And In The Left Corner...

Weighing in at just under 20 pounds (she was 12 pounds 2 weeks ago) we have Miss Lucy Lou Bugga Boo... (Thinking maybe I should have named her Lucy Lou Kissy Poo instead...)

And in the right corner, weighing in just under 120 pounds, her mother! And the fight is on!

Lucy and I were at the vet this morning. My dear sweet vet, Mary, confirmed what my BML friends and my fiance have been saying all along, my darling boxer has a dominant personality. So, the race is on to see who comes out the "leader". I was told in no uncertain terms that I've got to take the lead, and that I was most definitely up for the challenge.

This all came about during a routine check of my little pups ears, which she was none to fond of (frankly, there were other activities that took place this morning that actually deserved growls, but the ears had it!). She growled and snarled at Mary, and Mary looked her straight in the eye and told her what was what. And the growling and the snarling stopped.

Bound and determined to make it also work for me, I had my first chance to try it out on my little Boxer just a few short hours later. I don't even know what Lucy and I were doing, but she didn't even get a whole outburst out before I looked her square in the eye and told her "NO!" She was a bit taken aback, and she stopped what she was doing and sat down.

I don't want you to get the wrong impression, I've told the dog "no" before- many a times. But, there was something different in my tone and my mannerisms this time, because it actually stopped Lucy. I was quite proud of both of us.

Little Boxer- Big Boxer Attitude!

I have a confession to make. My reasons for starting a blog definitely had something to do with wanting to share my oh-so-beautiful boxer with the world. But, in case you haven't gotten this, I also love to write, and I love to take pictures.

I do not have kids- obviously, because I have way too much time on my hands. My puppy is my child. Every day my little boxer does something, usually more often than once in a day, that completely grabs my attention and makes me stop everything in my way too busy life, and just watch. The watching is usually followed by a big smile and a giggle or two which is better than any amount of time spent on a therpist's couch. I know that some day, I'll probably look back on this time and remember Lucy as being a funny puppy, but as my memory doesn't work like it used to (partly due to age, but mostly due to the drawer just being too full), I probably won't remember exactly the antics of this little boxer. Unless, I look back on my blog, and it will all be there!

I have always liked to write. I wrote short stories and poetry in high school and even wrote editorials for the school paper. When I was 25 I lived in San Diego for 5years. During that 5 years, about once a week, I would sit down and write a letter about all of the crazy goings on in my Southern California world, and believe me when I say, there were definitely some crazy moments out there. Between traffic, gigundo spiders, a house that closely resembled "The Money Pit" and eventually a little basset named Nick, there was never a dull moment. At any rate, those letters were sent to my Grandparents who still have them in a box somewhere. Every once and a while, my 87 year old gram will pull those letters and remind that I should be writing. She talks often of how much she enjoyed those letters filled with stories of what probably seemed like a world pretty far away to her. So here I am...

My little boxer and I have not had to report to work for the last 2 days. It's been a long time since I've had 2 days in a row away from the oak business, and I was long overdue. But, please don't get the wrong impression. While Lucy may have been soaking up the rays and catching some zzz's in what turned out to be the most comical of positions, I have been painting a bathroom and cleaning. And much to my total disgust, I spent a total of 3 hours in Home Depot yesterday picking out materials for our 3rd and final bathroom remodel. 3 carts, a forklift, and about 6 Home Depot employees later (and not to forget $3000.00), I was finally out of there and on my way home to paint.

I also love to paint, so I am definitely prepared with all of the necessary painting supplies. Or so I thought, I got the whole way home and discoverered that all of my paint trays and rollers had somehow walked right off the property and there wasn't a single roller or tray to be found. Things have a way of ending up "at the shop" never to return to the house. It's very, very frustrating, and I had some choice words for that situation.

In keeping with tradition, yesterday I made a go at taking Lucy's weekly birthday picture. I made the decision that week #11 was going to be red flowers. We've done yellow and we've done purple... Luckily there were tons of blooming red bushes in the front yard.

I don't know whether I didn't have enough patience or she just wasn't in the mood, because we didn't get a "great" 11 week old birthday picture. She had one heck of a good time in this pot chewing on everything she could reach, but the picture thing just wasn't meant to be. Oh well, she and I had fun and she got lots of doggy treats out of the adventure. Just in case you are wondering, she didn't climb up there by herself, she most definitely had assistance. And believe me when I say, this wasn't the pose her mother had in mind- but it's cute none-the-less. Week 12 is going to be tulips... stay tuned. That should be interesting!

