Quiet evening (eleventh day)

Celebrated some time off with a romp on the terrace as it was getting dark. Reggie loved it. I was freezing after what seemed like an hour out there (it was probably 20 minutes). Asking her if she was "done" outside would have been a dumb question. She's like - we've got this big outdoor area RIGHT here with all this untouched snow for me to eat and lay in...and you want to go back INSIDE? She loves running back and forth with the Wubba and playing fetch for as long as I'll keep throwing something. I'm convinced that she's got to be a border collie in an Elkhound body because of her energy and play drive. Eventually I put the Wubba back inside and just let her lay out there for a while longer. She'd probably be happy living out there. We have a quiet evening planned for the rest of the night. Reggie's dad also gets back later so we'll be planning how to get her back home to him soon.

The beach (tenth day)

We went to the beach this evening. Well, the lagoon area by the dog beach.

Reggie wasn't sure about the lagoon (it's all frozen over) but she liked running around near that area.

This is as close as we got to the dog beach. I really wanted to let her run around there because I'm pretty sure she'll LOVE it, but I'm not comfortable taking her off the leash to be free in an only semi-blocked off area. I'm hoping Karl will want to stop over there so she can try it out while he's there. It's more blocked off than I thought it was at this time of year, so she should be fine if he's with us.

I did my best to run along with Reggie so she could still get some play time in while we were at the lakefront. We took the Wubba out there but mostly she just ran and ran then ran some more. She likes to roll and rub her face in the snow, which is what she's doing in the picture above. She also wipes out a lot. She'll be running then just slide one way or another and down she goes to the ground. But then she's right back up like nothing happened. I can't believe she doesn't hurt herself, but she still goes 150 mph all the time.

When we got back I picked out a new toy from the secret place where toys magically come from when you want a new one (a.k.a. bins full of toys in the second bedroom closet). Turns out this one has a really high pitched awful squeak...so I'll be switching it out as soon as Reggie's distracted by something else tomorrow.

People skills (eighth day)

I have decent people skills. But I also have social anxiety. Reggie is the antidote for social anxiety. She'd like to meet ALL of you. At any time. She doesn't care that I haven't showered for the day (I mean, really, we go out sixteen times a day...I'm not always going to look sharp), or that my hair hasn't been brushed since last Thursday. She thinks any time is a good time to meet new people in the building. So we do, frequently. Tonight we met Adam when we went out before the Bears game. Reggie liked him and would probably go downstairs regularly to visit him...if she could figure out how to work the elevator on her own.

People light up when they see Reggie or Gideon. I'd imagine it's what I look like when I see a dog. Any dog that I can get some time to play with really. Whether it's sitting on a sidewalk instead of crossing the street at the light I was waiting for, or playing with a dog that's tied up waiting outside of CVS. Both those things happened in the last month. It's one of those things maybe you don't realize when you have a dog of your own - just how great they are. I've forgotten what it's like to have a people-friendly dog around. It's something I miss about staying with Michelle and Gideon - getting to walk him around the neighborhood and see him get SO excited to see EVERYONE. I'm not exactly a people person myself, but I do like dog-people. And that's who these guys attract. I think the greatest gift of having an animal, dogs in particular, is the way they share that great positive energy with everyone around them.

Everything is more fun with a dog around. I can't imagine going somewhere without my next dog, so they'll have to be outgoing too. That's why I envy dog-people like Christopher, who gets to take his dogs to work with him (he has his own business). They're pretty great dogs in general too.

After work today Michelle came by to pick up Gideon's Christmas presents and meet Reggie. This was very exciting for Reggie. Partly because she is excited to see anyone at all, and partly because Michelle went out on the terrace to play with her.

On the terrace (seventh day)

We went out on the terrace together last week, but there was no snow. It's decidedly more exciting for Reggie right now, blanketed with a few inches. The wind has whipped the snow into little drifts along the window side and opposite by the railing/barrier side. It's pretty chilly up here but Reggie was okay with going out by herself while I stayed at the sliding door.

I had to make sure she wasn't going to run around like mad so I kept her on a leash first...then I went to go get the new Wubba (it's the "wet" version meant for water/snow).

