I can’t believe it’s been two years this month we’ve had Lucky in our family! He’s doing well! His seizures are becoming further apart since we’ve adjusted his meds. They were starting to become more frequent before that. I haven’t had him weighed in a while, but he’s still a big labby! He’s a total slug. Took him on a few 2 mile walks and he was wiped out, but he enjoyed it! It has also been the summer of the skunk. Three times this year he’s been sprayed 10 ‘o’clock at night! Nope actually the last time was midnight because my husband had to wake me up to ask how to make the deskunk solution! He’s either not very bright or his short term memory erases all episodes. I still think he sees the skunk and thinks, “Ooooh kitty!” and forgets that he gets the blinding spray in the face followed by the washing and cold hose down every time that “kitty” is in the yard!

Lucky has acquired a third kitty playmate, Boo! We adopted her from the Humane Society and she is a spitfire. She was a kitten, all hiss and swatting, while Lucky outweighed her by about 105 lbs at 106 lbs. She adjusted quickly to the dog when she saw Lucky would steer clear of her little paws. She even started eating his dog food one morning. Astonished, he didn’t know what to do and just barked at her while she chewed away, while still weighing in at 2 lbs! It was too funny. Now she likes to attack the wagging thing that Lucky has attached to his rear, she just thinks it’s the best toy going. He tolerates her very well!

This is our two months’ report on Dirk. He’s doing fine.

We think that he is becoming much more confident with us, because he’s more independent. That’s a good news/bad news situation; he seems to take longer to come when called if he is doing something really interesting. He has discovered the compost bucket and is particularly fond of corncobs. It is probably timely that we have enrolled in an obedience class starting in late October. That’s the first one with a vacancy in this area.

We don’t mean to leave the impression that he is an unruly or disobedient dog — far from it. It seems simply that he is feeling better about life and willing to test limits more than he was. One indication of his state of mind is that he seems to wag his tail a lot more than he did.

He continues to enjoy chasing sticks and balls, in the water or out. Otherwise, he doesn’t play, and is annoyed when other dogs want to play with him. After eating, his favorite activities are probably riding in the truck and going for a walk.

He is quite smart and a fast learner. He almost always stays out of the dining area when we are eating, and stays off the furniture, except for our bed. He sleeps in our room on his own bed, but hops up on our bed in the morning. Some mornings he sleeps quite late if we are. For example, he slept with S. until 8:30 this morning, although he is usually up and taken for a short walk by 6:30 and is fed his breakfast at 7:30.

Its hard to believe that its already been a year since Black Jack has joined the family. Its been a year of milestones for her including getting two diplomas from obedience school, losing over 20lbs to get to her target weight, going on her first camping trip, facing off with a bull moose and protecting us and learning to swim. Even though she is 9, it was pretty obvious that she was never around water and simply wasn’t comfortable around it. In early spring we bought her a puppy PFD and brought her down to down the river and started splashing around a little bit to get her more familiar with it. I put on my wetsuit and waded out into the cold water while J. started throwing her favorite stick to me. Slowly but surely she started walking out more and more towards me. Then came the eventful first lunge at water that she couldn’t touch. She had a momentary bit of panic and then realized that the pfd would hold her up. I waded further and further back and she kept following me. Now at the end of the summer, she’s graduated from a stick in shallow water to her “personal” duck decoy in deep, moving water. Swimming has become her favorite thing to do and will now willingly jump into our tandem canoe and even my solo whitewater canoe! She’s our river dog.

We had a bit of weight issue with her but after a steady diet of presciption food and green beans, she’s lost over 20lbs and the vet says she’s within 1.5lbs of her goal weight. The amount of energy she has now is amazing and even for an older dog, she on the go all the time. Now this doesn’t mean she isn’t sneaky about trying to get food…she is, but after some stolen loafs of breads and an entire batch of freshly baked cookies, we’ve learned, much to Black Jack’s chagrin, to keep things out of counter surfing range.

Overall, she is an amazing dog that that we’re so happy to share our lives with. Whether it be her playful demeanor, her mischeveous grin or the unending capacity of love, she’s become much more than a pet –she’s a part of our family.

I think Jackson has finally figured out this is his forever home. He continues to make great strides to being the best dog ever. Instead of chewing up everything in sight he now brings them to me as if to say “look what you left behind”. We’ve discovered he has a wonderful sense of humor and is extremely bright and loyal. He has found a way out of our fenced in yard but only to stand on the other side and look in…. this is one of his new games. He and Abby are inseparable, one always waiting for the other. Gus, our older dog (now 11 or 12, he is another adopted pet) just does he own thing and lets the “kids” plays. I could go on and on about Jackson and his antics and his transformation but you get the idea.

Somehow I can’t imagine life with Jackson.

Hi Everyone,

Dallas here, I’m reporting with my own one month update. My mom finally let me play on her computer and said I could write my own update this time. I have to say, I am having a great time at with my new family. We go to a fun place called Gemini Dogs for obedience training -as if Ineed training - every Monday…according to my mom, this past week was my best night at school yet. I am finally getting the hang of “down” and “sit”, though I much prefer to do it when I want, not when someone asks me to. I like that she is using the hand signals now, except that whenever she tells me to stay - I always lay down. (Oh well, at least I don’t run off when she says, “stay” - right?). My new kitty friends, Kitty and Angel, still haven’t fallen in love with me - but I have to say, I think Angel is warming up - she doesn’t hiss at me half as much as she used to. She’ll love me soon, I’m too great - everyone who meets me falls in love. My dad has a friend, who is afraid of dogs, and even he likes me - his exact words were, “Wow, he’s a great dog!” (and he giggles when I tackle him to give him kisses! hee hee hee) Besides training, wego to the dog park in Medway a lot - I really like it there, especially becausethere is a squeaky football there that I can play with. I have made some new friends, but I only like the running games, I don’t like to wrestle too much. Sometimes the dogs get kind of rough, so I just go exploring - with the football - sniffing all the new smells and greeting all who come to the gates. We go for about an hour at a time - I love that! My mom and Dad like it becauseI’m more tired at bed time.