Lucy has taken a great liking to the very messy, very black fire pit in the back yard. As I mentioned, we are in the middle of a bathroom remodel, and everything burnable is being piled in the back yard to be burned for lack of a better idea, I guess.

I am of course, freaking out for several reasons. My first and probably strongest reason for freaking out, is that Lucy (who is of course, a puppy!) puts everything in her mouth, and it doesn't matter if it's hot, dirty or dangerous. (With this in mind, I've spent countless hours out there picking things out of the ashes that she could get hurt on. Now it's mostly just ash and some leftover pieces of wood.) Secondly, everytime she plays in that fire pit, her beautiful white tipped paws and chest end up black and she ends up needing a bath, because I refuse to have a dirty, unkept child.

Today she decided that her "white" ball would also be happier if it were covered in black fire pit ashes. My attempts at rolling it around in the wet grass only prompted Lucy to drag it back into the fire pit and roll it around in more ashes. After a while, I decided these efforts were completely in vain and returned to the house. The ball and my puppy's paws are still black and now so is my kitchen floor (white kind of a brain dead moron puts white- and I mean pure white) tile in a kitchen floor?)! Looks like my little boxer and my kitchen floor will be getting a bath this evening. I thought boxers didn't like to be dirty? Obviously, whoever said that, hasn't met my little boxer!

Rob and I are in a constant state of amusement at how fast Lucy is growing. Her legs seem to get longer every day. I would love to see her filling out more than what she is, she's a skinny little thing and I hate that I can see her ribs despite the fact that she eats- and eats a lot, but she's definitely getting longer.

I love to watch her run, you can see the muscle and tell that she's going to be strong and fast! I think the contrast in her coloring is also getting more noticeable, it seems like her fawn coloring is getting darker, but that could just be me! I took this same picture of her about 3 weeks ago, and can't get over the change. It's hard when you see them everyday to realize how quickly they're growing, unless you lift them out of a playpen 20 times a day- perhaps I need to look into the "Wellness" diet if I'm going to keep up with my new best buddy.

For the most part, Lucy loves to be outdoors, especially when the whole family is out there. She loves to get into things, and there is definitely a great variety of things to get into in our yard. However, if she's out there alone, or just with Ceasar, she's usually pretty quick to want back in the house- she definitely doesn't want to miss anything. The expression on her face this morning, definitely got her back in the house. How could I have ignored that face?

This is definitely a Lucy moment that I won't forget (kinda like the day she jumped into the scum pond after the frog). I didn't get any pictures of it (because the hot tub is the one place I don't take the camera), but on Saturday morning, Rob and I were sitting in the hot tub and both of the dogs were running in the yard. Or, at least we thought that was what they were doing. Up until Saturday, Lucy had been unable to climb up onto the picnic table bench that we use a hot tub step. The next thing I knew, my little boxer was pearing over the side of the hot tub, 2 long legs followed her little front paws, and my little Lucy was in the hot tub! I held onto her and she doggy paddled for about 5 minutes. I was so proud of her, but shocked that she jumped in there like she did. Once she was done doggy paddling, she hung onto me for dear life and I eventually had to get out of the hot tub and get her dried off. It wasn't a warm morning and there was no sun, and in keeping with tradition, our hot tub isn't as hot as it's supposed to be.

Lucy doesn't just have a "Big Boxer" attitude, it seems at times that she thinks she's much bigger than what she is. About a week ago, Lucy had playtime with the 6 year old Boxer, Layla that lives next door. Layla is about 50 lbs. She's a beautiful girl, and Lucy loves to play with her so much that she'll try to take me over there when we're going for a walk. One night she hopped out of the car and headed in that direction- she was very disappointed that Layla wasn't out.

Lucy has only met Layla twice now. I could tell that Layla's owner was a little bit concerned because of the huge size difference between the girls. But, on thier last meeting, Lucy prooved that size just doesn't matter- it's all about attitude. I watched in amazement as my little darlin pounced on top of that fully grown boxer and told her what was what, over and over again. I'm still in amazement over the whole thing! By the time we left there, my little girl was exhausted! And I was compltely amazed by the boxer play that I had just witnessed. I am now more determined than ever to find several other boxer owners that live near me, so that Lucy can get her fill of boxer romping (just until I can convince my darling fiance that we need another boxer, of course).

