Clear Day

While Chloe and I took a walk through the neighborhood, this view came into sight. I never get tired of the majesty of the mountains. That is the San Gabriel mountain range with Mt. Baldy on the right.

I mentioned on yesterday's page that Chloe is our new little pup (thanks for all the comments about her).

She is little. Bob dog weighed approximately 18-22 pounds. We think Chloe is 7 pounds. It's pretty obvious that she's never walked with a leash/lead on before, so we are learning how to walk together. At the moment all she has is a collar and I'm anxious to get her a harness because she pulls the leash and moves faster than I walk. I think I could run along side of her and still not keep up with her. I don't think having a leash attached to a collar around a dog's neck is a good combo.

We had a good first night and day with her. After taking possession of her last night in Riverside, on the drive home we stopped at PetSmart to purchase a few things. We got her a jacket, a soft little round snuggy bed that she loves, and also got her a portable kennel, which is basically a portable crate. So we padded the crate with blankets and tucked her in last night as we were going to bed. We put a light cover over the crate. She barked once and whined about two seconds and was asleep and slept till we opened the crate's gate at about 6:30 this morning.

I had never seen dogs use these little crates until I visited my sis a couple years ago. My sis runs a K9 Kamp in her home in Portland, Oregon, and she puts every dog in a crate at the end of the evening before she goes to bed. Every dog goes in willingly and never a peep is heard from them. Each one is let out first thing in the morning.

We had never used a crate, and after last night we think we've made a good investment. Chloe slept well and so did we. We were not worrying about where she was in our bedroom or about her falling off our bed (which is fairly high off the floor). Bob dog always slept on our bed or under my long dresses in the closet or under the bedroom table that has a tablecloth that reaches to the floor.

This morning we left the house to go for a breakfast date. Since we've always taken our dog almost everywhere we've gone, we took Chloe. We've heard horror stories of leaving a dog in the car and coming back to find it has clawed or chewed its way through the seat to the floor boards.

As we got out of the car, we told her to lay down. She looked at us like "Sure, you bet!" We sat at a window seat in the restaurant and all through breakfast Mr. Fun kept telling me that he "wasn't seeing any smoke or fire." That gave me little peace. I was worried -- she is still puppy-like and does chew on things.

Well, thankfully she did not chew or claw. She did put her front paws on the window and proceeded to bark most of the time we were gone. So we're hoping she will get accustomed to staying in the car. Bob dog loved the car, always wanted to go, and never seemed bothered about staying in the car when we weren't in it.

I have a doctor's appointment Wednesday and I don't think Chloe will appreciate staying home alone any more than she appreciated staying in the car today, so I have some creative thinking to do about this one. I'm sure there is a solution.

Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol