On monday while I was at the pet store buying food for work I grabbed a duck plush toy for Zoe. Then, while standing in front of the kong display I selected a Kong Bounzer ball for Zeeke - don’t want him to feel left out or anything. Well, it’s a huge hit! It’s not something Zeeke can destroy (thank goodness - there are no tennis balls in this house for that very reason). And both of them seem to get a big kick out of throwing it around and watching it bounce. Neither one of them are really big on fetching, they like to just play solo… fine by me. It’s just amusing to watch Zoe “attack” it all growly.

Today we got home from a short evening out and I went in the bedroom to let the dogs out of their crates. I observed two distinctly different behaviors:

Zeeke didn’t even get to his feet until I’d opened his crate door. Then he stretched and yawned as he came out, headbutted me, and trotted out to the living room to find Denis. He than sat with his ears back and yawned again. He looked sleepy.

Zoe started moaning and barking as soon as I walked in the bedroom. I walked over to her crate and told her to be quiet before letting her out. She shot out of her crate like a bullet, sliding around the corner into the hallway, careening into Zeeke. She spent the next few minutes bouncing around the living room waiting impatiently for me to put her leash on and take her outside… or put some water in the bowl… or pay attention to her… or anything.

I turned to Den and asked him if he’s ever seen her sleepy or tired. We both thought for a minute and realized that no… we never have (at least not since we first got her as a puppy). Zoe is either asleep, or she’s bouncing around having a great time. There is no “in-between” for her. There’s no waking-up period. The first thing she does in the morning when she spies movement from one of us is to launch herself across the bed like a frog and land on hubby. (This can cause him some pain, depending on where exactly she lands! She knows better than to land on me.) It doesn’t matter if she just woke up. She immediately launches herself in great frenetic movement, bouncing and yipping and licking and happy happy to SEE you get up get up the day is here! If she pauses for a moment to, say, wait for me to drag my butt out of bed, she may stretch her legs.

I am just very very thankful that she has an excellent on/off switch, as I’ve mentioned before. Before bed she likes to wrestle with Merlin feriociously. I let her, even if it means they’re wrestling on top of me (that’s always fun) because it lets her get some energy out. She also has a fabulous ability to occupy herself by chewing on her toys and “beating them up” (which is a very amusing thing to watch, I must say). When I get in bed in the evening with my laptop, this is how she spends her time. And as soon as I turn off the laptop and lay down she jumps up on the bed, curls up, gives a sigh, and falls asleep. It really is that immediate, too. She might not fall asleep for a while, but she stops whatever she’s doing and closes her eyes at least.

I just found it odd, though, how she has two modes and bounces between them so easily. I’d love to be able to do that! Me, unfortunately… I’m a cranky beast when I wake up and take a long time to finally surface from that hazy fog of sleep.

I just love my doggie. I got home a little early from work today so I had time to shower before going to pick hubby up from work. And I decided that since she was out of her crate I’d take her with me.

She really doesn’t like the truck. She wouldn’t get in on her own, I had to leash her and coax her in. She still is very nervous when she gets out of the truck at Den’s work, but she followed me inside as usual and dragged me to his office. I think it’s really cool that they let me bring the dogs into the office building.

Then on the way home we stopped at Den’s gram’s house to pick up some chairs (Zoe didn’t like it there AT ALL, too noisy with traffic, she went straight back into the truck). And our second stop was the feed store to buy some dog treats and dog food. She did pretty well inside! Skittish, as usual, but she handled it. No major freak-outs. And I learned from last time - this time I put her in the front seat while they loaded the stuff into the cargo area. She actually really likes riding by my feet under the dashboard. I think it’s pretty safe for her - it’s a confined space, and she’s away from the airbags. She just likes to hide.

Just now she had to go out to pee. So I just let her run off-leash as I walked with her to the backyard. She behaves SO well! She trots along ahead of me, went and did her business in the brush, then came out and we played tag for a few minutes. Back and forth, me chasing her then her chasing me. I love playing with my dog. I must look silly, out there in a turtleneck and skirt and winter boots, running around with my dog like a kid would do. But it’s just so much fun. We both had huge grins on our faces. Then she trots along with me back around to the front door and inside.

I just love that dog, what can I say.

Even when I’m involved in a book it’s hard to resist a sweet little dog begging you to play with her. She started with chewing on a toy - noisily - and when she noticed me watching her she ran over to flop down beside me on the bed and kick her legs in the air, grunting. Never fails to get a reaction out of me. So what else could I do, but put down my book and start playing with her?

