With the passing of my faithful freind Lexi after 12+ years of great companionship, the house just started to seem empty after a few weeks. So... Monday night I picked up 7 week old Sadie. She's a sweet little Collie / Australian Shepherd mix that's taking up a lot of my free time right now. I still hope to get out to the track with the Caddy one more time and adjust the carb a little too, but I won't be on the web as much, at least for a few weeks till we get our schedules a little more in sync.
In many ways I lead a charmed life (we all do - really) - and within that story I look back and deeply miss the dogs I've had over the years. Just this summer we put down our Sweet Rascal. She was a beagle I had for about 13 or 14 years. We named her Rascal because that fit her personality to a tee. When we put Squirt down a couple years ago Rascal's heart was broken - she moped around. It was a tragedy for both Rascal and us. So we added Peanut to our corral - Peanut was (is) a little Beagle mix that was full of piss and vinegar! She CONSTANTLY pestered Rascal and revived Rascal's dormant puppy personality! It was great! Peanut pestered Rascal SO MUCH we had to change her name to Sweet Rascal - she was SO patient with Peanut - it was just great for both of them. So then kinda suddenly Rascal went downhill - QUICK ;-(
It was heart breaking - the kids insisted we bury her next to Squirt so they could be together again. I still say hello to them both when I cut the grass by their graves.
So this left our little Peanut all alone - something she didn't seem to take near as hard as Rascal did, but just the same she was definitely affected in a negative way.
Well this time around Jill wanted to rescue a dog - so she and the kids scoured the web until they ran across - Lila!! a Walker hound reminiscent of the one I had when we first met. Lila has been giving us a run for our money ever since! Her demeanor is fantastic - was definitely not around people much and loves attention. think of Marmaduke (sp?) with a Beagle jacket on. Big - strong - stubborn a little. She like all the rest have won us over. Had to weld a new latch on our gate this weekend after Lila realized she could just use her weight and lean into it until the latch popped open! Good times!
Here's some pics!
BTW I bet your new puppy will be rockin before you know it. The new ones never do replace the old ones - I still get teary when I think back on them, but if they weren't so damn cool we wouldn't get so broken up when they leave.
I can appreciate all the sentiments about our pet dogs because Randi and I had a once-in-a-lifetime dog, too. He died after fifteen great years with us. I always thought I'd like to get another dog after we retired. Well, we are retired and busy and travel quite a bit, so cats seem to fit our current lifestyle.
I just wanted to introduce y'all to Mr. Slick. He eats dog biscuits for breakfast.
We didn't keep Sadie for long. She had an anger management issue and we took her back to the breeder we got her from. It wasn't just a puppy thing either. It's too bad because she was cute, but was WAY too aggressive. We got goldfish instead for now.....
This is Abbey. Some of you have already met her. This picture is already almost two months ago. She's since grown to 26 lbs as of today. The picture of her laying down is the most recent.
So far she's been a pretty good puppy, but ultimately still a puppy and requires some regular repremanding and training exercises. Amy says she'll never get a puppy again. The next dog would be more grown up.
One thing about Abbey is she's FAST, and she can jump like crazy! I'll have to get some video of her outside while she's in "hot rod mode". This is where she runs as fast as she possible can in no particular direction for usually at least a couple minutes. It's pretty amusing.
She's most of the reason that I don't post that often as of late. But things have been happening...
Thought I would post up my latest 4 legged project! Good 'ol Annie is still alive and kicking, but we decided to pick up a yellow lab. Say Hello to Holley. Not even a 390 yet, but should probably grow into a 750..
Here's an updated shot(s) of Abbey. She's over 50 lbs and is basically full grown. She still has a ton of energy, but ultimately is a sweet dog that loves everybody and listens reasonably well. She has a little growing up to do, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying her puppy-ness.