Thoughtful Thursday

Always On My Mind

The other day mom left me home with dad as she and my girl went to spend a few days visiting grandparents. They even went to visit my girl's great-grandmothers eight hours away!

One day during their visit, the four generations of ladies went to the mall to shop. As I understand it, grandma and great-grandma were perusing the ladies department while mom and my girl shopped the adjoining girls' section at one of the stores.

Mom found a super cute shirt with a picture of a golden retriever puppy on it and showed it to my girl. A wonderful dialogue began about how cute the puppy on the shirt was and how much it looked like me when I came to live with my family!

Then, much to mom's surprise, my girl burst into uncontrollable sobs and exclamations about how much she missed me! She was carrying on so much that the grandmothers heard her from the other department and quickly came to see what the problem was!

Mom couldn't help but giggle about it all and (of course!) bought the shirt! So nice to know that even though I might be out of sight, I'm not out of mind! Needless to say, I had plenty of kisses for both of them when they returned home!

Another Achievement!

It's true! Tonight Macy received her Intermediate Education Certificate of Achievement! This puts us one step closer to earning her Canine Good Citizenship award, which we'll need as we continue toward my goal of doing pet therapy next year.

I desperately tried to get a good picture of her with her certificate, but she was very distracted by her "accomplishment prize" (a new bone).

Macy! Say cheese! Macy? Yoohoo!!

Ugh... I thought for sure this was going to be my "money shot." It looked great in the view finder! Oh well, please celebrate this accomplishment with us nonetheless!

Happy Campers

My girl thinks my kennel is pretty neat—probably because she can fit in it so easily. She was playing in my kennel this morning and trying to coax me to join her by telling me we were going to play "camp out".

Here she is sitting on the fuzzy mat from my very first kennel!

"Come on in, Macy! Let's go camping!"

What can I say? I'm a sucker for a sweet girl!

Aww!! Puppy lovin's! I LOVE those! xoxo

In other news, my family is finally throwing tennis balls again since I got spayed! HOORAY! I could play catch with those all day long!

Oh! I almost forgot! ...I turned six months old the other day! I'm 50 pounds now and growing up fast!

I've Joined the Club—I've Been SPAYED!

I am quickly approaching my 6 month birthday (August 12!) and mom decided that it was time for me to get spayed. So she took me to this neat clinic near where we live called Humane Alliance.

They have significantly helped reduced pet euthanasia in this area by specializing in low-cost spaying and neutering. They also have a training program where they mentor agencies and vets on how to do high-quality, high-volume, reduced-cost spay and neuter programs.

USAToday.com wrote an article about Humane Alliance and there's a neat video on YouTube about a similar clinic that is really interesting to watch. Hope you'll take a minute to check them out!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig!

Sorry I haven't posted lately, but my family has been away for the past couple of weeks on a business trip for daddy/beach vacation for mom and my girl. While they were away, I got to stay with my favorite pup in the whole wide world—cousin HENDRIX!

I had SO MUCH fun staying at his house! We played some hard fought battles of tug-of-war with his stuffies. One by one they made their way up to the "awaiting surgery" shelf as we popped their seams, plucked their appendages, and spilled stuffing and squeakers onto the floor. Finally there were only tennis balls left to play with, so my uncle got us this really cool knotted rope from the store. We used it to play tug-of-war—it was awesome fun! Plus, playing with Hendrix helped me lose my last two baby teeth!*

*(On a side note, mom found it interesting that the photo my aunt forwarded to mom of my lost teeth were arranged like two little horns, but my aunt assured her that I have been a good girl! ...err, for the most part!)

While I was staying with cousin Hendrix, we got to try something new—WATERMELON! We LOVED it! We waited patiently while each other got to try it. I can't wait for more! YUM!

My aunt and uncle have been teaching us pups how to catch frisbees in mid-air! Hendrix is better at it than I am, but after watching him a few times and mimicking his technique, I am starting to get the hang of it! A little more practice and I'll have it down pat! My aunt and uncle have continued working with me on catching balls in mid-bounce as well. I am getting good! I don't know that I'll ever get bored with these new games!

Bringing the ball back for a bounce

My family missed me REALLY bad while they were gone—my girl even cried a couple of times. They called my aunt frequently to get updates on what I was up to and my aunt took pictures of me smiling to send to mom's email.

Cheese, mom!

Sometimes my aunt would put her phone on "speaker mode" so that I could hear mom talking to me. How strange to hear a familiar voice in such a little box? Puzzling... I tried licking the phone a few times when I heard mom's voice, but it's just not the same as licking her!

My mom and my girl are coming to get me this weekend. I am going to miss Hendrix so much! He is my best friend in the whole world! Thankfully mom and my aunt are already making plans as to when I'll get to see him again!

Best friends

Hope you are having a great summer! Hopefully now that my family's back in town mom will get more serious about taking pictures and blogging about my antics!

Macy

xoxo

Whatcha been up to? I've been...

Hi friends! It's been a while since I last posted and a lot has gone on since you last visited!

For one thing, I have been spending some more time playing in the sprinkler and paddling pool with my girl on days when it's not too hot (it's been pretty hot). Other times I just stay inside and play with my family and pester my cat. Mom has been working with me to try to catch tennis balls in midair—I'm getting better at this! I LOVE tennis balls! I always stop what I'm doing when dad switches over to the Tennis Channel on TV—I am intrigued by those delightful yellow fuzzy balls going back and forth... Mom is just waiting for me to jump at the TV screen to try and fetch one! Did you ever do that?

For the 4th of July I got to go across the mountains to spend a few days with my cousin Hendrix. We have THE BEST time—especially now that I am bigger and can run faster! When we're not chasing each other in his yard, we're wrestling virtually non-stop (this drives my aunt crazy)! Another favorite game of ours is "Keep Away"—Hendrix tries to stand up extra tall to try to keep the prized toy away from me, but sometimes I actually get it! I LOVE THIS GAME!

I got carsick on the way to and from his house. These mountains are just so MOUNTAINY, with their hard curves and rapid changes in elevation. UGH! My tummy pulls this way and then that way... I can't take it! I knew I was probably going to lose it after my girl announced, "HEY, MOM! MACY'S LEAKING!" Mom did her best to mop up my drool, but alas it was to no avail. Breakfast was revisited. Mom has since bought this stuff that my trainer recommended that is supposed to help with carsickness. I think she intends to put it to the test soon!

Last weekend I lost FOUR TEETH! Then yesterday I was wrestling with mom and her arm got all bloody—I lost another tooth while we were playing! My first canine! Mom tried to see how may baby teeth I have left, but I like to wiggle an awful lot and it's hard for her to get a good look. I think I heard her say there might be three left? Mom is thinking about changing my name to "Gums" (not funny). Dad thinks it's weird that mom is collecting my baby teeth. Who asked him anyways?

I started Intermediate Puppy classes today! I was so excited to see my trainer again! He has the BEST treats! He has a pup named Macy too! Mom has pretty much taken this last week or so off from working with me diligently and it took me a while to get back in learning mode. Sometimes it's just more fun to screw off and be a misfit. Do what you're good at!

Hope you are having a great summer! Our blogger friends have been on our minds! Hopefully mom will quit being so lazy and get the camera out and snap off some new pictures. I am sure you'd be interested to see how much I've grown (my girl says I'm bigger)!

Gummy nibbles,

Macy

xoxo