I ended up getting up and throwing toys up and down the hall for her. But of course Zeeke swooped in, so it turned into me chasing Zeeke up and down the hallway, with him hogging both toys (he’d hold one in his mouth while chasing the other!), and Zoe standing in the hallway watching us both race past. Not quite what I had intended. Now he’s tired (flopped out on his side after taking a big drink), and Zoe’s still a bit restless. Oh well, what can you do.

A very sweet habit she’s developed: I moved my laptop to the dining table out in the living room and have been spending all my computer time out here. And every time I sit down here, she lays against the wall behind me. I have to be careful I don’t run over her tail or foot when I scoot around in my chair. But it’s just so precious! Zeeke likes to be in the same room as you, but he’ll find his own corner or take over the couch. Zoe, she has to be where I am. If I’m watching TV she’s either curled up beside me on the couch or laying on the floor right below me. She is just so precious.

I’ve been feeling bad that I’ve not been very active with Zoe lately - somewhat because of the heat, half because I just haven’t been feeling up to it lately. Of course she’s always by my side, but she hasn’t been getting much activity lately. So tonight while I watched TV I found a tennis ball and played fetch with her for a while, watched while she played with the cat, and played some wrestle games with her. She looked so happy.

She’s getting so good about fetching. She chases the ball, jumps on it, then runs back to me and would actually jump up on the couch beside me to drop the ball. If I don’t take it, however, she’ll grab it again and walk off with it - and sometimes when I reach for the ball she gets over-excited and smacks my hand with her paw in an attempt to play keep-away. (I always win.) But I’m thrilled at how she runs right back to me with her toy. The only part that makes the game more difficult is that if it rolls under or behind anything she won’t go get it, because it’s too “scary.” So every few throws I have to get up and fish it out and toss it in the middle of the room for her. I try to throw carefully to make sure she can catch it easily. I was really wishing we had a nice fenced yard for us to play fetch in though.

Den came out to the living room for a little while, and started wrestling with Zeeke. Which is amusing in and of itself, but making it even more amusing is the way Zoe hangs back, mock-growling, and jumping in to nip Zeeke when he’s pinned to the ground. She’s such an opportunist. Granted she does tend to get totally run over by Zeeke if he’s on his feet and she’s not careful, so it’s pretty smart for her to stay out of his way until he’s immoble. But it’s so darn funny to watch her jumping on him when he’s down. (He, by the way, treats her kind of like a fly - he ignores her completely. His entire focus is on his daddy.)

After a while of getting run into, Zoe decided to beat a retreat and jumped up on the back of the couch to watch the rest of the fight. It still cracks me up when she does that! She’s like this little mountain goat. So she was my headrest for a while.

And I still think she’s by far the cutest, most beautiful dog in the world. Her cute little dainty snout, her intelligent brown eyes, her adorable floppy ears. I can’t help but to give her lots of kisses. I’m such a mushy mommy.

Today we took both dogs out at the same time to potty before we had to go out. When they were done that I let Zoe off her leash. Zeeke was on his flexi, because remember he can’t be let off. So Zoe zoomed around and around, with Zeeke cutting her off and chasing her back and forth. It was so funny! They (Zeeke) actually crashed into me at one point (ow). But the funniest part was that when Zeeke would get close enough to her he grabbed her tail! I’ve never seen a dog do that before. I guess he knew he wasn’t going to catch her with what leash he had, so if he couldn’t outrun her - stop her! Ha! (He didn’t hurt her, just slowed her down a bit before she took off again.) He squashed her once or twice, grabbed her tail twice - but overall Zoe was in the lead. It was so funny watching them run around like mad. Den and I were just in stitches.

Did I mention that Zoe is now one year old?? Yep! *sniffle* My baby’s all growed up! On her birthday (which was saturday) we took both dogs over to the park and walked them along the hiking trails for an hour. They loved it. Those were two happy dogs, let me tell you. Zoe looked very confident, tail up and everything, trotting along beside Zeeke. Zeeke enjoyed the creek, splashing his way through the water, but Zoe picked her way along the dry shoreline with me. I guess I got another dainty one here… that figures.

One of the best things about Zoe is how she always wants to be near me. She and Zeeke have been trading off on this kong for days now, it was once filled with peanut butter (and now they only think it still has some crumbs left). Zeeke just gave up on it and layed down, so she immediately jumped off the bed to get it. She brought it back up here and layed down against my side, and started licking. She always brings her bones and toys over to where I am - not to give them to me necessarily, but just so she can enjoy it while laying right next to me. That’s sweet.

