Pretty Poppy Puppy

Every spring, I anxiously await the arrival of the beautiful orange poppies at the edge of the deck. I go daily to the yard and look at the pods and wonder when they're going to open. This year for the first time, I was actually lucky enough to be able to sit, with a cup of coffee of course, and watch a flower open- I'm sure that will never happen again, and it was magnificent! These beauties never stay around long enough for me! I love the bright, vibrant color and the beautiful black centers, it's such a wonderful contrast.

I'm not sure that Lucy will look forward to the arrival of the poppies quite like I do, but she was definitely held captive by the pretty flowers. After about 10 minutes of trying to get a great shot, I still can't decide if she was more interested in the actual blossoms or the pods. Frankly, I'm not sure that it really mattered to her! I just love to watch her expressions and her actions when she discovers something new for the first time. Puppy amazement is so refreshing!

Orange is definitely your color Lucy, what do you think?

She could have cared less about the color of these beauties, she was more interested in the fact that she could tug on them and they would spring back. And much to her mother's disappointment, it was great fun to pull each and every petal from the poppies.

Winter here seemed like it went on for years, coats, hats, gloves and being cold all the time just wouldn't seem to end. It seems to get worse for me every year, my fiance says it's because I'm getting older. All I know is that I don't ever remember having so many days where I couldn't shake an ache!

We had more snow that what I ever remember seeing in my lifetime, and right up until time that I had to put my life in the hands of a ton of very bad drivers, I thought it was magical. That all ended when I was forced to share the road with other drivers moving way too fast and driving way too close.

The Oak Store was closed a record number of days, and there were several days that we were unable to get our cars out of the driveway. (Four Wheel drive and all wheel drive made no difference- although my all wheel drive beat the 4 wheel drive out of the driveway several times!) I wasn't sure that warm weather was ever going to come our way- so the sight of our poppies gave me some hope that we are close to seeing something that at least resembles summer! (I'm just thankful that I wasn't trying to housebreak a boxer puppy through all of those snowstorms!) My little basset had the hardest time with all of the snow. He just couldn't seem to maneuver with those short little legs, and he kept falling right through it! I felt so bad for him!

Lucy and I have made great progress this week. Our big thing this week was learning "paw". She's really got it down, and now sits and offers her paw before you even ask. I've even got her greeting my customers with her paw. I'm very proud of myself, as I was never able to get my little basset hound to master the art of the paw. (I think it had a lot to do with the fact that putting one paw up, probably would have resulted in a serious loss of balance since he was very directionally challenged to begin with!)

A week ago, I took a picture standing on the deck with Lucy jumping on my leg attempting to get up. She's on her way to learning that when she wants mom's attention, sitting gets her much better results. 2 mornings ago, I stood on the deck, coffee in hand, with my little pup sitting on slippered foot, looking at me sweetly! "Good Lucy!" She sure does like to snuggle with her mom on chilly spring mornings.

A few days ago, Lucy would not be deterred when she had made up her mind that she was going to chew on fingers or draw blood out of some poor unsuspecting limb, now she is easily distracted by bones, treats or a toy! She and I are having so much fun playing now that I am able to walk away from play uninjured and in need of band-aids and Neosporin.

Ball time is a major part of life in our house. Ceasar is absolutely nutty about his tennis balls (so much so, that our vet could tell he was a tennis ball nut just by looking at his teeth!) and anytime we're out in the yard, he will return time and time again to drop a tennis ball to be thrown. Lucy is greatly fascinated by this activity, but still hasn't learned the ins and outs of ball time. She does love to play with the tennis balls which causes stress (on everyone but her) from time to time, as Ceasar is not fond of sharing his tennis balls with ANYONE and tends to get a little snappy!