Man's Best Friend??

We adopted a dog. His name is Sammy, he is a lab mix, and he's about 10 months old. A friend of a friend found him wandering the street near us. After a few days with the people who found him, we decided to take him in. We love him most days, but sometimes we wish his previous owner will find him and want him back. :) But mostly we love him. My mom wanted me to write down all the stories I call and tell her about. I thought it would be fun to put them on the blog for your enjoyment, as well.

~Before we got Sammy's kennel, we would leave him out on the balcony when we left during the day. It didn't seem to be a problem at all...until I accidentally left part of the door curtain hanging outside the door. Yeah. I got home and the curtain had been pulled outside and completely torn apart and the curtain rod was on the floor inside. I definitely learned my lesson on that one. Now I make double and sometimes triple sure that there is no curtain hanging outside when I shut the door.

~When I take a shower I have to put Sammy in his kennel. He eats things when we're not looking (wireless routers, cd's, cd cases, blankets, etc). But when I dry my hair, I go in the guest bathroom and just the leave door open, so I can kind of see Sammy. The other day after I had just finished drying my hair, I got my make up out and noticed a quiet noise coming from the living room. I couldn't see Sammy, so I figured he was asleep--until I heard the noise. I went out and found my BRAND NEW Runners World in shreds. He left about thirteen pages. The rest... destroyed. I learned my lesson on that one, as well. I had left the magazine on the couch. How could I be so stupid?

~I was in the middle of making bread when I had to go to the bathroom. I know, inconvenient. So I ran to the guest bathroom and was in there probaly 25 seconds. When I came out, Sammy was on the living room floor just finishing up the butter I had put on the counter for the bread machine. I was very mad. And I was expecting him to throw up, but he never did. I would have had no sympathy.

~It was a Saturday morning and Sammy and I were waiting for Megan and Travis' family to get here for the weekend. Sammy and I went outside to get the mail, go to the bathroom (him, not me), and walk around for a little bit. We walked right by our car and Sammy just stopped. He loves going for rides in the car with the windows down. What dog doesn't, right? Well, he wouldn't let me go any further. He wanted to go for a ride. I figured we had a few minutes before anyone got there, so I let him in and we drove around for a few minutes. On the way back, we were passing the doggy park where we go daily. Yes, the windows were open. Yes, Sammy was hanging out. Yes, he apparently really wanted to go to the park. So he jumped out. While I was driving. He went and sat right by the gate until I got there. Silly dog.

~I think Sammy's favorite thing to sniff in the whole wide world is my butt. It's annoying.

~One of Sammy's calmest days is when he got neutered. I picked him up from the vet and he was completely out of it. When we got home, he would just kind of stand there looking at me. I would sit by him and pet him and he would lay down and fall asleep. Then he'd wake up, stand up, and just stare at me. So we would do it all over again. It was pretty sad. When Travis got home from work, we brought our mattress out into the living room. Sammy got to hang out with us on our bed (he's not allowed in our room). He slept in his kennel, but he did get to have us sleeping right next to him that night. He probably doesn't remember it because of all the medication, but he really did get the royal treatment that night. Oh yeah, and he snores... big time.

~Sammy loves Travis. When Travis gets home, Sammy is all over him. It's hard getting him settled down once Travis gets home. So one night I decided that Sammy and I would be waiting outside for Travis when he got home. I figured Sammy would get all of his energy out before we went back in. Yeah right. It was really cute, though. Sammy and I were just walking around when Travis pulled up. Sammy didn't recognize him at first, but when he got out of the car and said something Sammy went CrAzY! He was like, "Oh my goodness! That's Travis! That's my friend! Can you believe it, Lisa?! I'm going to jump on you, then I'm going to jump on Travis, then back to you, then Travis because I'm just so excited! I can't believe that this very day I get to see my best friend. I love you so much, Travis! This is the best gift ever! Let's always just play together, and be together, and never leave each other, and just love each other forever and ever! We're best friends, right?!"

~The absolute hardest thing is to leave Sammy home alone. We put him in his kennel (which he LOVES), then we nonchalantly leave. And he proceeds to cry so loud! It's very sad. I think he's getting a little better. He's starting to realize that we are coming back. I do feel sorry for our neighbors, though...

~Some days we just can't get too much play time outside (rain, etc). So I'm in the process of training him to walk on the treadmill. We haven't gotten too far, but we are progressing. He was pretty scared of the treadmill at first, so I had to get him used to just standing next to it. Then standing on it. Then standing next to it while it was on (that was a hard one). I have tried once having him standing on it when I turned it on. I didn't have a good grip on his leash, so he got off. I'm still working on it though. I think it would be pretty cool if it actually works.

~Sammy is a very social dog. He loves all people and all animals. We had Travis' family over for the weekend. They brought their toy poodle, Punkin. She is so little and she's really old. Which means, she's not fast, and she doesn't really like to be bothered. Yeah, try explaining that to Sammy. He went around the whole weekend, just following her and sniffing her butt. She was really annoyed. But Sammy was having so much fun. I think he liked having another dog in the house (no, we're not getting another dog).

~Sammy is not allowed in our room. This was a rule from day one, so he's pretty good at it. But sometimes he just wants to come in while I'm making the bed, or getting ready or something. He'll lay at the door just watching me. Then, he'll do a dramatic stretch and yawn and kind of scoot in a few inches. Then another stretch and another scoot. He keeps doing this until eventually he has one little paw outside the room, and the rest of his body is completely stretched out and in the bedroom. I can't help but laugh. That's so something a kid would do.

~One day, I found Sammy chewing heavily on his kennel blanket. I didn't want him eating it (because, yes, he eats things like that), so I took it away from him and threw it in our bedroom. I really didn't think he had actually eaten any of it. Until I found a piece of blue, fleece blanket in his poop the next day. Disgusting.

~I was so excited about getting Sammy because I wanted someone to run with. He really has difficulty walking on a leash (too many interesting things to smell), so I knew it would be hard to teach him to run on a leash. It has actually gone better than I thought. I keep treats in one hand and that kind of makes him want to stay right with me. Well, at one point in our first run together, I noticed that Sammy was pulling behind me. I tugged and told him to keep running. Then I turned back and noticed that I was literally pulling him. As he was squatting and pooping in the middle of the street. Weird.

~One day, Sammy had gotten stuck behind the end table in the living room. He thinks he's a lot smaller than he really is. Well, somehow he had gotten the lamp cord wrapped around his neck and it was actually choking him. How did this happen? I will never know. Anyway, I was right there trying to get it unwrapped and Sammy was really panicking. He ended up running out of the little space and bringing the lamp with him, and knocking over the sewing machine. Ooh, it was loud. Again, I feel bad for our neighbors (especially downstairs). Anyway, Sammy was fine, just a little shaken. The sewing machine? Not "sew" fine. (hehe) It broke into four pieces. I think I got it all put back together, though.

So, those are some of our stories. We're having lots of fun and learning a lot with this dog. I'll keep you updated on the treadmill training and the running on a leash training. And wish me luck.

And good luck to my brother, Scott, as he runs across Chile!!!!