Today Lucy took to playing with this extra-large rope toy. It's really way too big for her, but she sure puts a lot of energy into hauling it around and tossing it all over the place. After a while, the sheer weight of the rope got to her and she hauled it over to her pillow for safekeeping. (This is the pillow that Lucy oversees the kitchen activities from. It is from here that she decides whether or not the food smells worthy of getting off the pillow for or not!)

I'll probably never figure out whether it's an attitude thing, or her thinking that she's a lot bigger than what she really is. It doesn't much matter, I just enjoy watching her! She certainly does manage to get herself into some real predicaments!

Boxer Life is Grand!

Just when the thought crosses your mind that perhaps (and I use the word perhaps very lightly!) you're spoiling the boxer too much, something happens and you start to think that you're neglecting the dog. ( I am by nature a worry wart and an incurable perfectionist- I worry that I'm feeding her too much, then I worry that I'm not feeding her enough. Oh, no maybe she doesn't have enough toys, or it's cold outside, and she's shivering! You get the idea!)

This morning, Lucy and I had a "private" appointment with a trainer at K9 Kingdom in Wexford. I took a lot of heat this morning getting ready to go this private appointment. Appearantly, my fiance finds it funny that Lucy and I were off to meet with a trainer! Heat be dammned, I was determined, and would not be derailed! I was very eager to suck up as much information as possible and take back my leadership role as "Lucy's Human". As it would turn out, there really wasn't much need for panic or concern over the "state of Lucy". She's just a puppy, a very young boxer puppy, and we're well on our way to having a well behaved little boxer. Relief of all reliefs, she's just being a boxer! I did get a lot of valuable information, and Lucy and I will be dilligently working on our homework for the next couple of weeks. But, it's going to be okay, there's no reason to call in a dog whisperer or send Lucy off to boot camp... Whew!

You're wondering where the spoiling part comes into all of this. Afterall, spending an hour with a dog trainer when you've got a puppy isn't off the wall- lots of people do it. The off the wall, spoiled, out of the world part of this whole thing is the doggy daycare. I was, and am still (2 hours later) astounded by the amount of dogs in "doggy daycare". I understand as well as the next guy- dogs are children and not dogs. But, I honestly thought that was a luxury reserved for celebrities and the ultra wealthy. I guess I'll never get it because I have the luxury of being able to bring Lucy to work with me every single day.

Speaking of bringing the boxer to work, a furniture store is a fun, although somewhat mine filled place to bring a boxer puppy. There are so many places to hide and it's like a maze in here. She is also quite capable of getting herself very stuck, which results in some pretty funny moments.

However, when she starts running around at breakneck speeds, and it only means one thing, the furniture store is not the place to be. Sometimes I don't get much warning that my little one needs to poop. She can be calmly lying next to me, when all of a sudden, completely and totally out of the blue, she's running like her tail is on fire. All of this would be humorous except for a couple of facts. The first fact being, accidents need to be avoided at all costs and two acrobatic skills are required in this store (which is filled to the gills with furniture) in order to catch the "just about to poop puppy!". Sometimes, even an "America's Funniest Home Videos" worth dive across 3 desks, and a bed does not yield a caught puppy. I will say that I am getting faster, but so is she, so it's pretty much a wash.

Our last trip to Petco, which was 3 days ago (gasp!) yielded 3 things in addition to the many new friends. The green gator which has the most amazing 2 squeakers in it, a round rawhide rope which Lucy proudly carried to the cash register herself (although she did not pay for this item herself- but she did manage to elicit several "oh my God, what an adorable puppy" comments) and a big bag of chicken chew strips. Since we've acquired those chew strips, my little boxer baby has only had one thing on her mind, and try as I might, I cannot get the message across that we need to pace ourselves when it comes to consuming those chew strips. (Note to self: Does Costco sell these in 100 lb bags?)

Last night, as I was busily uploading photos to my computer, the little darling managed to grab that very bag of chew strips and take off like a bolt of lighting. As I have a tendancy to do, I grabbed the camera. I was curious to see if my smart little puppy would figure out a way to get the bag open or if she would just play with the bag. She was determined, but she did not get the bag open, the bag however, did not remain intact! I wish I could have caught her running with the bag in her mouth, she was so proud of herself for getting out of my office with it!

