I was just looking through my stash of puppy pictures, and came across this picture of Roxie which was taken on the first day we brought her home. She's such a sweet dog. A little timid, we think in part as a result of her first few months. She and her litter mates were dumped in an overnight receiving bin at a dog shelter in New Mexico when they were barely 8 weeks old. If the owners thought abandoning a bunch of helpless puppies at a shelter during the night was appropriate, we speculate that the puppies didn't get a lot of nurturing in their first few months. The dogs at that particular shelter are actually kept outside in kennels made from chain link fences, and it really gets kind of cold at night in the New Mexico desert, so not great accomodations. The puppies were on death row in the shelter, so a rescue group from Denver drove down and literally saved their lives.

Donut Head

Koda loves his new yellow toy we bought him last weekend.



Roxie's learning a lot from Koda, such as how to properly hold round things in your paws.



Sometimes Koda runs around the house with his new toy in his mouth like this. After several attempts to explain the danger of such endeavors, we've finally given up and have resorted to calling him donut-head. I'm surprised he hasn't run into a wall yet.

Attempt #1


Attempt #42

It's no small feat getting two energetic dogs to sit still and look at the camera for a photo.

I just posted an update over on my wedding-related blog. I worked this weekend on trying to come up with centerpiece ideas, and although they're not perfect, I think I've finally narrowed it down to a kind of vintage theme. Progress!

We've had our new puppy Roxie for 2 weeks now, and we're finally settling in to more of a routine. She is a lot of work, but it's also very rewarding having this furry little creature bouncing around our apartment. She's very clumsy and curious. She tests our boundaries. She's scared to walk by people on a sidewalk, but not afraid to bat Koda in the face with her paw while balancing on her hind legs. She crossed the big bridge last week, and for no good reason, decided she didn't want to walk across the bridge this week. She makes grown men use silly voices. Koda's taught her an amazing number of good things without even knowing it. For example, when she doesn't want to cross the bridge, he walks first and shows her it's okay.

Whereas he wouldn't even look her direction when we first brought her to our apartment, they're now great wrestling buddies! I imagine this will be even more fun once she's bigger and a better match for Koda. Right now, he's 73 pounds, meaning he's got about 60 pounds on Roxie.