Sister's dog Katie "singing" at Christmas

Christmas 2009 - a dog agility book as gift

Although I didn't spend Christmas with my dog Lucy, I thought alot about her and our fun plans for dog agility. In addition to the hand made agility set from Stuart, I got a dog agility training book from my sister for Christmas, which I proceeded to read at lightening speed. The title is "The Beginner's Guide to Dog Agility" by Laurie Leach. In that book, I learned of a few associations for dog agility like:

Northern American Dog Agility Council(www.nadac.com)

United States Dog Agility Association(www.usdaa.com)

Dogs on Course in North America (www.docna.com)

Based on a search on the website www.usdaa.com, I found a local dog agility training center. Their classes start up again in mid January for 8 weeks. Due to the very cold winter we are having, I think I'll wait til spring to get Lucy started in that class.

In addition to the long list of dog agility associations, I was surprised that in the author's bio, she listed membership in the "Dog Writers Association of America". I had to check out their website to find out more. I have to admit that I did chuckle to myself at first thought, but upon further reading, found it a very interesting association. There are many dog lovers and animal trainers and animal behavior specialists who love dogs and love to write about their experiences and share their knowledge.

I'll need to re-read the book in sections as we work with Lucy on her new agility set that Stuart built for her. She's fine with the jump, but jumps too early off of of the "teeter", doesn't quite go into the tunnel the first few tries and hasn't been trained yet on the weave poles. I've heard that weave pole training is the most difficult.

I really appreciated the gift of this new dog agility book and found it a very fun and inspiring read. I can't wait to get Lucy into training for dog agility in 2010!

Lucy's first adventure on her new doggie agility set

Stuart surprised me with a hand made doggie agility set for my birthday!!! It includes a see-saw, a jump, a round tunnel and the weave poles.

We introduced Lucy to the agility set for the first time this past Sunday. To my pleasant surprise, she literally jumped right into the whole set. The cheese treats didn't hurt either. Check it out:

Lucy jumps even higher!

Check out Lucy's increased jumping skills:



Lucy playing fetch with her signature high energy approach:

Happy Howl-o-ween & Canine Carnival

Today, we took Lucy to the Canine Carnival in Crowder Park. It was a dog festival, full of dog related vendors, rescue organizations, a show of doggie agility and even a dog costume costume.

Yes, I did dress up Lucy. I was embarassed about this interest, but when I went to Target last night, there was a whole section of doggie costumes and let me tell you this -- we were not alone. There were lots of other excited dog owners right next to me reviewing the selections. One lady said that she was a nurse and wanted to dress her dog in scrubs, but the scrubs they had were way to tiny for her 25 lb pooch. After much back and forth with Stuart about the squirrel costume, devil costume and martial arts costume, we finally voted on the martial arts costume. I figured that Lucy wouldn't wear the necessary hat for the squirrel costume, so that was out. Plus, the black and white of her coat matched the black and white of the martial arts costume.

Costume offerings at Target:






Today, Lucy made us both proud. First of all, despite the hundreds of dogs at the park, she didn't freak out. In fact, she was rather polite to 98% of the dogs. There were only a few dogs that seemed to rile her up. I was impressed that she was comfortable with all of the very large dogs. Secondly, Lucy won one of the awards in the "Dog Costume Contest"! Stuart suggested that once I walk her on the stage, I pause, have her sit and say "Hi-yah!" like a martial arts command and have her high five me with her paws. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to do tricks on the stage, but I went for it. I heard a few "oohhhss" and "ahhss" as Lucy played along. I'm convinced that it was that more than her costume that got her her award for "Most Energetic!". We won a training session with a local dog trainer to train for the "Canine Good Citizen's Test". I"m excited to train Lucy for that.

I took tons of photos and will upload them to this posting tomorrow. I had to get in my monthly blog update about Lucy.

Here's Lucy & I just before going on stage:



Here's Lucy nicely greeting some other dogs:

Dogs of Nice and Berlin

On my recent vacation, unfortunately without Lucy, I observed dogs and dog culture in Nice, France and in Berlin, Germany.

I was pleased to observe that the French and the Germans love dogs as much as we do. In fact, they seem to cart along their dogs to more places that I bring Lucy!

