Happy Happy New Year from Hanna-belle! First off, Hanna would like to send some serious kisses and hugs to her loving sponsor, Beryl Board! What an amazing person it takes to reach out and take care of those that need it the most...those four legged companions that cannot help themselves.  Many of our most beautiful creatures rely on the goodness of strangers, like that of Beryl Board, to help give them the assistance they need to fulfill their best "doggy destinies"! Thank you so much to Hanna's sponsors for helping to provide for her care.

Now that we are into the new year, and foster mom and dad are past their hyper-busy season (both of us have our own businesses which are heavily reliant on holiday business), we are all ready to et back to looking for Hanna's forever home.  We must apologize for neglecting our updating duties over the past few weeks.  Hopefully you have not forgotten about this sweet little beauty! She is only becoming more and more beautiful every day. Other than a little chronic ear infection problem, Hanna is in excellent health and a very happy girl!

Hanna had a wonderful holiday season, with company coming over and weird schedules, it was enough to make any pup a little frazzled. But Hanna handled it all like a champion. She is still a bit nervous with strangers in the house, but only to the extent that she must tiptoe around and wait until they aren't looking so she can inspect each new person on her own time.  If people try to approach her, she might let them, or she might "flit" away and come back later when she is ready.  The best news is that she loves everyone, really.  I would not be nervous with her around anyone, no matter gender, age, shape, or size. We love little Hanna, our tiny little angel dog.  She is still around 45 pounds, so the perfect size for her to be able to sneak up into the bed with us at night and not have me notice that she has been sleeping ON TOP of me until I wake in the morning! It's so cute how she likes to sneak her snuggles...makes your heart melt every time.
Hanna is looking for a reasonably calm home with at least one companion dog, kids if they're 10 or greater, and a fenced yard.  She needs a safe place to run and play.  We would keep her in a heartbeat if we had that darned fence...she's been with us since July now, so please, will somebody welcome this little beauty into their home for good, soon, so she can really start her new life with her forever family? We will be sad to see her go, but so incredibly happy that she will get the chance to run and play the way she deserves.  Anyone would be lucky to have this sweet girl. Contact your advisor today if you are interested in Hanna!!

Roberta Jensen & Gerard Breiter                                         From your NE friend

Jill & Dan Johnson

Hi there, Hanna here! I have had such a busy week, I told my foster mom it was my turn to talk! Things have been goin' pretty great at my foster home.My foster bro' Hughie lets me follow him everywhere, and I'm having the best time trying to figure out why he does what he does every minute of the day. :) I didn't do too much before when I was a full-time "mama-dog," so everything is so interesting and curious to me now, and I just love learning new stuff each day!

Oh, did I tell you how much I LOVE toys? Some might call me a "collector" and some might say I'm a "hoarder" but I just say that I love my new toys, and I want them all to be in one place all the time.  Easier to keep track of em' that way, ya know?  Don't worry, I don't mind if other dogs try to steal my toys, or my bones...I just sit quietly and wait for the right moment to get 'em back!! Heh, they never see me comin'! Yes, I'm a little spoiled right now - you should see my stock pile of bone knobs, frisbees, stuffed things, ropes...I love them all.  AND, I don't know how I learned this, but I am really, really good at catching them in my mouth.  I love when foster mom throws a toy for me to catch, over and over and over...my little tail just wags and wags.  What a life.

Last week, I was dropped off with some new people while my foster family went "up north" for the week.  The little 10 year old girl that took care of me was just the best - she played with me and even let me sleep in her bed with my head on her pillow!! I loved it - she was so nice and gave me lots of attention.  The only thing that made me a little nervous was that the new people didn't have any other dogs there, so I made sure to tell my foster mom that where ever I go to live forever, she better make sure I get another doggie brother or sister to keep me company.  I grew up with dogs all around me, and I want to keep it that way! I did get to play a little with the neighbor dogs and that made me happy.

