Sammie Down Under

Amid the horror of the Australian wildfires, this has got to be one of the sweetest pictures I have ever seen:


And after they rescued her, they named her...."Sam."

Startle Reflex

As Sammie and I were walking this morning, she got all caught up in a scent trail, which led her a good way up into a neighbor's yard. She wasn't paying much attention to where she was going, and she bumped pretty hard into one of the political yard signs that are quite prevalent in the neighborhood now. It startled her, the sign did, and she jumped away and got a little bit bowed up - the hair along the ridge of her spine stands up at varying degrees, based on how startled/scared/angry she is.

I understand how she feels - they ALL scare me, too, these days.

Counting Calories?? WOOF!

Check this out - a new twist in doggie treats - the 50-calorie pack o'pupperoni.

Oh, please.

I do see the value in all the 100-calorie packs of snacks that are becoming prevalent on our grocery shelves, because they are handy and an easy way to sort of control a dieter's daily snack intake...but doggie treats?? Really? I should expect Sammie to start keeping a calorie journal? Because that lack of opposable thumbs is really gonna make those little bags tough for her to open.

Snow Day!

In the weather wonderland that is Texas, we went from put-the-top-down-here-comes-spring weather on Saturday to what-the-heck-is-that-SLEET? weather on Monday evening. Sammie and I awoke to a couple of inches of snow on the ground this morning, so I was most interested in how she would react to snow.

She had a blast!



Click here for the whole album.

Oh, and GO VOTE!! And if you voted for a Democratic candidate and live in Texas, go back to your polling place tonight at 7 pm to caucus. It ain't over till it's over, and it won't be over until you caucus.

Interesting Things Sammie & I See on Our Walks

Today was trash day. Sammie loves Tuesdays and Fridays, because there are so many more interesting smells than usual. I enjoy them because I get to see what my neighbors throw away. Today we saw one home throwing away four empty 24 packs of Bud Light, and an empty, Sam's-sized case of Depends. Must have been a large weekend at that house.

Randy thinks I can find a conspiracy under every rock. But I can't help but wonder: Could these two things be related, somehow?

New Routines

Miss Sammie seems to be settling in nicely around here. She's been a very easy dog. She's obviously a creature of habit, and since I do like my routines, it works well for both of us!

The absolute funniest thing is this: she's learned that every morning, I do pretty much the same thing. I get up, get dressed, eat breakfast while I read the newspaper and watch/listen to Mike and Mike on ESPN2, and when I am finished with that, I take her for a walk.

So she just kind of hangs out, either in the kitchen or downstairs in the den, until I get up and either give the rest of the paper to Randy, if he's home, or put it in the recycle basket. Then Sammie goes into overdrive! She just knows that her walk is FINALLY about to happen, and she runs and jumps and looks about as happy as a dog can look. And when I get the leash off the hook, she jumps and jumps until she finally remembers that I won't put the leash on her until she's still, so she sits and lets me snap on the leash, and then we're off!!

It was too, too funny on Sunday - her internal clock must've been telling her that it was about time for me to be done, because she started getting kind of restless and pawing and nosing at me. I tried to explain that on Sunday, we get TWO papers, and they're both a good bit bigger than normal! I'm not sure she quite got my point, but we went for a little bit longer walk to make up for it.

We walk most of Morningside now, and I keep extending it a little further each week, until I hope for us to be able to walk up 42nd St. to Lamar, then back down at least to Brandyn and back up 38th St. to home. That ought to be a mile and a half or two miles.

This is great for me. I've been wanting to walk more, and since Sammie so obviously loves it, it's quite the motivation to get on out there and go! So far, we've walked in the rain (it didn't start to rain until we were more than halfway through, so there wasn't anything else to do but keep on going!) and in really cold and windy weather. I hate to disappoint her, but I'm telling you - my face was freezing this morning when we got back home! I'm not sure what I will do when the day comes that the weather is really too bad to go out. I don't believe Sammie will accept "Sorry, Pup, Mom just doesn't want to go out today!"

Samantha...New!

Meet the newest addition to the Reed family! She is Samantha Gorgeous Reed, and we found her at the Animal Shelter yesterday. Her Samantha name came from Will Smith's dog in "I Am Legend," which James saw on Saturday, and Gorgeous is what Amanda has called her from the beginning. We call her Sam, or Sammie. She was an owner surrender, meaning that she was brought in by her previous owners, who told the shelter that the husband has heart trouble, and they couldn't take care of her any longer.

She's about two years old, and has obviously been cared for. She is housebroken (although I'm still a little jumpy about that), and she understands "NO". This is SUCH a good thing.

She apparently is accustomed to sleeping on the bed. When Randy and I went to bed last night, after making a nice little pallet for her on the floor - where she immediately laid down, causing us to prematurely think we were home free - we turned out the light, she waited about a two-count, then hopped right up on to the bed, laid down...and stayed there until about 6:30 this morning.

She is just so mellow. Seems really happy to be here, becomes very concerned when someone leaves the room, already is attached to Randy, but is quite fond of the rest of us, too. Hangs out with James in his room, watching movies. Tries to climb up on Amanda to get closer to her face for kisses. She has slept quite a bit, and while I attribute some of that to being exhausted from her whole adoption ordeal, it appears that she'd just as soon hang out in the house with us as sniff around the back yard.

She is not Cinnamon, and while we really didn't want her to be, it looks like she's a really good fit for us. It was just one of those meant to be kind of things - the kids are home, Randy will be here for a couple of weeks, and we were all really missing having a dog around. She arrived at the shelter on Friday, and we found her on Monday.

Sammie will be a really great dog for all of us. She has landed in a really good place, and we are just happy as clams to have her here!