My friend Christine's Aunt came to Nice for the wedding and brought the whole family, including their adorable lab. Here's a pic of me with their nice dog. Photo:







Christine and her sister each have cute little doggies named Bijou and Bo-Bo. Here they are: (Left to right -- Bijou and Bo-bo):





Bijou and Bo-bo participated in most of the week's wedding events. Bobo even took a mini dip in the pool with us too! Bijou, however, is scared of the pool and didn't venture in. What impressed me was that both dogs were off leash pretty much all the time and just hung out with Christine and her family. As much as I've tried with Lucy to get her to listen off leash, it hasn't worked. Perhaps it's a breed thing? Lucy can jump through hula-hoops, sit, stay, roll-over, and even wave when asked, but not come when called when she's off leash. Well, she does, but only 80% of the time, which is not enough for truly letting her off leash.

Even at the beach near Nice, the "beach club" area where we hung out one day had 3 resident dogs. There was a large and docile German shepherd and two smaller terrier like dogs (both a mix of black and white fur). I snapped a pic of the lovely German Shepherd trying to chill in the partial shade.





Once in Berlin, I noticed dogs everywhere...in stores, in restaurants, in cafes, especially side-walk cafes.

My favorite dog sighting was in Old Towne Nice. I was wandering around the market place when I spotted a Dalmation dog trotting alongside a young blond 3 year old girl. The dog's leash was in a loop, and her little hand held onto it. However, it looked more like the dog was assisting the little girl and walking her. He kept an eye on her and seemed very gentle. An older woman, apparently the grand-mere, was walking close-by. I was dying to take a picture, but I restrained myself. I did go up to the woman and say, "Tres mignon!" and pointed to the little girl and the dog. That means, "very cute!". That seriously could be an advertisement for Kodak, aka, "a Kodak moment."

Lucy's back to back dog shows & first swim

This past weekend was quite exciting for Lucy.

On Friday, we had a company picnic, and Lucy joined us at the park. We had her do a little dog show for the kids. A colleague took a videclip, which I'll upload later.


On Sunday, we brought Lucy to a birthday party for a friend's 1 year old daughter. It was at a local park with a lake. Not only did the kids all want to pet Lucy, but the grown-ups enjoyed seeing Lucy jump through the hula-hoop. Also, it was Lucy's 1st official swimm! I went in the water with her and she was a natural.

Lucy in the water:




After her adventure, she looked very happy and tired:

August 5th rambling about Lucy related topics

Well, I haven't done a blog post for a few weeks now. Let's see, what's there to write about?

Furminator:

Okay, this isn't the first time I've written about the Furminator, and it may not be the last. This tool works so well, that it keeps surprising me. But let me show you instead of tell you. Here is a picture of the furminator after brushing Lucy for only a few minutes:




Yes, that is a lot of hair! I'd really rather have it in a brush than all over my house. After each brushing session, Lucy looks sleeker, her fur is softer and I think she feels better too. I can only imagine what it would feel like to wear a fur coat in the hot North Carolina summers we have.

Lucy's long lost brother:

So, it's been several months since we first met Peanut in Chapel Hill. I have been trying to organize a "Peanut - Lucy" meeting, but haven't yet been successful. I am starting to feel that it might never happen.

Going Green:

I watched an episode of "The Lazy Enviornmentalist" via my Roku device recently. That episode focused on a pet grooming company and how it could use eco-friendly products instead of harsh chemicals on the dogs. I was really interested in that. They mentioned a facial scrub for dogs made only out of blueberries that makes white fur look very bright and clean. I wish I could have gotten the name of it. They also mentioned, to my surprise, that there is little to no regulation around ingredients in dog shampoos, or even worse, food. I hope that the expensive dog food I buy from Phydeaux is good quality and has safe ingredients. I also wish I could find an alternative to the monthly tick treatment we give Lucy. The show mentioned something called, "Neem" as a shampoo that works well against fleas and ticks. There must be a healthier alternative. I'll check online if that tv show has a website with product details for green-living. Oh, I located the URL. This segment of their show is available online at:
http://www.lazyenvironmentalist.com/video.php/?p=1525

Happy 4th of July!

Lucy helped us place flags out around Stuart's neighborhood this weekend. It was to help the neighborhood celebrate Independence Day and also to market his real-estate business to his neighbors. Lucy happily joined along in the festivities. I drove while Stuart jumped out and placed the flags out. When I needed to park, I parked in the shade to ensure that Lucy & I stayed cool. While parked, I put together the flags, with a note and his business card. I have to say that it didn't seem like much work, but when you actually take on putting out 100+ flags, trust me, it's work.