About 5 minutes into our little game, she did realize however, that her best bet for getting one of those chew strips was to make sure that her human knew that she was sorry for stealing the bag, and she put on her best "I'm a guilty puppy" face, settled down, dropped the bag and waited calmly for me to take a picture and open the bag and give her the much desired chew strip! My little boxer can be so reasonable.

One of Lucy's favorite past times at the store, is trying to get the "faux" basset hound puppy to play with her.

Several times a day, she will walk up to the little hound and paw at it, talk to it, and sniff it. These are Kodak moments if I ever saw them. She wants this puppy to play with her so badly! But, no matter how much she kisses it or talks to it, it just won't play with my little boxer baby!

Lucy's Grandma & Grandpa Emery came for a visit on Wednesday. Lucy was so excited to see them, and even more excited to show off all of her new toys! Grandma had a wonderful time playing fetch the gator with Lucy, and they played until Lucy was completely worn out. She fell asleep on Grandma's lap- and even though Grandma's arm fell asleep holding that darling, wrinkly boxer butt, she would not let me take the puppy! It's official: Grammy is hooked on the little boxer!

Are we having fun yet?

I have spent a lot of time blogging about all of the fun that Lucy and I are having together, and have focused very little on the challenges facing Miss Lucy and I. There are of course, things in her training that are going very well. She went 3 days without an accident in the house, yesterday she rang the little poochie bells on the sliding glass door when she wanted to go outside, and today when she had to pee at the store, she ran to the door and she barked! Good Lucy- hang on- your human is coming. Needless to say her mother was so excited.

Lucy is being dual trained. In other words, she and I spend about 75% of our time at the store, and only about 25% of our time at the house. Not sure if that has anything to do with things, but I'm sure that it doesn't make it easier for Lucy to realize what she's supposed to do. None-the-less, I'm very proud of her housebreaking efforts. She's only been home 2 weeks, and I've tried to be so dilligent about taking her out. I guess the efforts are paying off...

My little darling also has some very wicked shark teeth- teeth which have met lots of unfortunate people over the last couple of weeks- if this keeps up, I'm going to need a blood transfusion. I don't think I've ever lost so much blood in such a short period of time, and I can barely get out of bed in the morning without having some kind of disaster!

Granted, she's just a puppy, although, I don't count that as an exscuse. Biting people is unacceptable- especially when it's me we're talking about! Her latest "attack" mode involves pant legs, and yesterday she tore a pair of my sweat pants and a pair of jeans (both items of clothing were still on my body). Don't get me wrong- I would love to incorporate strenth training into my way too busy life, however, dragging what will soon be a 50 pound boxer along as I attempt to sweep up massive quantities of german shepherd fur, is not what I had in mind. It's also quite challenging to clean a white kitchen floor with a boxer puppy making very fruitful attempts at "killing" the wash rag.

I've consulted with the "experts" (ie: the BML- love you guys!) and gotten some wonderful advice. This morning I made the decision to spend an hour in a private training session with a dog trainer as it is popular opinion that my little pup has decided that she wants to be the alpha leader. Both she and her human obviously need some correcting. In the meantime, as soon as I shake my little tazmanian devil off of my leg- or unclench that deathly grip- I'm going to ignore my puppy. You get the idea!

While Lucy most definitely knows the meaning of the words "come", "sit" and of course the uttered 90 times an hour "no", when she doesn't want to listen (most often associated with knowing that her human does not have a treat in her hand) she most definitely will not. It is extremely frustrating, although I read that this is all part of boxer nature.

I must count my blessings- as I mentioned previously, Lucy and I spend about 75% of our time together at the store- the furniture store. Believe me when I say that I had some serious qualms about bringing a puppy into a store full of wood furniture. (Memories of an adorable little basset hound chewing so much that I feared for the stability of the house, came flying back to me- there was nothing that was too good for my little basset to chew on; furniture, molding, doors, plants, carpet, etc.) However, she has yet to chew on a single piece of furniture- maybe it's her human's hawk eyes, or maybe it's the fact that we own more puppy toys than are currently available at Petco!

