Yippee Skippy- or In This Case Yippee Jiff-y

I awoke this morning to the sweet sound of snoring- boxer puppy snoring- and it was so close. It is the sound that only a boxer companion can understand and appreciate. My little boxer was right next to me- not even 10 inches away, head on the pillow right next to mine, and she was completely konked out. It was just the sweetest thing I could imagine!

Heaven is a soft little boxer head right next to your cheek- and I hug my little boxer darling close at least 25 times a day just to feel that soft puppy fur. I love you little Lucy! (And this picture of you, is definitely going in a frame, on a wall in our house somewhere!)

One of Lucy's most frustrating past times (for Lucy, not for me!) is playing in "her office" with things of a rolling nature. I have a space specially designated for Lucy right beside my office. It's the perfect play space except for the fact that it's closed in by bookcases that are open on the bottom. So, inevitably, anything that rolls is going to get "stuck" underneath those bookcases and out of Lucy's reach. She can get just enough of her body underneath the bookcase to see the ball- but not enough to retrieve the ball and eventually her human becomes aware of the nature of the problem and rushes to her rescue.

I've had my eye on what is sure to be a major situation behind the store. There is a large cement slab which is home to the electrical boxes for our building. Lucy loves this slab as it has a hole on one side of it where she can stick her head in and explore. The other day, I was outside taking out the trash, when a groundhog stuck his head out of Lucy's favorite hole. I'm pretty sure that Lucy should not be sticking her head in that hole any more, sorry Lucy! As a matter of fact, I think it's a good idea that we stay as far away from that Groundhog hole as we possibly can.

Lucy and I have been working on "Stay". I have found that the most effective way of teaching Lucy "Stay" is holding something of great interest to her, telling her to "Stay, Lucy", backing away from her, waiting a couple of seconds and rewarding her with the item of great interest. We're not there yet, but we're definitely making great progress! "Good Lucy!"

Lucy and I were playing with this soft, squeaky blue ball this morning when I noticed that there was blood all over her mouth and the ball. It only took me a couple of seconds to notice the tiny, white shark tooth lying on the floor just inches away from Lucy and I! I couldn't be more excited over the loss of this "shark tooth". Those teeth have been a great pain (literally) to my hands, feet and ankles. The Tooth Fairy will definitely be rewarding that tooth loss.

I cannot wait until this business of adult teeth is over with! Lucy seems to be very uncomfortable right now, and unfortunately for me, it would seem that the only (safe) thing that comforts her aching mouth, is her Human's hands... (Ceasar's tail also seems to be a great comfort- but as you can imagine- that is about as popular with Ceasar as Lucy's chewing on my hands is with me, maybe even less so!) Believe me when I say that I have tried everything else.

Lucy and I stick to pretty much the same routine every morning. Upon arrival at the store, we typically take a walk, greet anyone that's out and about, and then we come into the store. Lucy follows me into what I will call "Lucy's Office" and I fill an old, hollow soup bone with peanut butter to occupy Lucy while I run around turning on lights, air conditioning, dragging furniture outside and making coffee. It's probably un-necessary, but it gives her something to look forward to because it's routine.

Unfortunately, the peanut butter jar was very close to empty this morning, and my only hope for giving Lucy this very treasured treat was to give her the empty jar. I was confident that she would figure out exactly how to get the remaining morsels of peanut butter out of that jar, and she didn't disappoint. Where there is a will- there is a way! Actually, quite honestly this near empty peanut bar jar occupied her far longer than the usual marrow bone does.

Lucy managed to clean the jar 3/4 of the way down, and then her little tongue just couldn't reach anymore. I had to help her. I got a knife and scraped what was left of the remaining peanut butter out of the jar and put in in her marrow bone. I'm definitely going to have to buy more peanut butter!

(I think my little boxer could sell peanut butter, what do you think?

Yesterday morning, Lucy and I had time to kill before work and I was going to take her to the dog park, but when we got there, no other dogs were out. So, I decided to make the run to Petsmart. I've been wanting to get a Gentle Leader for Lucy as we seem to be having some pulling issues. We bought the Gentle Leader and managed to escape Petsmart without spending over $30.00 (that never happens). What I failed to take into consideration is that the Gentle Leader is designed to fit over the dogs nose, and Lucy doesn't really have a nose... at least not enough of a nose to outfit her with this lead... oops!