The highlight for me was when I was parked waiting for Stuart, a group of young kids noticed Lucy. They gathered around and wanted to see her. So I jumped out of the car, and brought Lucy out to meet the kids. There were 3 little girls, ranging in age from 4 - 8 and 2 little boys about the same age range. 1 little blond girl with braids stumbled over to Lucy saying, "pet dog, pet dog..." Lucy happily obliged. I think Lucy tugged at my heart strings when she lay down and happily lapped up all the hugs and attention from the little kids. Lucy, in fact, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it. By this time, Stuart had finished placing out the flags in that cul-de-sac and walked over. He told me later I was beaming. I told the kids that Lucy does tricks. Lucy complied with sit and "right paw" and "left paw" but was too distracted to spin or do other tricks. I said to Stuart, "If only we had a hula hoop we could show them how she can jump through it." Just then, 1 of the little girls, not more than 5 or so, raced away down the hill. Just a minute or so later, she reappeared pulling a red plastic cart and a hot pink hula-hoop. "Here," she proudly declared. I thought I was in Heaven! The kids all clamoured over getting to hold up the hula-hoop, so we had to take turns. The girl who brought the hula-hoop went first and I held onto the other side. I was worried that Lucy, given all the distractions and the fact that she was on a leash, wouldn't jump, but I was wrong. Right on cue, Lucy jumped through and back again. The crowd of kids all screamed, "ohhh" and "ahhh" in amazement. Next was the tiny blond girl with braids. She couldn't quite hold up the hula-hoop high enough, so I tried to help, but Lucy had already jumped through and got her back paws caught up in it. She recovered quikcly. Then there was a 3rd attempt, at which point Stuart mentioned that we ought to get going.

I really wanted to take pictures of Lucy with the kids, but I have to agree with Stuart, that that would have been wierd and possibly freaked out the parents. But all in all, at least Lucy got some great kid attention and I got to enjoy the experience too. What is it about kids and dogs? They are such a natural combination and just love eachother. It's so adorable.

Office visitor loves dogs & was featured on WRAL!

Today at work, Robert, who works in pest control, was doing his monthly rounds. As usual, he stopped by to chat. Somehow I mentioned my dog Lucy and he mentioned his dog Cooper and how he'd been featured on a recent news story on WRAL. Check it out:

http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/travel/video/2986166/

In case the video-clip doesn't work, the story is about how he built his Jack Russell Terrier (JRT), Cooper, a tree house! How cute is that?

video clip from March - Lucy and Stu in backyard

This video clip wouldn't upload for some reason a while back, but it finally did.

Here is Stuart working with Lucy in the backyard, showing off Lucy's jumping abilities to my parents. The woman laughing is my mother.

Ticks falling out of trees?

Can this be true? According to my parents this is. Given that my family is from New York (at least 2 generations on 1 side), we are given to, well, Woody Allen style paranoia. My first response was that this was another dramatic exaggeration, and I nodded politely and said, "yeah, yeah" and "ah hah".

But, then I thought about our last hike. It was in a nature reserve owned by the TLC (Triangle Land Conservancy) off of Holley Springs Road in Cary. It is wild and beautiful, with a steep hike up hill to a lovely view and only has a small and well-maintained foot path. The hike was wonderful and Lucy even got a little splash in the stream. I'll have to upload that video clip later. Anyhow, when we got home, we did our usual "tick inspection." To my shock, we found not 1 or 2, but 3 ticks on Lucy. Thankfully, only 1 had latched on and the other 2 were very easy to remove. I even found 1 tick on my pant legs. I caught it crawling up. Yes, it was odd for me to wear long pants hiking in some 80+ degree weather, but the woods are shady, so I preferred it (thankfully).

Apparently there was some feature story on our local NPR station about the ticks in North Carolina. I missed this story on air, but I'd like to hear it.

Unfortunatly, there isn't much you can do to prevent tick exposure. The only things I can think of are: avoiding overgrown hiking trails or hiking trails all together in this hot summer, wearing long pants tucked into socks and closed shoes and staying inside completely. The last option is not realistic, especially since I have a dog and I wouldn't want to anyways.

2 scared dogs & nail painting - only at Petsmart

Yesterday, we took Lucy to Petsmart, which is always an adventure. The one in this area has a "doggie day camp" that you can view through glass. The room was pretty small and full of a lot of dogs ranging from 1 scared chihuahua to 2 extremely large Labradors. My heart sank when I saw the chihuahua standing there alone in the center of the room, shivering and holding his tail between his legs. His face looked so concerned that I felt myself get angry at the Petsmart staff for traumatizing this dog. I was about to barge in and give them a piece of my mind when Stuart insisted that keep shopping and that the dog would be alright. At most - responsible - doggie day camps, like CampBowWow, they separate the dogs based on size which just makes sense.