Just a few "funny moments" from our 10 week old photo shoot that we did yesterday. Couldn't help but post them! I would love to know what she's thinking starting down at the lilacs- probably that her human is a little off her rocker.
Sometimes I think my little boxer is part kitten- her movements are so catlike at times!

Lucy's 10 Weeks Old!

Today is Lucy's 10 week birthday! It's hard to notice how much she's growing, until I look back at some of my earlier pictures, and then it becomes evident that we've got a soon to be very long-legged beauty living amongst us! She's a good eater, and is really enjoying her new "Wellness" diet. Last night, Lucy sampled some string beans for the very first time. She loved them, and I'm sure that she would have eaten the whole can, but her mother put a stop to it, knowing that a whole can of string beans would be paid for very dearly at a later hour! I'm so glad that my little girl likes good food. She also loves cheese! The sound of a cheese bag opening will bring my little boxer to a complete halt, and she'll come running no matter what else she was involved in! Guess I've figured out to get her undivided attention!

This is her official 10 week old photo. She had a great time playing in the lilac branches! I didn't have to bribe her at all to get her to sit still long enough to get a picture... um, okay, I bribed her! She doesn't quite get her mother's attempts at cool photographs.

The last couple of days have been so cold. It's hard to believe that earlier in the week I had sandals on and was drinking my morning coffee on the deck with the "kids" and today, I grabbed my heaviest winter coat just to step outside with Lucy. She doesn't much care for the cold- and likes the rain even less. I had to pick her up and carry her outside yesterday. She could feel the cold blast of air as soon as I opened the door and she wanted no part in it. I'll definitely be purchasing a winter coat, and maybe some boots for my little boxer next winter if I ever want her to leave the warmth of the house.

I tried waking her up this afternoon so that I could play with her, but knew she had to go "OUTSIDE" before being let loose in the house. As soon as she saw me with the coat on, she knew what was coming and decided that maybe if she snuggled up with me, she could get out of going out in the cold!

Unbeknownst to my little boxer, my fiance hates mail! She grabbed this envelope out of his office this afternoon and he will no longer have to figure out what to do with it! I love that even in moments of extreme mischievousness- my little Lucy tries so hard to be "proper". I thought his office was puppy-proofed. I guess not! Bad human, I should have taken it from her immediately and told her "no". Instead, I grabbed the camera and started snapping away. I eventually removed the envelope, but I let her have a little fun first, and I of course walked away with a couple of cute shots and tons of shredded envelope to clean up! She always looks so innocent when she's being mischievous!

Shoes haven't captured much of Lucy's attention. It may be the fact that we've got to some pretty extreme measures to make sure that none of them are in the reach of her little puppy grasp. However, today she decided that Mommy's running shoes were looking like they needed some attention. That was the most action those running shoes have seen in months and the lure of the shoelace was too great for Lucy to resist. Several hours later she made an honest attempt at my laptop cord. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the wild look in my eye and heard the very shrill "no" aimed directly at her.

The cold and rainy weather here today has kept us indoors. Lucy is still bound and determined to get Ceasar to play with her, and Ceasar is still bound and determined to have nothing to do with her. She'll try anything- she bites his tail, she barks at him and nothing changes the fact that he just doesn't want to play with my noisy little boxer. I'm not sure that's ever going to change- he doesn't seem to be snapping at her as much, I did notice today however that he can't seem to get away from that shrill little bark soon enough. She tries and tries to be charming and cute, but that doesn't have any effect on the old boy!

One of my favorite things about my little boxer is the wild eyed look that she gets when she's ready to rumble. She'll roll over on her back, put all 4 paws in the air and will paw at whatever toy is dangling over top of her. It's hysterical to watch, and I can tell she's having a blast. The octopus is one of the best toys for this little game, but in this picture, Willy was was nowhere to be found. She just decided it was good idea to be silly. Maybe she knew mom loves this look and badly wanted a picture of it!

My little buddy loves to be in the kitchen with me, maybe because it's warm, or maybe she's figured out that there is always a chance of food dropping. Today she kept me company while I baked a blueberry pie, and now she's slumbering on the doggy pillow, probably dreaming of eating that pie and I'm sure that roast beef is smelling pretty good too! I only wish that we had a nice day to play outside!

