Can’t believe a year has passed since we got Jackson . He is doing great and is more relaxed and calm. His biggest gain is he is no longer crated when we go out. It’s hard to believe he is the same dog I brought home a year ago. He is the smartest dog I have ever own and he keeps me on my toes. He has learned to climb our chain link fence and open dresser drawers… how’s that for clever. The best part is how he adores Abby our 4 year female lab. He won’t leave her side, they have become quite a pair.

I am planning to bring him to a “meet the dogs” event sometime this spring so you can see for yourself.

I heard tell at my foster home that this old guy 60 years old wanted to adopt me. I thought, great, just what I needed. A kid like me going to an old folks home where the excitement of the day would be watching the old timer take his meds and going out to pee a couple times of day. Was I ever wrong. They live at the LAKE !! The old timer surprises me every day with his energy level. He takes me on almost daily two hour hikes through the snowy woods, and I get some great run time in. This snow business is great and I just love it. Sometimes I just stick my head down in the fluffy white stuff and burrow along. The old timer has this thing about hiking uphill. Says it’s good for his ticker. He trudges along while I literally run circles around him. For every mile he does I do three. I’m smart enough to always run back to check on him to make sure he hasn’t had the Big One, and he usually gives me a little treat. Of course I check on him all the time lately. Labs aren’t dumb. I know all the tricks to get biscuits.

I think I may have pushed some buttons on the old timer last week. He didn’t yell at me or tell me “bad dog” but I could tell by his facial expressions he was ticked. Seems we were out in the snow and on the top of this giant hill where some kids were sledding. I looked at the kids and looked at the old timer. He told me several times to stay but those kids were having a grand time and I couldn’t help myself. If I stayed I got another biscuit. I figured, hey I get those anyways. The kid in me made me chase the kids down the hill on their sleds. The kids let me play for a while and I just loved it. I tried hitching a ride a couple times but couldn’t stay on the sled. I looked back up the hill and the old timer was hollering at me, but I just pretended not to hear him. It was a blast. The old timer walked down the hill and finally caught up with me and put the leash on. He didn’t yell or anything, but I could tell I was in the doghouse.

I have a cousin named Pudge, the Beagle who comes to my house to play. I think he’s the old timer’s grand dog or something. He’s older than me but he’s fun to play with. Only problem is he bumps into things all the time. I’ve heard the old timer’s wife say he’s blind, whatever that means. I tell you though this guy is a blast to play with. We wrestle and play like kids. I’m big and outweigh him by 60 pounds but I’m gentle with him. The little guy bites my ears sometimes but he’s really a fun Beagle to play with.

The accommodations here are great. I have my choice of three places to sleep or nap and have the run of the house. When the daughters are home I get to lay on the couch with them because they’re spoiled. The old timer bribes me with biscuits when I’m supposed to go in my crate. I’ve got Kongs and rawhides but I prefer the old timer’s slippers .The old timer’s wife brings me neat toys all the time. She’s cool. She usually walks me in the evenings around 8 pm. I watch the clock and let her know when it’s time. Outside I prefer sticks out of the woods to any store-bought toy. I love to chew. Guess it’s a Lab thing. The old timer lets me ride in his pickup but I’m supposed to sit behind the seat. Right. I think he’s bought some kind of barricade to keep me in the “back. I found out one thing. It’s not cool to pass gas or bark inside the pickup. The old timer yells at me when I do that and he’ll roll the window right down quickly.

I haven’t had any major health issues. I weigh in at 100 pounds and have heard the old timer talk about cutting back my chow. I hope not. I’m an active guy and I love to eat. That’s about it from my new home. Did I mention that I love it here ? The old timer and his wife are pretty darn good to me. Of course. I’m a Lab. They do whatever I want. :)

It has been a while since I touched base, so I thought I’d take a minute and say hello. I really love this Vermont thing…. We have snow…white stuff that you roll in…. and when you poop or pee, it disappears! (well, my mom says it all comes back in the spring…strange concept…)

Anyway, my brothers and I run like crazy through the snow, both in the yard and at the park EVERY day. Way fun.

Two of my brothers have been on diets and have lost 11 and 14 pounds respectively. We all get to eat green beans with our food, and let me tell you, they are great.