I snapped a few pics from my iphone that I'll post here later.

The adventure continued. As we were turning the corner out of an aisle, we were surprised to see a woman and two very large mastiffs! 1 mastiff sniffed Lucy happily and slobbered all over Lucy's ear. It was cute. Lucy sniffed back, tail wagging. All was good. Then the other Mastiff wanted to greet Lucy. Lucy's tail was wagging and she playfully jumped up a bit. That Mastiff growled a bit and then suddenly pulled away with his tail between his legs. I was surprised to see a scared Mastiff, especially next to a small 25 pound dog like Lucy.

Then we made a short visit to the fish section, where Stuart selected some more fish for his fish pond. Lucy was bored, so I took her for a walking tour around the store while Stuart shopped. She seemed to love sniffing every shelf. True to her terrier nature, she kept trying to climb UNDER the shelving, which I tried to discourage. She did catch me off guard when she hunkered down and crawled through a large cat toy installation! My dog Lucy who likes cat jungle gyms - that cracked me up.

And just when I thought our adventure was over and we were checking out, I noticed that they had a "doggie spa" in the front. I saw a medium sized white short haired dog leashed and a Petsmart employee leaning over her paws. I couldn't believe my eyes. The employee was painting the dogs nails bright red. I told Stuart that I had to investigate. I took Lucy with me and walked into the "dog spa" and asked the lady upfront, "I'm just curious but are you actually painting that dog's nails? Does the owner actually want that?" One employee shot back a comment, "Don't be judgemental." That surprised me and I laughed, "You're right, I am being judgmental but I just have never seen or heard of this before and I wanted to know about it."

The young woman still painting the nails looked up at me and said, "Yeah, the owner wants it and it only costs $3, so what's the big deal."
"Interesting," I said, "Tell me that the dog is a female one at least...not that that matters."
"She is a girl," she replied. "But what is unusual about this is the breed of dogs. Most women have their poodles or Chihuahua's nails done, not a larger pit bull like dog like this one."
At this point Stuart had walked in behind me.
"Crazy," I whispered, as he looked over my shoulder at the nail painting. He smiled.

I said my good-byes and we headed out of Petsmart - a place full of strange and interesting small adventures.

...

Are dog owners who insist on buying purebreds instead of adopting mutts snobs?

I wouldn't necessarily say yes to that question. But, I can say yes for 1 of my neighbors.

Yesterday, when I saw her walking her 2 large German Shepherds instead of 1, I was surprised. Thankfully, Lucy wasn't with me, since her large dog seems to really hate Lucy and attacked her one time when she (the other dog) was off leash. Imagine me trying to stand between a 150 pound German Shephard to protect little 25 pound Lucy. It was dark and scary and thankfully Lucy wasn't injured. But now everytime I see that lady and her old "german trained in germany pure bred" walking around, I feel tense.

So, yesterday, when I saw that she had another 150 pound potential Lucy attacking German Shepherd, I wasn't exactly jumping for joy. Don't get me wrong, I have had very good experiences with that breed in the past. We grew up with a pure bred named Duke who would have done anything to protect us. My sister has a pure bred German Shephard named Katie who wouldn't attack anything or anyone (save a squirrel or chasing a neighborhood cat).

Anyhow, while standing at my mail box, I did the polite thing and comment on her second dog.

"Oh, I see you have another dog, did you adopt her recently?"

"Well," she paused, "She's 2 years old and trained in Germany and from the same blood line as her. This one's 14 years old and this one is just 2. I had her just flown in from Germany."

"Oh, she's lovely."

"Thanks. Does she look like her grandmother?"

"Yes, they look almost identical."

She smiled. I still felt confused.

"So, you did just adopt her?"

"She's 2 years old and I had her sent from Germany."

Then I got it. She refused to bow down to the lowly commoner level of using the verb "adopt" because it would imply that she got a mutt. She didn't adopt, in her mind, she purchased a high quality pure breed made-in-Germany trained-in-German German Shepherd. That dog couldn't be more branded than even a branded new Mercedes!

To this lady, it seems that a dog must be of high quality to match the high caliber of her art collection, or brand new Mercedes. She seems to "collect" dogs the way a wine conniseur collects fine wines - by vintage.

I'm not saying that this is wrong, I'm just saying that I love dogs simply for them being dogs. I love their silliness, their playfulness, their tricks. I also love mutts and feel passionate about adopting rescues as well.