And the big question of the day.... What in the world ever tempted Lucy's Human to lift a steaming hot blueberry pie out of the oven, and tip it in one direction to see if there was liquid in it? Not very bright, human! Now there's blueberry liquid all over the rug in front of the stove- so to answer the question- yup, there WAS liquid in it. I guess it's a good thing the boxer is bright!

And suddenly... never a dull moment!

Our morning routine now that Lucy is home with us consists of puppy out while mommy makes coffee and tries to wake up. Then I will typically join the dogs outside with a cup of coffee, wonderful PA weather permitting. Some mornings, Lucy is ready to go and full of energy and she'll run in circles and try to tease Ceasar into having a romp with her or try to make her way up the big yellow slide. Some mornings, she just wants to curl up on my lap and snuggle and give wonderful boxer kisses- this morning was definitely a curl up and snuggle morning. She wanted up really badly! I think it has a lot to do with how cold and wet out it is. She seems to get really cold, really fast because I've noticed her shivering on the colder mornings.

Lucy is completely fascinated by this empty planter and my little garden shovel.

She spends a lot of time trying to figure out exactly how to get in it, and every once a while will make a really good effort out of trying to get in- some day, I'm sure she'll accomplish this, but for now, she'll just have to think about it and experience those "near" accomplishments.

For the time being, she can get far enough in to dig in the dirt. I'm sure that one of these days, I'll discover a boxer sitting in the planter watching the world go by.

This is going to end up being one of my all time favorite Lucy pictures.

Sunday night, Rob and I took Lucy to my parents house for the first time. I couldn't wait for my parents and grandparents to meet her. Everyone fell in love with her! As is traditional with my mother meeting my "children" for the first time, my mother laughed and Lucy growled and snarled at her. (I guess giggles over her wrinkles are not appreciated and I think that my mother has learned her lesson!) I can tell Grandma & Grandpa might make good puppy-sitters one of these days!

Lucy loves to walk around with Rob's flip-flop, it's comical really because it's so big and she's so little. She looks so proud of herself marching across the deck with the shoe in her mouth. She never chews on it, but she will fall asleep on it- she will also do this with my slippers.

I guess I should be thankful that she doesn't like to chew on shoes!

This lounge chair is one of Lucy's favorite places to relax, and escape Ceasar. She will torment him, and then jump up on the chair to escape his wrath.

Little does she know, that if Ceasar really wanted to get her, he most definitely could and there isn't a chair in the world that will derail our 13 year old counter surfer!

She will sit in our laps for the longest time in this chair. I think it's kinda become "Lucy's chair". I know it's great to sit out there with my coffee and my little boxer snuggled in my lap. (Although, I know that these moments won't last because my little boxer, will soon be a big boxer!) I am certainly savoring these moments with her!

This morning before she fell asleep on my lap, Lucy sat staring out at the yard, watching Ceasar play with his ball, and watching all of the Robins. Every unique sound catches her attention, and lately there have been a lot of those. It amazes me how thoughtful my little boxer baby seems to be! She loves to sit and watch people, other animals, and most lately, fires. Her fascination with the television also amuses me, she will sit and watch and cock her little head to the left and then to the right. I've gotta get a picture of it. Even more amazing is how often she fails to pounce on whatever it is that has her attention. I will say that a leaf blowing across the yard or parking lot most definitely gets a pounce!

I have been focusing a lot of effort on the nipping issue. Last night, I gave her an all natural steer stick which captured her little shark jaws for about an hour. I was amazed at how goofy she was while chewing. She couldn't seem to sit still, and I wasn't the least bit surprised when she dragged that smelly steer stick right up onto my chest and proceeded to chew it directly underneath my nose. What the heck Lucy? Just because you love it, doesn't mean that I want to smell it. I didn't move her, because I figured that she was just being a boxer, and knew that she probably wouldn't stay up there very long, and I was right. The next 15 minutes yielded several comical "boxer" positions, and I got a big laugh out of watching her try to find "just the right way" to chew that steer stick!

At some point, she got really restless, and being the intuitive person that I am, I decided it was a good idea to take her outside. When we came back into the house, she marched right over to the "TV blanket" (The one that Rob & I always snuggles up with while watching TV) and curled up. I figured she was probably missing Rob who was out of town, so I drug the blanket upstairs and put it in bed, and that's where my little darling slept last night!

Our Day Off! 9 Weeks Old!

" These leaves are great! Thanks for letting me play in them, Mom!"

