt this handsome young fellow from a friend of a friend who just couldn't keep him anymore.

So welcome to Cooper!  Isn't he just the most handsome guy? He's actually very similar in color and markings to our beloved Rosie, but he's a bit bigger and much more solid. He was born in March of 2009 so he's about 7 months older than Gracie, and he weighs almost 74 pounds.

The very first day they ran and ran around the back yard until they were totally pooped out, and when we put them in the kennel they snuggled up in the dog house together like they had been friends forever.

About a week later I let them in from outside and then went to work on the computer for awhile. I thought it was way too quiet in the house so I turned around to get up and look for them, and there they were laying on the floor behind me just like this!

The Couch Potato Club

As I've mentioned before, and as anyone who knows these dogs knows all too well, they are the consummate couch potatoes.

Gracie likes to be up on the back of the couch where she can see over everything, with the maximum number of cushions under her. We call it "The Princess and the Pea" position because both Daisy and Rosie used to do that all the time too.

Even Smokey joins the couch potato club now and then, having figured out that Gracie knows where all the best spots are!

And Cooper, well, let's just say that he made himself right at home here very quickly!

Playful Pups

 Three-foot knotted tug rope toy: $15.95 plus tax at PetSmart.

 Hours and hours of fun and exercise over the last two weeks: Priceless!

Not quite ready for prime time!

After the first week or so of being crated during the day, we decided to leave them alone together in the outdoor kennel while it was still nice outside. They got along just fine, and we started leaving them alone in the house for a few hours now and then in the evenings. No problems. So this past week when it got colder we decided to let them have run of the house during the day.  The first day they chewed up an empty cardboard box, but that was it, so we decided to give them a second chance.  BIG MISTAKE!

Besides that lovely African covered basket, the death toll included everything inside it: two remote controls, a music CD, some miscellaneous papers, and thankfully just the neck strap of Mark's binoculars! What really killed me though was the fact that they also attacked their own toy basket.

You can see there were still several Nylabone toys inside, but they completely destroyed the handle on the basket itself. They now get one toy each, along with a treat, as they go into their crates when we leave for work in the morning!

Welcome to my new blog!

I officially retired "A Dog's Blog" last year when Rosie passed away in October, and we were without a dog for almost four months before Gracie came into our lives at the end of January 2010.  I actually started this blog way back then, but I never got around to posting any photos on it because raising a puppy is a lot of work!  And then of course summer came and I wasn't on the computer much. I posted some pics here and there on facebook, but since my mom isn't on facebook I promised to get this blog going and post some new pics now and then.

We also added Smokey to our family about a week after Gracie came. We wanted her to grow up well socialized with cats and he turned out to be just perfect for her. My sister Jody was fostering him for Pet Haven Sanctuary and she knew we would all love him. He is a totally awesome cat who weighs about 17 pounds, but he has a squeaky little meow that is just too funny. We think that's because he is part Maine Coon. He doesn't have the big bushy tail, but most of the other breed characteristics fit him to a tee. Also characteristic of a Maine Coon, he seems to really like dogs and he loves to play with Gracie. Our neighbor Cynthia got a video of them going at it just last night, so as soon as we figure out how to upload that to the computer I'll post it here!

When I was little ...

She wasn't too sure about this big red ball, and she still doesn't play with it at all, which is really strange because all our other dogs LOVED these boomer balls and destroyed them with regularity!

I don't remember what she was looking at here, but it put her into the classic pointer pose for this photo.

Here you can see the angel wing pattern on her back, which was one of the reasons we decided to name her Gracie. However she's only really angelic when she's sleeping!

She figured out this basket of toys was hers right away, but she still hasn't learned how to put them back when she's done playing with them.

One of her first favorite squeaky toys was this bottle of Char'dog'nay, of course!

In one respect she is exactly like every one of the other three dogs who came before her .... they are ALL couch potatoes!

Even the cat is a couch potato too!

The Teething Stage

Thank goodness we made it through this stage without too much damage ... in the house anyway.

She especially loved this purple toy, which she eventually destroyed but it lasted through all the puppy teeth.

She actually still has this blue ball somewhere outside.

She has all the toys a dog could ever want and she really does play with all of them, but still she seems compelled to steal things out of the garage that don't belong to her.

Like this sponge ......... and this watering can!

How can you stay mad at a face like this?!?!?

Puppy School Graduation

Gracie was the only big dog in a class with seven little dogs, but they all loved playing with her and they fawned all over her like she was queen of the class. She has a really good temperament with little dogs, probably at least partly because of her socialization with Smokey.

I know, this whole photo thing was kind of corny.  And I shouldn't be wearing sleeveless shirts with my flabby arms these days, but it was roasting in that little classroom the last couple weeks of class!

If it wasn't hot, it was raining ... and muddy!