THEN, when foster mom and dad picked me up, we went to stay at aunties house with her two little Beagles, which I was just fine with.  Yeah, they're little, but I guess I didn't care.  When the older grumpier one barked at me a lot, I just turned around and left him alone to his grumpy self.  The next day, we went to this big party at the lake, the RAGOM picnic! It was crazy! Dogs and goldens everywhere.  I was totally in my element.  Shy but excited to see everyone. I even hung out a bit with Mya, who came with me from South Dakota. I was very polite and let everyone sniff me, and I sniffed back.  There was a really big lab there that barked at other dogs, but I stood next to him in line and didn't worry a bit - as long as he had fur and four legs, I was a.o.k.! So then, they called my name and I got to strut my stuff on the, er, "dog-walk" (we won't call it cat-walk because that would be just silly).  Everyone ooh'ed and awed at me, all remarking how little and pretty I was.  I guess you could say that I really liked that part - people fawning over my cuteness, doesn't get any better.  The last thing we did at the picnic was to go down to the beach and pounce around in the water. I had to keep my leash on, which was not my idea but foster mom said "no fence, yes leash".  I still chased the ball into the lake, and just pulled foster mom right in with me. She must really like me to let me get her all wet and dirty like that! After all of that, I slept like a rock the whole way home to Willmar.  It was an excellent day.

I'm ready when you are - I just need a fence (so they tell me), another dog in the house, I love kids but they have to be 10 and up, cats are fine, and hopefully people that will let me cuddle and snuggle with them whenever I want. Hey, I'm easy, just give me a chance and you'll see how sweet I am and how much I will love you!

Wet kisses and furry hugs,
Hanna

Today was a wonderful day in Hanna's world! Resident dog, Hughie (former Ragom pup), had been begging to go to the lake for a couple weeks now..we'd been neglecting him a bit due to lots of attention being paid to the nervous-nelly Hanna. :)  Anyway, when asked "do you wanna go to the lake," Hughie just about jumped through the roof so we decided to load up Hanna and take her for her first trip to the lake, too.  She rode in the car like a champ - in her crate to be safe, but was basically calm the whole way there. Hanna had not been outside of our yard except to visit the vet, so we were a bit nervous about taking her to a new place.  When we got her out of the car, she "hit the deck" - which is what she does when she's unsure or if you make fast movements around her.  Once she was ready, though, she let foster dad walk her around the cabin to sniff it out, and then down to the dock she went. 

Hughie loves to fetch the frisbee in the water, and Hanna watched closely for the first 5 minutes, and then she started to make little movements like she was going to try to "go get it" too! So we decided to walk her into the water on her leash.  She was very careful about going from rock to rock in the shallow water so she still had something to grab on to, but eventually she went in deep enough that she could paddle around for a few seconds before retreating back to shore.  We were just elated to see that she actually seemed to enjoy being in the water, and moreover that she obviously wanted to play and chase that frisbee with Hughie! Check out the cute pics of her in the lake - she was literally shaking with excitement when we would throw the frisbee.  Someday, Hanna might be able to swim out into the water all by herself.  For now, though, we're keeping her on the leash so we don't risk her running (or swimming) away if she gets startled.

Hanna also cuddled on the couch with Hugh and Luke (foster dad) today.  The three of them were so cozy together - she really loved having Hughie let her use his butt as a pillow! Hughie loves having her depend on him as an older brother type.  Oh, she also retrieved a tennis ball in the house today, which shows she knows a little about play.  Once she gets a little braver, Hanna will want someone who will play with her a little and keep her exercised, but also someone who LOVES to cuddle.  Right now, Hanna is curled up on the couch next to my feet - tuckered out from her day at the lake.

Hanna's new forever home will look something like this:
-people who love to cuddle and give her lots of love
-a calm, soothing home environment - not too much crazy activity
-tall physical fenced yard
-absolutely must have at least one more dog

Hanna will be ready to start meeting prospective new families soon.  She has her spay next week, then time to recover, and the wound around her neck will need to heal as well.  Once those things are taken care of, Hanna will be anxiously awaiting her hew forever home!! She will be such a sweet, loyal, loving companion to the right home.  Email RAGOM if you would like to meet Hanna when she is ready!