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| Puppy School! |
Puppy classes are fun! This was week 2 and we got to play a game of pass the puppy where we all had a chance to play with one another's puppy. That was a fun game. They are all so sweet. Millie is the largest pup in the class but also a pretty good player with "excellent social skills". She LOVES the playtime outside with the other puppies. She's excited now just arriving at school. We really are big fans of the Animal Welfare Society now. We've had nothing but good experiences with them so far.
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| Learning to "targt" the hand. |
This target game has already had some good things to come of it at home. Millie can sometimes decide she just doesn't want to. Mostly it's about coming back inside the house. But she will follow that "target" hand now and it's got her moving when she was firmly planted to the lawn.
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He can still hold her, but not for much longer. 34 pounds at 4 months and a week
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We still have no idea what her final hair coat or size will be like. We're still thinking large. The lab in the class is two weeks younger than she is and he's probably heavier than she is although she's taller. So she's not as muscular as a lab. I think she'll be leaner like a german shepherd but we don't know. She's still growing and changing all the time.
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| Cooking together. Did you smell bacon? |
So I was totally wrong. This 17 year old cat has had a much better life since Millie's arrival than she has had in the past 4 years. The arrival of our kittens wasn't too big an event at first but over the course of the next year or two we started to have a lot of trouble between the girl cats. The calico has treated Mouse like prey. Self fulfilling prophecy there with that name? I don't know. But the game of cat and mouse has had Mouse fearing for her safety whenever she was at ground level. She'd taken to living her life atop the fridge, counters, my bureau or any place "up". Even then she often had to sleep with one eye open. She'd find herself trapped outside if she left the house. Jester would not let her back in. So we added cat litter boxes to all 3 floors inside as well as one in the shop. We have multiple places for dry cat food and water as well. I thought a puppy would be just too much for this old cat. I thought we'd get a dog when she passed on. At 17 she is not slowing down in the least. So we gave up and I braced myself for what might happen to Mouse next. I was wrong. I was SOOOO wrong.
Mouse slapped that puppy in the face the first day. And she's stood her ground against that pup every day since. They do well together. Mouse is not in the least worried about Millie. Jester, on the other hand, is terrified of her. She hides in "cat sanctuary" which is a room we have gated so that a cat can slip under the gate and keep Millie out. She just now has started to hiss and hold her ground a little but she is still worried about the dog. Mouse has control of the house. The power has shifted and her life with her new bodyguard is just the way she likes it. She's thriving. Here she is with Millie checking out the kielbasa that John is preparing for our German Potato Salad.
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| Attentive staff in the kitchen |
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| The view from here. |
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| New screen house |
The new screen house is mostly complete now. We need to stain/paint it and also add a little screen to the spaces between the rafters where bugs could get in. But otherwise it is quite ready for relaxing. Which we've been doing as often as possible the last week.
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| a place to vacation at home |
It's so nice to have this vacation right here in our own back field.
This summer is coming to a close now with school back in session. This little boy went back last Thursday. He's been in pre season soccer practices for 2 weeks and Millie is still in school so summer has not been without any instruction. Now it's all the high school classes beginning for this 9th grader. She's weighing in at 38 lbs at 4 1/2 months old. Not sure how big she will be just yet. Or what her hair coat will be like. Lots of changes yet to come. She's lost a couple of baby teeth this week (canines) and her new big dog ones are growing in.
She still loves a puddle. The Miller Brook that cuts through our land is just a dribble now but we did get that one storm last week which created this puddle in the driveway and got the brook flowing again for a few days. Millie can't "swim" in the deep spot the way she could before but she still enjoys the water.
First day photo to record his height on the "Daddy scale" and he's officially off the scale now. Sorry John, he really is taller now.
We brought this boy back to college on Saturday. He's renting that room up there. The one with those 2 windows. It's off campus by just a few minutes. He's got a packed fall schedule and plenty to do with Medieval Society and a nice work study in the Archives again. We're rooting for you!