Another new development is the fact that my new parents took down the baby gatethat kept me out of all the bedrooms. I can go in all the rooms except for my mom’s office - the litter box is in there and I seem to like eating the contents. My mom & dad think that’s really gross, I just don’t see the big deal! That’s why I haven’t been on the computer to write my own updates - but if my mom watches real close while I’m in here - I guess its ok. The other big news is that I don’t have to sleep in the crate at night anymore. See what a good boy I am!!!! I sleep on the bedroom floor or on the living room sofa (I wasn’t supposed to be allowed up there, but I think Mom has given up - I heard her say she’s putting a blanket there for me to sleep on). I love sleeping on blankets! I met a new friend at the dog park the other day, his name is Shamus and he is a 16 month old Golden Retriever. We had a really good time, so my mom talked tohis mom and found out that we’re pratically neighbors - he lives a block away! We’re going to get together for playdates! YIPPEE!! I still get a little queasyin the car, but I just love going everywhere with my Mom & Dad so much, that I try not to let it bother me. I’ve only gotten sick once in the car since I cameto my new home. My Mom got me a cool seat for the car - she calls it a hammock,but its got a soft wooly seat and the sides are like a blanket and keep me all snuggly. She said it will help to keep me safe and comfy, and it will keep her back seat clean…I have to admit, sometimes my paws are a little dirty after agood romp at the park. Well, I guess I better get going, Mom & Dad are waiting for me to get ready to go out. I don’t know where we’re going, but if I’m invited that’s all that matters. Its always somewhere fun when they take me out. I asked Mom to attach the picture, I’m still not very good with the digital camera - the buttons are kinda small for my paws. Hope you like my photo - Mom & Dad say this is my favorite toy, I think they’re right - I’ve never heard anything with such a glorious squeak before. :-)

I’ll make sure Mom sends another update soon - I might be too busy to write next month - my social calendar is filling up quickly!

Til next time,

Dallas

He swam with us this summer - apparently for the first time because he really panicked the first time he stepped off a ledge toward me into water that was about 3 feet deep (mighty fine red, white and blue bruise I carried on my leg). He’s now quite the swimmer, and probably because of the “ledge” experience, hardly walks into the water - rather once he gets to his belly, he throws himself in for a belly flop. He even does this off the dock now (poor Gretel can’t make up her mind to jump, so she has to find the way down from the beach). He’s so funny, for the life of us, we have not been able to teach him to fetch - EXCEPT in water. On land, he just sits and looks at you like, “what are you waiting for”. On water, he’ll fetch anything over and over - (we did have one scare when he followed N in kayak out to a mooring and he tried to “fetch” the mooring - luckily he did listen to come back and did not get tangled, but it was a fearful minute or so once I realized what he was going to do - lesson: we only fetch with sticks and other things that would never look like a mooring marker). One of the photos shows a pretty typical event - one of them got the stick first and the other “helps” bring it in.

Don’t remember if I told you that he ate my glasses - which was bad and good since I really needed to move to bifocals anyway - but that was a surprise since he had not really been chewing. He and Gretel continue to get along very well and we think that she’s teaching him manners - tho they’re the same age, it must be like humans that the females mature faster (and the boys remind us to play). so that’s it.

Bella has traveled with us to Maine several times, where she loves to swim, go on boat rides and hang around with her new cousin, Hershey. This week Lee and I were on vacation so we’ve spent the past 10 days with her and she seems finally to be letting go of a lot of her fear and anxiety. We’re back to work tomorrow - I’m sure she’ll be sad to not have us home 24 hours a day, but hopefully she will continue to gain self-confidence. She still has trouble with submissive urination and being mouthy at greetings, but we continue to work with her on this and are beginning to see improvement. We plan to start her in obedience classes next week. We love her very much and although the past few weeks have been a challenge, we are so glad that she has found a happy home for the rest of her life.

Attached is a photo of Bella in Maine, enjoying the lake.

Willie is doing pretty well - we’ve had our moments over the past couple of weeks - he was sprayed by a skunk while we were out walking one night. I didn’t see it and he ran right up to it before I could pull him back…a few
baths later, he smells better. On another occasion, I opened the back door and he charged right out to chase birds. The leash flew out of my hand, and I chased him to the next yard where luckily his leash got caught on a tree. We are hoping to fence in our yard soon so this can’t happen again. As you can see, he sure is keeping us on our toes!! We love having him though. He is really a fun dog. He is set in his routine of early morning walking - he loves them. He has such a fascination with squirrels and birds. He runs after the squirrels, and when they run up a tree, he jumps up onto the tree as if he was going to start climbing (I bet the squirrels are having fun just watching him!). We only crate him when we go to work, otherwise he is free in the house
and there haven’t been any problems. He is so good in the car too - he just sits by the window and looks out like it’s no big deal. If I could just get him to sit still in the house like that! He has issues with his ears too, and
the vet gave us some solution to put in and then wipe out - although every time I get the bottle out, Willie starts barking at me and runs around. That has been a challenge but I’m just hoping his ears will clear up and he won’t have serious problems in the future. So anyways, we are still in the settling-in stage and things are going well. We start obedience training in a couple of weeks and we are looking forward to it.