17 weeks old, and 9 weeks in!

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

I've posted this week's blog a little later than usual because I enrolled Penny in puppy training classes at Pet Smart, 4.30pm Wednesday, and was hoping to report on that this week, but it kinda didn't work out. Penny and I turned up on time, nervous of course, as anyone is for their first day at school. However we were the only ones enrolled in the class, which even though we could have some one on one training, my real purpose for doing this was to help her socialize with other dogs and people. So now we've moved classes, and will be starting next Tuesday at 6.00pm.

At the beginning of the year, Jeri and I decided we were going to start a garden in our back yard after ignoring it for 4 years, there's a long story as to why, but I'm not going into that right now. Anyway since Penny has arrived we haven't progressed any further with it, mainly because the few flowers we did have ended up in her mouth during the first couple of weeks or so. But it's been a few weeks now, so Jeri decided it was time to start breaking up some of the soil I had originally turned over a few months ago. At this stage I have to tell you gardening isn't easy where we live, our house is situated on an ancient river bed, and anytime we dig, we get river rocks the size of footballs on frequent basis (broke one the other day and found a fern like fossil in it, very cool!), there's no just pushing a shovel in the ground here, so I use a pick axe to break up the ground, and Jeri uses a miniature pick axe to break it up further, and here's some photos of Jeri working in the yard with a little help from Penny.

Those of you who read last week's blog may remember that we were waiting for our first rain since Penny joined us which was forecast last Thursday. Normally our forecasts are accurate except when there is a change coming, and often they are about 8 hours out either way...this time? Five days! Didn't rain until Tuesday this week, and that came as a bit of a surprise because showers were forecast...has anybody ever experienced a 24 hour shower? No I thought not. It started late morning Tuesday and didn't stop until mid morning Wednesday. Fully expecting Penny to enjoy the whole experience, we were surprised to find that she wasn't keen at all. When we first went out in it, she was mildly interested in what must have seemed to her like the sprinkler was on all the time, but when she discovered that wherever she went she couldn't escape it, she went off the whole idea totally. So I had to go out with her to frolic about and encouraging her to pee, which she did eventually then made a dash for the door to back in. Wednesday came around as it so often does with alarming regularity and Penny woke up about 6.00am and Jeri let here out, I say let her out, but it was more like open the door and push her out because it was still raining. 10 minutes later I let her back in as she was laid flat against the wall trying to avoid the rain. At this point in the tale, I must say that Jeri and I noticed she looked way fatter than usual, looked like she'd put on about 10lbs overnight. So after a couple of cups of tea (remember I'm British), I decided that just to make sure Penny would go potty, we went for a walk. She wasn't keen, but as I tried to explain to her (why do we do that with our dogs?) that she's going to have to get used to it, because it won't be long before this is an everyday occurrence! So off we went, Penny kept sitting down and I'm assuming she was trying to tell me "I don't want to do this!", but after a lot of coaxing, we got off to a good pace. We have a new subdivision not far from us, and the construction company went belly up last year, so there is a lot of open ground with nicely paved roads going through it all, and that's where we usually walk. As we got to the area of open ground, Penny finally squatted for a pee, lasted for about 30 seconds, and she had such a look of bliss-like relief on her face. Then about 50 feet further along she assumed the pose that I'm sure we all know so well...now Penny is normally a 2 turd dog, I know I should be politically correct here and say stool, but whenever I think stool, I imagine a drunk sat at the bar, so turd it's going to be, and I have another excuse, I'm British and we delight in toilet humor, so there. Anyway, out came 5, and I'll say that again...FIVE turds, as big as bricks....MEGA POO! Then another 50 feet and out come another 5! My God, she has some capacity for storage...and guess what? She lost weight right in front of my eyes! Now I know some of you are going to say "That can't be good for her!" and I am going to make sure that doesn't happen again, but I though it was worth sharing...hee hee! I also know some of you are thinking "what a subject to talk about online", but we love our animals and that just comes with the territory!

Next week will be my last weekly blog, I'm running out of things to say as life returns to some normality now that Penny is growing up and settling in, but I will report oh her first training class next week, then I will try and maintain a monthly blog from there on until I get bored with writing them or you get bored with reading them. So I will leave you with this set of photos of Penny and I searching for puppy toys!

By the way, the ball in the last photo is bigger than a normal size tennis ball, so no, Penny isn't shrinking. Have a good week everyone!

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

You can't stop bloging, the pics are always great...we get to see Penny and it's always a great day because we get a laugh with the adventures of Penny....

[Michele Barton]

Only one more weekly blog??? Boo hoo. The photos are great, as usual! I feel your pain with digging a garden. If it weren't for our tractor, we would never even consider a garden. We thought we'd start one this year, but alas, puppies and gardens don't mix very well, do they? Here's a pic of part of our future garden:

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I especially enjoyed seeing what a great help Penny is in the garden!