Camp!

Nisbet is six months old and growing like a weed. She's gained over 10 pounds since early February, but you'd never know it by looking at her.

We've been very busy since the last post. Nisbet has a new soft frisbee, which we take to the park and woods to play fetch off-leash. It is a great time for all. She also spent four nights at "sleep-away camp" while we were in San Francisco last weekend. We are very impressed by how well she did. Nisbet was very excited to see us when we picked her up; plus she had lots of goodbye kisses for the kennel owner.

Nisbet is very happy to be home again, and was thrilled to go for a walk in the woods with us on Sunday afternoon. When we were walking, we ran into Bryan's boss and his crazy dogs, Jake and Molly. The three dogs had a great time chasing sticks and each other for a while. After getting home, it was time for me to unpack. As I was sorting through my things, Nisbet found her "chuck-a-duck" toy that Tiffany gave us. She immediately stole the toy and ran downstairs with it. So much for saving it in her new toy stash. We'll have to take something else out of rotation for a while.

Photo: Nisbet with "Chuck-A-Duck" and the prize ball she found on yesterday's morning walk.

What a Week!

The past week has been very, very eventful for our (not so) little pup. She is more than 100% recovered from her surgery and is back to some of her old antics. Here are the highlights ...

Last Weekend:
Nisbet decided she was 100% back to herself and was relentless with her requests to play. Of course, she was on restricted activity, so we decided that one spin around the block per day was "limited" for her. Otherwise, she would have driven us crazy. She never used her sedative pills after surgery, and went off her pain meds on Sunday.

Last Monday & Tuesday:
She got out of her stupid plastic post surgery collar most of the day for good behavior. She wore it only when we were not home to supervise her.

Wednesday:
We now leave the door to her crate open at night, and we have a much calmer puppy in the morning than we used to. She has no problem putting herself to bed when it's lights out.

Valentine's Day:
Bryan took out Nisbet's stitches and staples. The wounds healed nicely, and Nisbet is no longer on limited activity restrictions. (Hooray!)

Friday:
Michelle previewed a doggy resort to see if it would be acceptable to leave Nisbet there when we have to leave town. It was fine, and we got a recommendation from friends to visit another resort, too.

Saturday:
Nisbet had her first off-leash play date with Olive, an 8-month old Bouvier, at a local soccer field. Olive is a rambunctious pup - a good match for our little crazy one. Olive's humans, Andi and Donny, didn't get her ears pinned up when she was a baby, so Olive is extra cute with short, floppy ears. Nisbet spent most of the rest of the day sleeping - thanks Andi, Donny and Olive.

Sunday:
Nisbet threw up all over the back of Bryan's car on the way up to snowshoe. It was a big mess, and we were very, very surprised to learn that Nisbet had swallowed another sock. Fortunately, this one did not cost us a visit to the puppy ER. After the incident, Nisbet perked right up and we all enjoyed a good snowshoe.

Recovering

Nisbet is recovering nicely from her big spay surgery yesterday. We are pleased the surgery went well and are looking forward to her not having to wear the silly plastic collar in 10 or so days.


It was too quiet here yesterday without Nisbet in the house. She was not here to bark at the broom when I swept the floor or to carry the piece of junk mail from the cat-only vet back from our mailbox. I was so glad to see her come out from the back of the vet's office when we went to pick her up. As expected, she was not as perky as normal and a quite disoriented, but nevertheless she was happy to see us. She spent the majority of the evening curled up in her bed in our family room, waiting for the anesthesia to run its course.


We brought her "downstairs" bed up to our room at bedtime so she wouldn't have to get into her crate in her drunken state with that big plastic collar. Of course, she decided to crawl in there anyway and stayed there with the door open until very early this morning when she came out for some pets and to sleep in her other bed. By the time Bryan was getting ready for work, she was definitely feeling more like herself. She was wagging her tail, sat on my lap for a while and was very excited about eating breakfast. Nisbet is now in the middle of a long nap, and I am doing my best to to keep things calm and quiet around here by doing "boring" things like updating our financial records.

New Trick

Our friend Aaron came to visit us between business trips this past weekend. The real purpose of the visit was to take advantage of all the snow we've had and do a little skiing with Bryan. Of course, Nisbet thought he came to see her. Nisbet LOVES Aaron and was very sad to see him go. He showed her how to "spin" (turn around in a circle for a treat) and got her to catch a ball for the first time.

This week will be another big one for our little pup. She gets spayed on Thursday.

SNOW

We are just finishing the biggest snowstorm Spokane has seen in over 15 years. In the past 18 hours it has snowed over 12" at our house. Last weekend we got 9" on Saturday night. With single-digit lows and barely double-digit highs most of the week, that snow barely melted at all. We're not sure where we will put any additional snow that falls later this week.

Nisbet absolutely loves the white stuff and got a big treat by being let off-leash for the first time in front of our house this morning. Auki (the tripod dog from across the street) came over to play with her, and the two of them had a grand time chasing each other and bounding through the snow. She also barked at the snow shovel and ice scraper and dug for snowballs we threw into the snow.

Later in the afternoon , we took to the hiking trails behind our neighborhood to do a little snowshoeing. Nisbet was let off-leash for good behavior and ran around like a mad fiend. It is lucky she did not see the deer that we did - she might still be chasing it.

One of our snow piles today

The same snow pile last Sunday

No Strangers

Nisbet has yet to meet a stranger. She is such a people dog, that she manages to win over just about everyone she meets in her own crazy way.

Michelle's dad and WSM (wicked stepmother) came to visit this past week, and Nisbet did her very best to make them feel at home. From excited greetings when they stepped into our garage or came up for breakfast to waiting up for everyone when we went snowshoeing, she was quite the little hostess. Nisbet was extremely generous with kisses, shoe stealing and other annoying puppy behavior, and she even shared her toys while showing off her retrieving skills.

Our guests were very kind (and tolerant) of her crazy puppy ways, and did a wonderful job of wearing her out. She hardly napped when they were here, and has been spending the past few days catching up on some much needed sleep. (In fact, she's currently snoring away in her bed, on her back.)

"Recovery" Photos:

1. Snuggled up with Duck

2. Quality time with Lobster in the sunshine

3. Snoozing on her back

Home Alone

We finally tested our downhill skiing skills in Washington on Sunday. It was a fantastic day with about 8" of new fluffy powder on the slopes and sunshine in the morning and fog in the afternoon (fog is a foreign concept to Colorado-raised skiiers who are used to mostly bluebird days).

Poor Nisbet is not allowed on the slopes and had to stay home for over eight hours by herself for the first time. We set her up with a fancy dog house, heated bed and pen in the garage, and our very nice neighbor came by to visit Nisbet with her big dog, Kacey. Nisbet did really well, except for one naughty incident of jumping on her dog house from outside the pen to get back to see our neighbor who was using a paper towel inside the pen. Fortunately she has not figured out how to jump on the house from inside the pen to escape.