Mom brushes me every day, partly because I seem to be a burr magnet, especially in my tail. Sometimes I get so many that I stick my tail to my side when I wag it.

I love you all.
Emmie

A little over two years ago, my husband and I adopted a NEARR dog. Back then his name was Milo, today his name is Jack. I am writing to give NEARR, its volunteers and its potential adopters a heartwarming update.

Jack came to us in November of 2002, it was a somewhat lengthy adoption process but well worth it. No one was completely sure of Jack’s history but everyone agreed that he was a really sweet dog. Jack (Milo) started out as a stray and then was bounced around a few times from home to home all in hopes that he would find a family to love and care for him. On top of that Jack had some medical problems and to be quite honest looked like he needed more than just a new home. I instantly fell in love with his picture on line and convinced my husband he should be our dog. NEARR did a great job screening us but were concerned that it may not be the best fit. First of all we don’t have a fence but we do have acreage (not good for a former runaway), we also already had another dog, and finally we were thinking about starting a family. All good reasons to be concerned but we are extremely happy that we were given the chance. Don’t get me wrong, the first couple of months were tough. A sofa, some pillows, a down comforter, the thanksgiving pies, gloves, and a few pairs of shoes later, we came to and understanding. Believe me I can go on… Jack finally understood that we love him and he’s not going anywhere. Our other dog, Auggie also had a lot to do with Jack’s adjustment, lets just say he had a way of keeping Jack in line. Now Jack and Auggie are like Pete and Re-pete. They do everything together including hunting for mice which of course is not my favorite. And the happiest adjustment of all is Jack with our new daughter. Its amazing how the time flies but our daughter is now 9 months old and she and Jack are really good pals. My husband and I were a little concerned about how Jack would take not being the baby anymore but he’s ok with it. Jack like many other labs is not known for his grace and of course because he supplements his diet with anything that isn’t tied down is not a small dog. We were concerned that his size and clumsiness would be difficult with a baby in the house but its just the opposite. He has become a jungle gym and a living pillow. I can’t tell you how adorable it is to see our daughter interact with him and how good he is with her. I hope this update shows that sometimes these dogs really can be a “diamond in the rough”. Jack has most certainly become a member of the family, please enjoy the attached pictures.

Its hard to believe its only one month since Lucy came to live with us. She is such a love and such a huge part of our lives, its hard to remember live before Lucy. We are enjoying her every day. Lucy is inquisitive and bold when exploring her surroundings; she is brave where Dallas tends to back off. However, around strangers, Lucy uses Dallas as a barometer to gauge how to react to certain people. Lucy’s favorite new person happens to be my Mom – she follows her everywhere when my Mom is around. In her daily life, though, she is Daddy’s little girl most of the time.

Dallas has also been sweet enough to teach sweet Lucy how to leap over the back of the sofa to stalk and bark at the rest of the neighborhood. (Thanks Dallas!) He also showed her the benefits of barking at the door to go out; this means much less stress for all of us. Poor Lucy isn’t left sitting at the door wondering why no one is coming. Since Lucy is pushier than Dallas is, he is learning to stick up for himself when someone takes his toys away or tries to hone in on his quality time with one of us. Lucy has been kind enough to impart some wisdom to Dallas also – he has learned the art of table and counter surfing now (fortunately he isn’t good at it). They are really good friends now, they play together most of the time and when they aren’t playing, they are sleeping on the living room furniture together (another thing Dallas taught Lucy). We don’t mind them on the furniture – if we did, we wouldn’t have allowed it with Dallas to begin with. We’re suckers for a sweet face.

Lucy will be starting obedience school at the end of January – we think she’ll be great in school because she is so smart and very focused. We’ve been told that she might make an excellent flyball dog because her ball drive is so intense. Lucy is a love and a snuggler and we can’t imagine life without her here. We couldn’t be happier – having a 2nd dog is great! Currently we are trying to find a vacation home on the water for a week in the summer – we think that they would love the chance to swim in the ocean and run around in the woods and great clean air as much as we do. Hope you enjoy the photos. Aren’t they beautiful! Thank you, NEARR, for our great dogs!!

