Puppy Love

I'm so very happy to see our boys again. They are in good health, haven't lost any weight, and seemed to be well taken care of by the quarantine station. I'm so glad for that. They jumped all over me when they saw me. (Especially Ender, who whined and licked me a lot too.) They are world travellers now, but I guess they didn't forget me after all.

We loaded up their large airline crates (which happily looked very intact, like they hadn't bumped about at all -no dents, damamge or scrapes so the boys didn't get banged around looks like.) Spoiled Ender sat on my lap most of the way back, and he was so happy sticking his nose in air conditioning. Roland took the drive home pretty calmly, watching things pass by the windows. We brought them to their new backyard and the first thing the did was run around it checking out the fence. They really seem to enjoy jumping on the big rocks in their new home and sniffing around in all the bush. Roland -kind of the rock!

I found them some of the cutest dogbowls at the $2 shop, but I think now I'm going to use both bowls for food and get them a larger bucket for water. They drank 3 bowls of water yesterday with all the excitement. Naturally, they are very exicted that cats live around here. The cats are noticably less excited. Thor hid under the barbcue yesterday as the dogs came home, Babushka pretended to be a statue on the handrail (and actually avoided detection), and Kavika refused his customary shimp dinner on his screened-in porch at all last night because although he is secure and on the next level up of the house, he overlooks the dog pen and the dogs can see him. Hopefully the cats will get used to the boys soon and realize they are free to come and go as they please but the dogs are confined to their pen. Time, and a strong fence.

We took them for their first walk yesterday when V came home for his break. They loved it -lots of hills, a dogpark, and we even walked them along the bay. They were startled when they tried to drink the bay water (it's salt water). It was really funny because they refused water from a bowl after that until we proved to them it wasn't salty but splashing their mouths with it. They will just have to learn not all water is tasty. :)

They really wanted to play with all the dogs in the dogpark, but we want them to get a bit more settled before we let them loose. (In the dogpark, it's a place they can just run and play and not wear leashes.) *Crossing my fingers no one will decide to pick a fight (Yes -that means you Roland!)*

People in the dogpark are super-friendly. Today I took them to the park again after walking V to the bus stop for work. A lovely lady with 2 beautiful black and white border collies (Bonnie and Clyde) came over and talked with me at length, wanting to know all about the boys, exclaiming how pretty they were, and giving me advice on local vets and trainers to check into. It's nice to be a dog person here -there are plenty of friendly people happy to talk about dogs.

Here were the gates before painting: bright pink. (Notice the rain pouring in the background and dripping off the roof.)













Happily the fence was actually finished when they got home -I finally got the painting done and dry. (Not that I had the hard part of actually building the fence -just the curse of rain that painting outside brings.) Here is a pic of the finished gates with two very happy puppies in front of it.













I'm so glad the boys are with us finally. I have company all day now and companions for my daily walks. Now, if only they could getthrough the night without barking. But, they have to get used to the fact that it sounds like a jungle here too; I didn't sleep the first few nights either.

Cheers from all of us!