Diggin'

I told Shawn once that I thought that perhaps Satchel is part cat.  Not only does he love snuggling with us, but he seems to dislike getting wet and dirty.  If we have to walk somewhere that's wet or muddy, he follows me...trying to tiptoe around the super muddy parts.  Unlike a lot of dogs, he doesn't seem to have any desire to roll around in the dirt, and he will walk around puddles instead of walking right through them.

In our side yard, we have a downspout that will need to be redirected this summer.  After a rainy day (which is a lot of days in this area!), we end up with standing water in part of our yard. 

Satchel has recently discovered this.  I've found him pawing gently at the water, trying to figure out what's going on.  I've also found him drinking from the water after he's been playing for awhile.  He has also pawed at the mud a bit, but I wouldn't call it digging.

Until today. 

I wasn't exactly sure where he was in the backyard, so I called him to come...and he obediently came running up the steps, onto the deck.  Where I saw this:

He had the sweetest little innocent look on his face...like there was absolutely nothing unusual about all the mud covering his paws.  And then he got to play with the towel while I got the mud off of him before letting him back inside.

Definitely not part cat.

Getting so big!

When we first got Satchel, he quickly discovered a suitcase that Shawn had left in our living room.  It's just a carry-on size...and Satchel loved sleeping on it.

Isn't he a cutie?  Such a sweet little puppy!

He's still a sweet little puppy...just not quite so little anymore!  I took this next picture this morning.  He's still trying to sleep on the suitcase, despite the fact that we bought him a bed this past weekend.  (He does sleep on the bed sometimes...but other times, he definitely seems to think that we bought him an awesome $60 chew toy!)

Isn't he just getting so big?!  And he's just over 4 months old now. 

Our Little Graduate

It's official...Satchel has graduated from puppy training class.  He can sit, lie down, stay, come, "leave it," "look"...and some other things that I'm currently forgetting.  :-)  (He also will fetch and crawl on his belly like a ninja...but we didn't learn those in the class.)  We're so proud!!

We didn't think to bring our own camera today, but our trainer took a "class photo" at the end of the class tonight.  This is the closest she could get to all four puppies looking at the camera at the same time.

That's Simba on the left, then Satchel (I think he may have been yawning...his tongue isn't normally sticking out that far), Burton, and Sandy.  I just realized that they all unintentionally lined up from tallest to shortest. :)

I'm glad we did the training class.  It was good for me to learn how to train him for some of these basic commands, and it was great for him to be around these other sweet puppies.  We're considering signing him up for this same trainer's intermediate level class that starts in two weeks.  Both Simba and Burton are probably going to be in that class, which would be fun.

My Weekend

Shawn found out late Thursday night that he was going to get to go to Dallas with the rugby team on Friday.  So Friday morning, I drove him to the airport, then I came home to work.

My job has been going well.  We've hired a number of new English teachers, so I have begun to mentor some of the new teachers.  I have 4 "mentees," 3 of whom live in Washington state.  The 4th one used to live in Seattle...but has recently moved to Denver.  Ironic, don't you think?  From what she has told me, I think she lives about a mile away from where Shawn lived before we were married.

Anyways...after putting in a few hours of work on Friday, I took Satchel to the vet...to get his claws trimmed.  Shawn and I agree that we just don't feel comfortable doing it ourselves, and our vet is only about a mile and a half from our house.  I'm so glad I did it!  It's nice that Satchel no longer scratches me when he steps on my foot when I have no shoes on.  :)  Because of my various errands on Friday, I ended up having to work until about 11:00pm Friday night.

Since Shawn had gone to Dallas, poor Satchel was restless and confused Friday night.  If Shawn's gone at night, he's usually at rugby practice and comes home between 10:00 and 10:30.  By 10:00 on Friday night, Satchel was trying to sleep on my lap...but every time he heard a car door slam outside or any other noise, his head would pop up and he'd start looking around.  I really think he was looking for Shawn.

On Saturday, Satchel and I went hiking with a couple girlfriends of mine!  We went to Wallace Falls, which is a hike that Shawn and I have done a few times.  The weather was absolutely perfect for a hike (upper 60s and sunny), and the trail was packed.  The girls I went with had never really been hiking, so it was strange for me to actually be the experienced hiker of the group.  :-)  Satchel had an awesome time, and he did so good!  He gladly did the entire 4.75 miles with us (roundtrip), and he happily let lots of people pet him (I honestly would estimate that more than 100 people petted him on Saturday!).  He also played nice with every dog we encountered...which was a lot of dogs!  Unfortunately, none of us had a camera, so I have no pictures from our hike.

Poor Shawn...the weather was perfect here, but Dallas was about 35 degrees and rainy!  The weather for the game was pretty much miserable.  But his team won!  They've now started their season with 2 wins...which is more wins than they had all last season.  I took Satchel with me to the airport to pick him up Saturday night, and Satchel was definitely a happy pup.

Finally...today.  We started off early, since I was the lector for 8:00am Mass.  Then we brought home McDonald's breakfast.  We were thinking of going to Meadowdale Park with Satchel, but the beach access is closed until this summer so they can repair the tunnel.  We decided that it's not really worth it to do the full hike there if we couldn't access the beach, so we tried a new park not too far from here.  It was great!  It was a super easy trail, so not strenuous.  There was a pond area with some tall grasses and weeds...and Satchel's retriever instincts totally kicked in!  It was fun to see him get super excited and start bounding through the grasses, and this was the first time we've seen him happily walk into the water.  I think he would be thrilled to be a hunting dog if we trained him for that.

On our way home, we stopped at a local co-op feed store and bought Satchel some better dog food than what we've been feeding him.  We're hoping that he'll be healthier (read: less gassy).  :)  Truthfully, this stuff is more expensive, but our trainer pointed out that since this food is higher in protein, the adult dog will eat much less food and still be full (and have enough nutrition)...so ideally, the cost will end up being lower in the end.  As of today, our dog is eating better than we are!  (His new food contains things like roast duck, roast quail, blueberries, sweet potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes.)  We also got him his first bully stick, which he loved.  It also kept him busy for about 2.5 hours...so I'm very tempted to stockpile these things and give him one every time I have something important to do for work!  :-)  (And yes...I do know what bully sticks are.  I've also eaten Rocky Mountain Oysters...so it seems that Satchel and I are even.)

So...I think that's basically our weekend!  I would promise to update the blog more often...but, well, I've been making that promise a lot lately, and you can see how well that's gone.  :-)

Snuggling

I fell asleep on the floor last night, watching TV.  Satchel decided to come join me and snuggle in.  Shawn decided to take a picture.  :-)

Why I Don't Blog More Often

Who has time to blog when I have this adorable creature to spend time with in the evenings??

Yes, the jeans on the left of Satchel would be me, and the clothing on the right of Satchel would be Shawn.  And no...no part of the dog is touching the floor.  He fell asleep like this.

He's really getting too big to do this, but every once in awhile, he finds a way to get comfy on Shawn's lap and falls asleep.  I think he's comfortable around us.  :-)