Hi, Sadie is doing well. She has lost over 7 pounds since she came to live with us! She still has a ways to go though. She goes on a 1/2 mile walk every day, but has to lay down and rest near the end of the walk. She goes up and down our stairs no problem also. She is still curious about the cat, but the cat only hisses if she tries to sniff her too close. We all love her and she seems to love us too! Talk to you in one month.

Hi Everyone and Happy New Year.
Dear Morgan is doing pretty well - he hasn’t eaten any eyeglasses for at least a month. Actually, he’s just fine. Trying to remember any silly stories…he did dress up quite nicely for Halloween, everyone thought he was a great dane. We did have a housesitter for a weekend that we had to go and visit N.’s mom - the housesitter is this little lady who trains horses nearby and she got on very well with Morgan and Gretel - but she absolutely does not believe me that we have him trained not to sit on the couch – apparently every time she turned around he was quite comfy on the loveseat…oh well.

We’ve had a ton of snow and he just loves it. He jumps to catch snowballs. He still won’t fetch for us (he lets Gretel do all the work), and yesterday he went skating - out my front door early morning ice storm.

Bottom line is he’s great, we all love him and I will get around to sending some updated photos sooner or later - it’s hard to believe we’ve only had him for 7 months.

Willie has been with us for 5 months now, and things are great. We have been having lots of fun this winter! He absolutely loves jumping around and running through the snow. His favorite thing is when you throw a snowball near him – he totally pounces on it. This weekend he was out crunching around on the icy snow and was amazed by it all!

Overall things are going very well. I was able to take time off at Thanksgiving and Christmas and spend lots of time with him. We had a big crowd at our house for Thanksgiving and we were a little nervous about how Willie would act. He was a perfect gentleman. During dinner I got up to look for him because I couldn’t find him – he was lying under the table, calm as can be. No begging or anything! We are amazed. He has also really warmed up to J. He would always follow me around, and if I wasn’t home, he would sit by himself. Now he’s following J around and actually leaves me to go with him! He’s a pretty independent dog, that’s for sure! He was also nose-to-nose with a horse recently. He was pretty shy while walking toward it, but they touched noses and he ran! It was really cute – one of those Kodak moments…

He has changed a lot since we got him, all for the best of course. When we walk, he now knows where home is – he used to keep walking, but I noticed in the last month or so, no matter what direction we come from, he will turn right up the driveway. It’s little things like this that make me feel that he is becoming a little more secure every day.

I just thought I’d send along some pictures with Bailey’s 2 month update. She is doing quite well, as is her big brother Chance (another NEARR alumni). Some of her favorite things to do are: play under the coffee table, snuggle with her Mom, and of course…aggravate Chance. We’ve learned that she has an affinity towards food on the counter, sometimes I think Chance hikes her up there because she’s too small to reach much of anything. We introduced Bailey to the Kong toy, much to Chance’s delight. It turns out Bailey didn’t realize the biscuits actually come out of the Kong, and when she thought she was done, Chance moved in for the kill. She and Chance really do get along great, they like to chase each other around the house (outside), and as you’ll see from one of the pics, their Dad makes trails in the snow for them to play.

Woof, Taylor here! Well, I’ve been here with my new family for 2 months now and I’m finally getting adjusted to this new routine. Baxter is a lot of fun to play with. We have a nature trail next to our house and Baxter and I get to run on the trail off leash every day. It’s a lot of fun…Baxter and I wrestle when we are down on the trail. At first, Baxter was afraid of me which was pretty funny because he is so much bigger than me. But now, we wrestle pretty equally and have a lot of fun in the snow. We play most of the day, too so we are usually pretty tired when we get home.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. I had only been here a week or so, and there were lots of people and other dogs. Mom thought it might be overwhelming for me, but I proved her wrong and was a very good boy. With all that food up there, you better believe I was on my best behavior! Speaking of which, I am almost done with my obedience training. I’ve been the star of the class! I like all of the dogs in my class…they are fun to play with.

Baxter and I are both so happy that NEARR was able to give us a new home. We are having a great time here together, and mom and dad say that we might have a bigger yard next year. They might build a new house that has a back yard and a big fence so we can play outside all we like! Thanks again, and I hope you like the pictures of me and my dawg!