Hi Everyone, Wow this week has been busy and full of some big firsts for me! Foster mom said she is working on "expanding my horizons" -- turns out that means she takes me to new places. They seem a little scary at first, but then I always figure out that they are really safe and fun places where I get to meet new people who give me treats, scratch under my chin and tell me how cute I am. On Sunday, mom took all of us (Bishop, me and Reuben 07-411) over to a friend's house to play with her Goldens. One of the resident dogs there, Zach, showed me how much fun it is to DIG! Woohoo! We dug in the yard and we dug in the garden -- good times! Foster mom and her friend were not too impressed with us though and kept telling us to "knock it off." I got all muddy and they said it looked like I was doing my best Dalmatian impression. I am not sure what that is, but I had a lot of black dirt spots on me. After we went home I had to have a bath and then mom and dad took me to obedience class with Bishop. I just went to watch and check things out. I sat off to the side with dad and he fed me lots of hot dog pieces. After class was over I got to run around with the trainer's dogs and that was fun! Monday morning, foster mom told me that I am a brave girl now so she is not going to feed me in my safe spots anymore. If I want to have breakfast or dinner I have to eat in the dining room like a "normal dog." Fine by me--as long as I don't have to go in the kitchen, I am totally OK with that deal. I just am not sure about that weird flooring in there. Mom tells me it's just linoleum and "it won't bite" but I am not so sure yet... On Tuesday, after work, we were going to go on a walk but it started to rain. All of us dogs were so excited about the walk that we would not calm down and just accept that it was raining so instead we all piled in the car and went to Petco to walk around. I got a brand new hot pink collar and a new squeaky ball. I also went up to the store manager for petting after I saw how much Bishop was enjoying it. Foster mom said I was very brave.
Apparently Wednesday was a "holiday" because no one had to work! My foster brother, Bishop is very scared of fireworks so in the morning we met some friends at a big park for him to burn off some energy. I guess it's a "dog park" because there were a lot of dogs there all running around without leashes! They looked like they were having a lot of fun, but foster mom said that I had to stay on a leash because if I got scared she didn't want me to run away. When we stopped at the pond she did hook a couple of leashes together so that I could run in the water with all the other dogs. She also let me wander off in the tall grass as far as the leash would take me. She said it looked like I was on safari. All of the people there had dogs with them, so they seemed pretty safe to me. I didn't get scared or try to hide when they walked by me. There was one lady at the dog park who looked so nice I went up and let her pet me even though there were no other dogs doing it and I had never met her before. Mom said that was "awesome!" I am getting much braver now in new situations -- sometimes when I am unsure I still hide between foster mom's legs, but sometimes I just sit down and watch what is going on until I am sure it is safe and then I join in on the action. The last thing foster mom said I have to share is that I sleep through the night now without waking up to go outside. Also, as long as mom and dad are smart about getting me outside on a regular basis I don't have any accidents in the house. They say the accidents I do have are "their fault" now. Jeez, I don't know why foster mom is making me share my bathroom habits with the entire world, but there you go. I am so embarrassed. Foster mom turned on Animal Planet on when she left for work this morning, so I have to go catch up on my Animal Cops and Meerkat Manor. Bye for now! Love, Nora