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!