I guess what really rubbed me the wrong way is that this lady, EVERY TIME I see her, has had to mention that her dog is "pure bred, trained in Germany, listens to commands in German" yet it is exactly that dog that didn't listen to her AT ALL off leash one night a few months ago. It is exactly that pure bred made-in-Germany dog that lunged and attacked my little Lucy. Is that a well-trained dog? And when the owner shouted at her to stop (I noticed it was in English, not in German), the dog didn't listen. She had to physically restrain her; something I wasn't sure this older lady could even do.

So, I'm not buying all the branding BS (and I'm even in marketing). Dogs are dogs. That's it. Some are smarter or friendlier than others. Sure, purebreds have a place and deserve love and "adoption". But they are all dogs, not an item to be purchased or collected, but living breathing furry companions.

Walking in the rain with Lucy

Last weekend, it was pouring rain, or as my mother likes to say, "it was raining cats and dogs." I was in Stuart's neighborhood and had to take Lucy out for her morning walk. I had my "rain gear" on - tevas to trudge through the water, my baseball hat and my large umbrella. I didn't have my rain jacket nor my water resistant hiking pants with me, but I had to make due.

At first, I was bummed out at the prospect of having to walk her in the terrible rain storm. It was also a little on the cold side, about 58 degrees.

Once we were outside, Lucy seemed to share my dislike of the rain. She kept stopping to shake out her coat. But slowly, I realized that she was enjoying it. She kept looking up at my umbrella and trying to catch the especially large rain drops that were falling towards her. It was an endless game of catch. She seemed to be even smiling. I couldn't help but laugh.

At her "poop spot", as we call it, she decided that the small creek of water that had developed was much more interesting than doing her business. She playfully lept into the 4 inches or so of water in her "play bow" several times. Of course, she decided to leap into the water so suddenly that I had to join her. Cold water rushed over my exposed feet. I stood for a moment, looked down and saw my hot pink toe nails and black tevas under the cold running stream. 'Thank God for tevas!' I said to myself, as any other pair of shoes would have been ruined by the water. I felt defeated in my battle to stay dry and decided to go down with dignity. After a few minutes of standing there and letting Lucy jump in and out of the small creek, it was time to move on.

As we walked back to the house, I had a smile on my face even though it was still gray, cold and rainy and I would have preferred to sleep in. Lucy did her magic on me again.

Lucy does it again - learned a new dog trick!

Lucy has mastered jumping through the hula-hoop. Now, after just a few days of asking her to jump over a leg, she does this well too!

In this little clip, I tried to make a "loop" with my leg and the wall in the kitchen. I'm wearing my new vegan shoes too from Olsen Haus I bought in Durham at Vert & Vogue:

Dogs and cats used for fur in China? I hope not.

I bought a pair of shoes from a local store and decided to google the maker, Olsen Haus. Their website is:http://www.olsenhaus.com/home.html

Although not a vegetarian anymore, I still do support animal rights. I know that some vegans out there will not agree with eating meat and still supporting animal rights, but I still think it's possible.

What really alarmed me though, especially as a dog lover, was information on their website that dogs and cats are used in China for fur. This article is not for the faint of heart, neither is the section on Olsen Haus' "Truth About Animals" Section.

The article was referenced on Olsen Haus's website:


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10562373

I've never heard of this potential issue before. I really hope that it's isolated and fear that it isn't. I plan to do more research on this.

On a lighter note, my new pair of shoes look very nice:

One Year Anniversary/Adoption Birthday for Lucy!!!!!!!!!!!

Although we didn't mark April 10th with an event to celebrate, I recalled April 10th 2008 fondly.

I remember I had that sales meeting at a customer site and all I could think about was, "Call the shelter to confirm the adoption!". That was that Monday, which must have been April 7th. I think I have a whole essay about those few days in my first blog postings.

All I can say is that adopting Lucy has simply been wonderful, wuenderbar! So, although I spent Friday April 10th, volunteering at a local rescue mission, I did spent a little extra time that evening on a longer walk and more play time with Lucy and quietly honored her.

That weekend, April 11th & 12th, we treated Lucy to not just 1 but 2 "doggie easter egg hunts"! We got the idea from the AniMall fundraiser we brought her to on Saturday the 11th and then used the remaining plastic eggs filled with dog treats Easter Sunday in my parent's backyard. Since my niece and nephew couldn't be there, we had no little ones to hold an Easter Egg Hunt for, Lucy was more than happy to fill in! Will post photos.