Lucy is 9 weeks old now and wildly attracted to anything that makes a unique and interesting noise, these leaves were a perfect play spot, between the sound they made, and the shade, Lucy had a blast underneath the giant Oak tree kicking up leaves and wiggling her little bottom in the air. She was sweet enough to stop moving long enough for her mom to snap a great picture.

"If you keep doing that, I'm going to have to give you a big, sloppy Boxer kiss!"

Lucy's relationship, to this point with Ceasar, has been rather rocky, she just wants to play and he just wants to run in the opposite direction- preferably in pursuit of his tennis ball and peace and quiet. Hopefully this is the start of a new era, but I'm not holding my breath as I'm sure Lucy's desire to play isn't going to change anytime soon. At least no one was growling, barking or biting. I definitely think she was thinking about giving him a big kiss! He was probably just trying to figure out why she's such a pain!

"Loving this slide... now if only I could figure out how to get up it without sliding right back down again. Can you give me a push, Mom?"

Lucy is bound and determined to make it up this slide. She wore herself out trying to get up and then sliding back down again! And the leaves on the ground made for the perfect landing spot for her tiny little bottom. But, that's okay, it made for a great picture!

Today was a beautiful, sunny and hot day- one of the 1st of the year.

Lucy's wild play in the yard required that every once and a while she find a shady spot to cool off. She seemed to love it under my favorite rocking chair- it was the perfect place for her to revamp with just the right amount of shade and protection from the German shepherd.

" This doesn't taste as good as Mommy's fingers, but I'll chew it anyway..."

Lucy's 2nd visit through Petco yielded this wonderful, tasty bone (In addition to several other chew toys and squeaky toys) which has kept her very busy for the last 2 days. (Her mother's only wish is that it didn't smell so darn bad!) She picked it out herself after I requested to a Petco team member that I was looking for something to keep Lucy's shark teeth off of my fingers- even if it only worked for a little while! I guess I got lucky.

"Don't worry, Mom. I'll get it!"

My little boxer is fascinated by anything and everything that's hard to get to. No one will ever say that she doesn't love a good challenge.

I looked several times, but couldn't figure out what it was that Lucy was after in this crack.

"I'm not entirely sure I like the taste of these dandelions. Are you sure you want me to eat this?"

The dandelions in our yard keep Lucy occupied for a very long time. Thankfully, we have more than an abundance of them! And much to Lucy's amusement, there are a ton of them at the store to keep her busy too!

" Boy, it's hot out here. I bet it's cooler under here."

The chaise lounger on the deck is a favorite hiding spot when Lucy has managed to push Ceasar to the brink. He can't get her underneath there.

" All of those darn pictures wore me out... or maybe it was the leaves, twigs, balls, dandelions, and pampas grass that did it. Might be easier to blame that darn camera that Mom always seems to be holding- I can't get away with anything!"

Lucy's 1st week

What a week Lucy's 1st week home has been! (I'm not sure if it was more traumatic for me or for her- I just hope that next week is a little less stressful or I'm going to require strong medication or alcohol.) We've definitely had some challenges, some of which we've found solutions for, some of which are going to require more thought.

Riding in the car was a big challenge. I don't think Lucy minds the car, she just wants to be on mamma's lap which is at the very least a bit of an issue now, but will be impossible when she's 70 lbs. Shifting just isn't easy with a little fur ball on your lap, especially one that won't sit still, not to mention it's just not safe.

I bought a car harness for her at Petco which required the assistance of the vet to figure out how to hook her up. I was so excited, until she figured her way out of the harness. I tried one morning to put her in a box, she just tipped it over within 1 mile of the house. Yesterday, a new car harness arrived, and while it's a little bit big, she can't get out of it, and it's holding my rambunctious little bundle in one place while we're on the road. She slept the whole way here this morning- I think Lucy likes it!

Those sharp little shark teeth are a big problem, mainly for me and not her. My hands and ankles look like I've gone a round or two with some kind of saw. I actually had a customer ask me what happenned to me, and I could tell she didn't believe me when I pointed to my darling Lucy. Yesterday she took a huge slice out of the palm of my hand. Rob wrestles with her all the time, but there's a big difference between when Daddy does it and when Mommy does it. They play for a little while, and then she stops all of the nipping with him. Of course, he's not around her all day like I am either. I will say that I'm getting faster at putting a chew toy in her mouth, but sometimes still not fast enough. My little boxer baby has a real wild streak in her that comes out a couple of times a day. It's very Tasmanian like in nature.

