Trying to catch up!

Here I am again behind the eight ball as far as my blog is concerned. As if that wasn't pressure enough, Jodie and Coco, and now even Sandy are on my case to work on their blog also. I feel a little guilty because my friend Sam is so diligent about maintaining his blog. However, he only has Riggs where I have three dogs to take care of.

Helen and I have been busy passing our puppies on to their new homes. I already addressed the Friday night transfer. In fact, we already got several pictures back on his new life. The new family is waiting for him to distinguish himself in some way before they give him a name. Saturday morning we turned over to a nice couple from Orlando. They will call him Max, but will also refer to him sometimes as El Diabalo or the White Tornado. He was the liveliest of the litter, the most trouble and also the most fun. What spirit! We had a lot of fun playing with him outside.

Saturday night Aria, the lone female, had the house to herself and she didn't like it. She was lonesome and Helen spend a lot of time sitting in the pen holding her. Sunday morning her Ft. Meyers family came to pick her up. The little girl was very pleased and even the little boy warmed up to the new family member. It appears to be a case where Aria will grow up with the two children in the stereotypical American family. We wish them all well.

We're not exactly without company as we have Sandy along with our own two dogs. Sandy has become one of the family and she is very bright. She sees Jodie or Coco do something and very quickly picks it up. She mimics Jodie's tendency to greet us with something she picks up off the floor. Our girls also showed her how to chase squirrels. Sandy is just a tad taller than our two Labs, which means that she can see out over the windowsill. This gives her a great perspective on the ten squirrels who play in our back yard. She'll see them and start barking and wants to go out. Jodie and Coco will also start baying as they charge for the door. Squirrels beware!

Sandy also learned the meaning of "supper", "cookie", "out". She also knows that after their last outing of the night, they get a good night cookie, so when she comes in, she hangs around for the treat, just like the other two. So far, Sandy is causing us no trouble. Tomorrow she'll be going to the vet for booster shots and in a couple of weeks we'll take her in to be spayed.

Now, Helen and I are getting the motorhome and Jeep ready to go to the east coast for a few days. My brother has a place in Palm Bay and we have a reservation just around the corner at a dog friendly RV park with WiFi. Rick, my brother, is having some problems with his Florida car and I have the tools to fix it. Specifically, it's an air conditioning problem and I have the gauges and vacuum pump to get it working again. That shouldn't take us too long. We'll go out to eat each night and hang around during the day. I found an off leash dog park not far away and we expect to take the dogs often.

Helen and I got a new camera last week, A Canon EOS Rebel T2i. It is a digital single lens reflex and is the best camera we've ever owned. One of the features is burst mode, where the pictures are taken continuously as long as the shutter release is down. That is how we were able to rack up over 1000 pictures in just a few days. Trust me, we will never forget those puppies. They say the imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That my be true. I took my camera to show a couple of friends. They looked at it and took a few pictures and before I could leave they had placed an order for two more cameras just like mine. They have a couple of exceptional trips scheduled in coming months and will now have camera that can maximize their memories.

As a matter of fact, we will not forget the last litter of pups either. The pups we raised last November and December were born 8/23/2009, so they were a year old Saturday. We got an email from Talulah, the only black female lab we had in that litter. She has become a real beauty, classical Labrador Retriever in every sense' It's apparent that her family is taking very good care of her and the pictures suggest that she's having a great time with them.

We both agree that having the puppies were a lot of work and that we will not do it again. However, over time one forgets the work and remembers the reward and who knows what we'll do in the future.

Well, it's late and I'm exhausted. I also want to shut down the computer before the dogs get wise and force me to work on their blog.

Riggs......behave yourself!!!! Sam has his hands full right now. I'm sure that he will more than make up for it when he gets home.

More later.

Paul