Gidget the Un-German Shepherd

Gidget has made some huge strides in the last week– she's now getting in the pool by herself, swimming laps, and catching a ball in the pool. We took some video Friday which includes Hattie getting pushed in the pool (heehee! I admit, I was the culprit...).

Devlan arrives from Caye Caulker, Belize

Our friend Devlan has arrived from Caye Caulker, Belize, on Sunday. The dogs are happy campers, as seen in the photos, now that their buddy is here. They can be seen going in and out of Devlan's room in the morning, wanting to sleep with him (except Chaco who only sleeps at the foot of the stairs below me- he is my security). Yesterday Devlan's door was shut and Hattie was laying outside his door in the hallway waiting for him to get up. It took a day but Hattie finally swam to Devlan and climbed on his back so he could walk her around the pool (see photo).

Hattie: part dog, part monkey, part bird

Yes, this is how Hattie likes to scope out what's going on outside the windows. She does this in the car, too. The neighbors came to swim two of the last three days (the two days it was nice enough to swim although most of us just dipped our toes in the water). Hattie got to ride in a raft around the pool and dive in before Rich dove in the pool. Nestle swam to the bench in the deep end but didn't stay long. I'm not sure why because she is a lab and surely 80-degree water is much warmer than what hunting labs endure. Ah, but she's Nestle.

Lexi learns to swim in the Linn-Gust pool

Our neighbors, Tess and Ed, brought their 8-week-old puppy Lexi for her first swimming lesson late this afternoon. Joe introduced Hattie at about the same age to the water. Lexi seemed to enjoy the water although she wasn't ready to float around on a raft. She almost seemed to say, "Hey, I can barely walk on solid ground, get me off this thing!"