Another thing I love to do is snuggle-attacks. I can’t help it - she’s just too snuggly. Every night if I put her in the bedroom first she takes my spot up against my pillow. She’ll normally move soon as I walk towards the bed, but sometimes I tell her not to, then I snuggle-attack her. She flops on her back and wiggles around and I kiss her head and cuddle her and scratch her tummy. She loves it. And I just adore having such a cuddle-bunny!

She’s just such a great little dog. And she’s charmed many people. Online I have several dog-people aquaintances who are in love with her and keep trying to convince me to ship her over to them. And at the bbq on monday my sister-in-law said, “I want one of these now!,” meaning Zoe. I just laughed and said that would be tough to do, since she’s a mix of who-knows-what. I’m just glad that people see even a little of the great little dog that I do.

Oh, and a benefit of having a smaller dog: I can pick her up and carry her around. It’s amazing what a 10-15lb difference makes. Oreo could be picked up, but she was pretty heavy to carry and she really hated it. Zoe doesn’t feel totally comfortable when picked up, but lets me carry her around. Things like needing to get by the baby gate? I don’t bother to move the gate… I just lift her over. Easy as pie.

The pets all got a TON of new toys today, a gift from the people at the cat sanctuary - a huge gift bag full of dog toys and cat toys and chocolate (the chocolate was for me, not the pets). I couldn’t believe how much stuff was in there! The dogs got a frisbee, a chuckit, a few fleece toys, some treats, a rubber chewy toy… and the cat got a bunch of mice toys and little balls with bells in them and some interaction toys (stick with toy on end, for him to chase). Plus I picked up dog food today and brought home some rawhides, which the dogs went absolutely bananas over. It’s been a long while since they got any.

Nothing better in life than a very happy dog chewing on a bone at your feet. Zoe’s just the happiest little puppy! I give her lots of hugs and kisses. She’s the sweetest darn thing, I can do anything at all to her while she’s chewing, and she wouldn’t dream of doing anything. I put my hand in her mouth and she just tries to get around it. If I take something away she just sits up and looks at me, waiting.

Zeeke is really wound up over everything, and is freaking out when taken away from his new toys and bones. Several times today he went to check out something, then came running back frantically, ran over Zoe, and took the bone back from her. It’s like he suddenly realized what would happen if he left it unattended. So that’s been going on all day. Luckily she usually just lets him take it. Usually - not always. After he took the small bone away from her several times, she stood her ground on the smaller rawhide and snarled and snapped at him - guess she’d had enough of his games. He backed off. I warned them to knock it off, but it seems to me that their “altercations” are still a part of their communication. Her dispays appear to be just that: displays. She states her mind, and he generally does respect that. But if he didn’t and decided to push his position I have a feeling she would defer to him.

I took them both out on their longlines (attached to the house) and brought their new kong frisbee to play with them. Neither are too keen on the game. Zeeke loves the catch/chase, he’d even carry it around for a little bit, but he lost interest pretty quickly and wouldn’t retrieve at all. Zoe would only chase while it was in motion; once it stopped, she wandered off. Guess they’re just not frisbee dogs. But they did both have fun. I attached Zeeke to his 20′ leash, then that to the steel cable we were using, so he had almost as much length as Zoe did (she has a 50′ long line). So they were able to romp and play. When I went to untangle their leashes a little bit, I just left Zoe off the leash - with Zeeke tied up, she wasn’t going anywhere. So I was able to play with them without two leashes tangling all over.

I’m so thankful I have my little girl. She’s always by my side.

This morning I got up and made myself some breakfast, and as I’m puttering in the kitchen the cat starts attacking Zoe. Well I can’t really say it like that - they started attacking each other. Playing, of course. But this was more than the usual… Jojo lunged at Zoe, and they both met standing on their back legs, wrapped their paws around each other and wrestled. Jojo got knocked to the ground. He jumped up and pounced on her again. Zoe was smacking him with her paw and jumping and wiggling. It was so funny! I really need to carry a camera around with me to catch it on film.

Since then they’ve both been walking around, randomly pouncing on each other and running off. I’m so happy that they’re not only getting along, but becoming best buds! We got really lucky with this family.

I’m starting to like this early-morning ritual with Zoe, running around outside with her in the backyard. She LOVES to run. There’s a large patch in the middle of the backyard of ice/snow still, so she has to be careful not to slip on it, but it’s still so much fun. She’s doing super-well about listening to my guidance, turning around when I call her back and such. A few times she’s wandered close to the neighbor’s yards, but she turns back and doesn’t go further when I call.

Today I ran back and forth, calling her name every time she zoomed past me. She’d turn around and chase me again. Back and forth, back and forth. It’s great! Gets her a lot of exercise - and me some too, lol!

I’m just so proud of her. I can’t wait til I get to start her on agility, I think she’ll like it.