I mentioned trauma earlier in this post. Lucy had her 1st trip to the vet this week. She's current on her shots for another couple of weeks, but I just wanted her to meet the vet, and let the vet just have a look! I'm glad we went because we discovered that Lucy has 2 types of worms. One of which was treatable with an oral injection and the other is going to require 11 days of antibiotics. That certainly explains the issues we're having with not being able to make it outside quickly enough!

2 hours after leaving the vets, Lucy woke up from her morning nap with a huge blister like bump underneath her eye. The vet didn't think it was a reaction to the oral meds she was given that morning, but suggested that she had maybe gotten bit by something. (Not entirely out of the question, since Lucy is afraid of nothing, and probably stuck her whole head somewhere it shouldn't have been!) So, off to the drug store for the children's Benedryl we went. It took about 2 hours for the swelling to go down, but she was fine after the dose of Benedryl and the good long Benedryl induced nap. I still don't know what bit her or what she got into, but I am very thankful it was so easy to remedy. And now I am defitely prepared.

After only 7 days with my little boxer baby, I am 100% convinced that if my little pup can find trouble, she most certainly will. This morning, Rob and I were in the hot tub, and both dogs were out roaming the yard when we heard crying. It was most certainly Lucy crying. She had gotten herself stuck in our little swamp pond- she was up to her pretty little eyeballs in green pond scum. Rob jumped out of the hot tub and rescued my little dog, and then she and I promptly retired to the house for a nice hot bath (her not me). She smells a lot better now, but I suspect that it might take 1 more bath to get rid of the smell entirely. I don't know for sure, but I think that she may have been watching one of the many frogs that inhabit that pond, and when the frog jumped, Lucy jumped too!

I think the events of the morning completely wore her out. She didn't seem to mind the water, as a matter of fact, she stuck her little head right under the sprayer when I stuck her in the kitchen sink for her bath. But, she was definitely cold and has been sleeping ever since I cleaned her up. I only wish I had gotten a picture of my little pup- hopefully, I'll never see her that dirty ever again!

Day 3 with Lucy!

It's official, I am completely in love with my little boxer baby! She is sweet and cuddly, and playful and being such a wonderful puppy! Neither Rob nor I can believe how well behaved she is. (And we're not just saying this because we're partial parents!) I guess we were both expecting that Lucy's first couple of days home would be more of a challenge than what they have been.
The two most popular toys seem to be this tire, and the octupus which I've been calling Willy. (Willy is definitely my favorite toy, and Lucy just loves to pull at the white hair on top of his head!) It's a lot of fun watching her play with the little octopus.

Leaves, tree branches, and the german shepherds tennis balls also seem to be popular (although the love of the tennis balls seems to cause quite a ruckus! Tennis balls in our home have up until this point been the property of the German Shepherd, Ceasar and on rare occassions, the basset hound would sneak off with one.)

This morning, we played outside, had breakfast, and then I had to get ready for work. She stayed with me in the bathroom while I was getting ready for a little while, then wandered off. A couple of minutes later I heard little puppy noises, and decided I had better go investigate. The house is definitely puppy proofed, but we have a bathroom that's under re-construction and I was afraid somehow that door had gotten opened and that my little one had found mischief. I was rather suprised to find that the only mischief my little boxer baby had found was a basket of dirty clothes that looked like a good place to curl up and take a nap. Not sure why she likes it in the dirty clothes basket, but I didn't have the heart to move her. She looked so happy there.

Settling down for the night is a big deal. She's very content to snuggle with mommy for a couple of minutes, then she needs her space. The last couple of nights she wandered somewhere in the middle of the bed, usually in between Rob & I with her head on Rob's leg, and her hind legs spread out over me. Early this morning, we woke up to find her lying on her back all 4 legs in the air- sound asleep. I swear she was smiling. While I was getting ready for work this morning, she curled up on my pj's and took a little nap.

Lucy's favorite spot in the yard is a place that makes Mommy nervous. She loves to crawl under the deck and play peek-a-boo with me. Yesterday she found 2 dried out pampas grass bushes and went wild puppy on us. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but as fast as she was moving, it definately would have been nothing but a blur.