Easter - April 2009

April 11th 2009:

Lucy participated in a "Doggie Easter Egg Hunt" which was at Crowder Park in Apex. The event was a fundraiser for the non-profit called AniMall that aids in pet adoption.

At first, Lucy had no interest in the plastic eggs littered along the trail. She was too focused on all the other canine guests. She was better than usual meeting other dog and that made me very happy to see that. I got a few cute snapshots of her meeting & greeting some rather large German Shepherds. .

Moving onto the path into the woods, I decided to give Lucy the pointer she needed to participate. I cracked open a plastic egg and revealed the dog treats to her. Suddenly, you could see the lights go on in her eyes. From that moment on, she was, as Stuart put it, "like a fat kid with a row of candy bars." She developed this robotic system of pushing the plastic egg with her paw into her mouth, gently cracking open the plastic egg, dropping it to the ground, using her paws to roll them around and inhale the treats. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. By the 7th or 8th egg, I began to worry about her getting sick from too may treats, so instead of letting her eat them, I collected some in the cute plastic bags they gave as part of the event.

The videoclip of Lucy tearing through the easter egg hunt:

3,000 word essay on Lucy - or 3 new photos

If a photo is worth a 1,000 words, then this is my version of a 3,000 word essay.

Here are 3 snapshots of Lucy running around this weekend. She is looking healthier and stronger than a year ago when I adopted her. And she's even getting more fun!

A new trick? Can it be! Lucy "sings" along!

Okay, getting a dog to sing might not be new, but it's still adorable. While practicing my vocal exercises, I noticed that Lucy would sing along but only to 1 particular exercise, the "eee" exercise.

So, I added a hand signal to the voice request of "Sing!" by pointing to my lips with my hand flat and moving my hand out and then doing the exercise. And yes, I also added another command of "Shh!" with my finger over my lips and gave her treats when she'd suddenly stop.

With all that intro, here's a tiny video clip I got while trying to vocalize with her!

Check it out:

Lucy's long lost brother

Last week, I was taking out my visiting niece and nephew to Locopops on Franklin Street. It was a fun outing and unlike most of our outings, we left Lucy at home.

We were wrapping up our "date" and walking back towards the car, when down the street I saw a white dog with black ears and black spots sitting. This dog was a spitting image of Lucy. "Come on' guys, walk faster! I've got to meet that dog!" The kids agreed and I heard a few "oohhhss" and "ahhhsss, it does look just like Lucy."

I rushed up to this young couple and a woman who appeared to be a visiting relative. I asked if I could meet their dog. They were all friendly. I knelt down and was greeted by Peanuts. Peanuts was white with black marbeling on his torso, had black ears and some brown and black markings on his face. He was exactly the same size, weight and temprament as Lucy. "Oh my goodness, Peanut is just like Lucy, it's unbelievable." The owner,Michelle, smiled but I could see that she wasn't quite buying my story. I asked where they adopted Peanut. It was also the Orange County Shelter. I asked how old Peanut was. Peanut was also about a year or year and a half. Then, I got them convinced. I took out my iPhone and showed them a photo of Lucy. The three of them literally gasped, "Oh My God! She looks just like Peanut!"

We chatted for a while about the dogs and guessed that they are indeed related, if not brother and sister. I was so excited about meeting Lucy's brother. We exchanged phone numbers and email addresses and agreed to meet up soon and have an "introduction" for Lucy and Peanut.

After the meeting, I was upset with myself for not getting a picture of Peanut. This was disapointing to Stuart too who was not there for that 1 outing to Locopops. Last week, I emailed Michelle and asked to meet soon, possibly next weekend (aka this weekend now) to have the dogs meet. I didn't hear back a while and felt disappointed. But last night, I got an email back that they would love to set up the meeting for this Sunday afternoon and that she had checked out the "Lucy blog" and really liked it. It turns out that Peanut is also gifted when it comes to doing tricks.

I can't wait to see Peanut again and have Lucy & Peanut meet! I hope I can get them to pose for a photo for me together. Now I wonder if there are any other siblings of Lucy and Peanut still out there. I bet that there are since most litters have at least 3 - 5 dogs. I would love to have Lucy meet all of her siblings. Heck, I'd love to adopt another dog like Lucy!

Hula-hoop video#2 - Stu has Lucy strut her stuff

Check it out:

Lucy & her hula-hoop trick!

We are proud to announce that we finally got Lucy to not only like the hula-hoop, but to jump through it! Yes, it took lots of treats to get there.

Check it out: