Still a puppy at heart...

Hi, everybody. I hope all my dogster pals and all others are having the times of their life! I know I am. I have fun everyday with something. Today I saw the Bold Bunny in the yard and he couldn't even bother me.

As a matter of fact, I think I love him.

I love everybody.

My people watched the news last night and I sat in the room with them. I can still fit on the sofa, so I make a sofa sandwich with Mama and she holds on to one end of me while I relax the other end on the comfy padded part.

The news is not good. I am not sure I understand it all but it makes my people talk very sad. It must be unhappy news, even more than usual. Lots of people are going to the Rainbow Bridge too soon. In a place in Virginia, where I was born. And in a place far away called Iraq.

It is very sad. I hope that they are happy now and that the puppies they have loved are greeting them and making them ok with going over the bridge too soon.

I love them all.

Don't be sad, because we only get a short turn and we should all try to be happy and love each other.

Love (you know!) from Savannah.

Best manners for company!

Or Not! hahahahaha!

We have some company at my house! Auntie Grandma came down for a visit this weekend. She wanted to see her Grand-Bubby (you remember him - sitting in the chair and drooling!)

So on the way down she picked him and his mama and daddy up and they all came over to help Grandma clean out the fridge. Mama was at work, so she didn't get any. (Well - Grandma DID save her a little!)

Anyway it was really cool to see them. They all love me and I love them. Auntie Grandma is the Mama of Elle and Maggie, so I could smell my cousins! And Grand-Bubby is more of a pup than he was the last time. He can sit up and hold his own drinky cup now. Human pups aren't as bright as dogs. But you have to keep an eye on the grown humans. They are smarter than they look.

I had a swell time with them. I gave them many kisses and sat under the table real nice while they were eating. Well except for that part about the pretzels.

Those pretzels looked really good, but I couldn't get any body to pass me one. While no one was looking, I just pulled the table cloth edge a LITTLE bit and the whole bowl came down. I ate 12 of them. Then I decided that I didn't really like them. Too salty. I had to go outside and drink a couple gallons of water.

Then we all took naps.

Life is good!

Love, Savannah!

Goose Patrol and I am a big lady dog now!

Lots of exciting things happened this weekend, and I will try to remember them all. First of all I LOVE SPRING!

I love winter too, and I don't really remember fall, but I'm sure it is good. And I think summer means more swimming. BUT I LOVE SPRING! It has finally gotten warm around here and boy does that bring out the nutty behaviors in these humans! Like for instance...This past Saturday Mama took me to the park for a walk, and I fell in the creek again. (That always seems to happen, I don't know why!) And then when we got home she dried me off and took me out to the front of the yard, outside my pen with a bowl of water and an old boot to play with and put me on a long leash under a shady tree.

And then Mama and Grandma got down on their hands and knees and started crawling around pulling up clumps of stuff. They called it weeding. I can pull up clumps of stuff, but Mama says to stop. So I laid in the shade (very comfy) with my old boot while they did all the work. Okay by me!

Later I got another walk and we went down to the Goose Village and I jumped in the creek and chased the Noisy Geese. I mean I FELL in the creek. Fell. In. The. Creek.

Also Mama and Grandma seem to think that it is really, really, really time to stop biting. Seems they were reading a puppy book and discovered that I should have stopped biting all together and mouthing at around 5 months and I am now over 6 months.

But Mama says that those of you who are dealing with difficult pups can take heart because she finally got "tough" with me over the weekend. (yeah, right) and I totally quit with only a small reminder. I do still lick, but I am working on that and I don't think Mama and Grandma mind me licking.

It is all because of the new neighbor dog, Lila - a half Lab/ half Dobie. And she is only 3 months old but already doesn't bite. And Auntie Grandma who raised 2 big dogs said that my people just need to tell me NO. And so they did and I stopped.

Because I AM a Good Dog.

Love, Savannah!

Fear of Flyswatters!

From Savannah's Mama:

We have two mysteries from yesterday. First, we have discovered that Savannah is terrified of flyswatters. She has never been struck with a flyswatter by us (and never will be!) and has only been in the care of her breeders (we got her at 6 weeks old) and a pup-sitter who is a very trustworthy animal lover who watched her for one day.

How could she be so afraid of them? She skulks as soon as she sees one, and we noticed right away because along with the spring came the insects.

She doesn't seem afraid of anything else, like sticks or switches that I throw to her for fetch games. But at the sight of a flyswatter it is heads down and hide behind furniture time. Who knows? Some memory of a previous life?

The other mystery is how did she get out of a locked gate and who brought her back?

In the middle of the day, Grandma woke up from a nap and found that Savannah was not out in the fenced in back yard. No holes big enough for escape exist and the gates are double latched and locked from the inside so that no one could easily open them. Gates still locked, all in order, but Savannah gone!

Grandma was beside herself! She looked all around thinking maybe she had left Savvy in the house and forgot. No Savvy.

Finally Grandma went to ask the neighbor and Papa of Snuffy the Fox Hound but when she did she found Savannah lying quietly in the shade, tied to the lead that I had left on the tree the other day.

How did she get out, or how was she taken out and why? And who brought her back?

Am trying to figure out what I could do with the fence to keep someone from climbing in? If that is what happened? I am going to check the neighborhood to see if anyone knows anything. We are getting pretty well known around there for our rapid speed walks. So many people might have known where she was from and returned her. But why not bring her up to the door?

hmmmn. she will be under close supervision until this gets solved.

This Time I Fell in the Mud!

Well, the goose patrol has had a little mishap. Last night after evening walkies and swims, Mama and I were on our way home when I heard the annoying honk of those durn geese. I went to see where they were and to chase them off because they are really most annoying. They were sitting in the middle of the field with a stream (really a nice looking stream) in between me and them. So great, I think! Another short dip and then a goose chase.

However. The stream was banked by the most disgusting liquid black mud you can imagine. It was great! I fell in up to my neck and rolled around for a while and Mama ran up and down the dry part of the bank trying to convince me to come up. I forgot all about the geese in that gorgeous rich black mud.

Even better, after I did get out, Mama took me to the clean creek again to swim some more so that I could get washed off. Even that didn't work and I had to get squirted with the hose some. Cool!

About my mystery of yesterday. The Man Next Door, Snuffy's Daddy - found me in his yard trying to get Snuffy to play. He put me on the lead under the tree 'cos he had seen me there the day before and thought I had just slipped my lead. We still don't know how I got out of the yard, though.

And what about those Fly swatters?

Dig It!

I had another great swimming adventure. I do swim now, not just wade and especially now that it is getting warm I really look forward to jumping in and cooling off.

Mama throws me sticks to bring back and it is great to charge through the water to fetch one. Sometimes people stop to watch and I really try to put on a show for them.

Yesterday I went into the deep part and was paddling around and Mama threw me a stick. I grabbed it - or thought I did and started tugging. Boy was it heavy! I pulled and pulled until I could get my feet on the bank and I dragged it free and up onto the bank. It was a shovel! A big one like the one Mama uses to dig holes. (She won't use her feet, I don't know why!)

We don't know how it got there, but Mama gave it to the guy who lives near the ditch in case it was his.

Now I think I could be an underwater archy-thingo.

Love, Savannah!

It Was Not a Bunny!

Ooooh! I forgot to tell you about the Creature. It Was Not a Bunny!

We were walking along the edge of the shallow part of the creek. Not worth jumping into because the water isn't deep enough and the mud is crumbly. We went that way because Snuffy and his Papa and a Lady and some little dog were in the street and I can just never learn to leave that Snuffy alone. So we took a detour.

Anyway - there by the side of the creek sat the Creature.

It was about Bunny sized, and it was sitting up on its rump and it was brown and furry with a squashed looking face. It smelled Weird. It WAS NOT a Bunny.

I got my nerve up anyway and dashed at it, but it turned around and ran for the sticker bushes. I maybe COULD have caught it, but was not sure I wanted to so it got away. Whatever is was!

Self-Esteem and Meatballs

Yesterday we had a lot of stuff going on around the house. Mama had decided that her old car was not nice enough for me to ride around in, so she bought a new one. I haven't been in it yet, because I have to learn to ride in the backseat and we had no time to try it out because everybody was running around so much.

The old car is going to nephew number 3 to take himself to work in and so Mama had to figure out how to pick up the new one. She asked Old Knucklehead to drive the old one back. This meant that Grandma had to babysit Grand-Bubby. He is bigger and now makes noises. Grandma was so busy with him she had NO TIME FOR ME!

And I did not like that. My self-esteem suffered and I took up whining and barking. I cried because I wanted food but I wouldn't eat it. I wanted to sit on Grandma's lap, but Grand-Bubby was there. I like him, but I think he should stay in his chair and not take up so much of Grandma's time.

Finally Mama got home and I got to see the new car. It is Silver and it is a Subaru which is my new favorite word. SUUUUbaRRRROOO! Try it!

And then things got better because Mama decided that she must offer Old Knucklehead something to eat and made a dish of Meatballs. Old Knucklehead did not want them (Mama says that proves her point about the Knucklehead part!) He ate all the lunchmeat.

Guess who got some Meatballs? And now I feel better about myself!

Love, Savannah!

I learn to shoot hoops!

Well today I found a swell new game. It is called "basketball."

I found some person boys playing it at the ball fields and they taught me. You need at least 4 boys and one large dog (me!) or two small dogs.

First the boys take this big brown ball and they bounce it and I try to stop them. Then they throw it in the air some and I try to stop that. Then when I do stop it I get to roll the ball around and try to keep them from taking it back. You score points the longer you can do this. I did pretty good, but the two small dogs did better because they could be in two places at once. This is called "passing." I couldn't use that trick because there is only one of me.

It is great exercise, but really gets a pup warm, so I had to go fall in the creek twice. That adds a new dimension to the game, because when I am all wet the boys have a harder time getting the ball back!

In between I chased some really large butterflies. I have never caught one, and I don't think I really want to. But I do love to chase them.

Worm Medicine and Baths vs. Running with the Wolves...

Well I turned 7 months old over the weekend and nobody even noticed. Not Mama or Grandma. AND I had to take the back up dose of worm medicine and that makes me queasy. AND Mama said that I should have my first bath. She said that I should have had a bath before, but that I was not a smelly dog and so she had just brushed me and "spot cleaned." But this time I had to have a full out bath with soap and all. Mama bought special shampoo that was for itchy skin. And she filled up the big bucket and used the hose. I like the hose and I liked the part called "sudsing" but the rinse part was kind of tiresome.

It did leave me nice and soft and not itchy. And it did not smell too bad, though not as good as Chicken By-Product.

Before the bath I got to go to the Ocean one last time for the season because after the 1st of May puppies are not allowed at Ocean City, at least not on the beach. Mama says she will check the rules and try to find someplace we can go.

After all this I was tired and fell asleep in my favorite corner where everybody has to walk by. I like this spot 'cos if anybody gets up to anything, I will know about it.

I had a very nice nap. I dreamed about a snowy field with really big rabbits. And there were big dogs that seemed like more than dogs and we chased the rabbits together and then we chased some big animals with branches on their heads and we ran and ran and howled at the moon and the wind blew and we ran.

It was wonderful.

When I woke up Mama was standing there watching me and smiling. She had a peanut butter treat in her hand and she gave it to me.

Life is Good.