She was pretty excited about the new toy even before I sent it out there with her.

You can see all the prints from the multiple rounds of fetch we'd already played with the Wubba, but here Reggie took a break to look around. She hasn't quite figured out the whole terrace thing yet.

On a round of fetch she's about to get that Wubba and bring it back!

And here she comes streaking back with it to the door where I'm waiting.

That's about all the new exciting stuff for the day. We mostly took it easy and I have a lot of work to get back to that was delayed because of the accident. Reggie is still wired quite a bit but in between playing she's getting better at settling down to take it easy for a while.

Funny things Reggie does... (sixth day)

So Reggie does the funniest things...you know how everybody is used to their dog's quirks and all? I am frequently in tears from laughing at all of the antics I see when I'm around other people's pets. Michelle's house alone provides hours of entertainment with Gideon, Bella and Gracie, right? So imagine how funny it was to take on a new dog I'd never spent time with in my life, only to find that she's just as crazy as the rest of 'em. Crazy in a funny way once I could semi-contain her...You can see some of the evidence in this video. I mean, come on...who does that?

Now...the part that was even funner (Karl, that's for you) is when she was all kinds of worked up and attacked the bowl feet first...literally. The lid was up since that's been her watering fountain (it's the second/guest bathroom so she's the only one using it) and either the water was low or she was just tired of having to stretch...because she STOOD with her front feet IN the bowl and drank some water! I mean, I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard. It was so funny to watch...until she stepped out and I realized what a mess she was making with her legs wet almost to her elbows. I couldn't get a photo or video of that one because I was too busy laughing then yelling REGGIE WAIT to get her to stay on the tile and not track wet/dirty paw prints onto the carpet. After I cleaned all the paw prints up and gave the bathroom floor a good wash it was funny again.

Oh, Karl...your dog is such a hoot.

The snow began to stick again as of last night. Light and fluffy like fake snow in a movie...but it did build up enough to cover the doggie area. By late night tonight it was a bit more respectable. At the last evening potty time there were a few inches out there and again we were the only ones out there - not even any other people/dog tracks around. Odd, right? Reggie doesn't mind. Especially since the only dog we've encountered from the building making use of the open area was a standard poodle named Ricky that tried to eat her! That was earlier today. His owner said he is fine off the leash, but I explained that even with Karl here I wouldn't recommend taking Reggie off the leash in an open-ish area because she's an Elkhound. She'd run and run and run some more. If she avoided traffic long enough she'd eventually turn around and go "hey, where is everybody??" after miles of running. So Reggie did not get within two feet of Ricky, not that she didn't still try to go up to him while he was snarling, but that I kept her from an up close and personal greeting.

The other things that Reggie has been doing recently are harder to capture in pictures. She's learning to appreciate an evening bath (staying in the bathroom while I take one I mean), but she seems fascinated by the bath tub. I know from stories Karl has told that she occasionally jumps into the shower with him (and is surprised when it's "raining" inside), so I keep telling her that there is water in the tub so she shouldn't jump in there. So far so good. But she does like to come check me out, smell my nostril and all, while I'm taking a bath. She's also the kind of dog that likes to eat everything (Karl said she thinks the apple bitter stuff that's supposed to deter dogs from something is yummy). So it shouldn't surprise me, but it does, when she attempted to lick part of a face wash pad with soap on it (ewww!). And then there's the apricot face scrub. I mean, are the apricots that overwhelming that it seems like food to her? I'm not sure. But what I do know is that she licks her chops when I reach for that and stares intently at the tube. Then she tries to get in my face to smell it and she'd eat some from the tube if I'd let her. Gross!

I've been laughing about this one for a while - the way Reggie sleeps on the bed just cracks me up. She'll find the edge (or in this case the corner) and stretch out at a weird angle, but with her head hanging off the bed. Hilarious. After I took that picture I got the most indignant look for disturbing her with the flash!

Santa (fifth day)

Really wanted to take some pictures, but difficult to do with no lights and all. Note that Reggie rarely holds still so this is the closest "Santa portrait" we have (and she's blurry) before opening up her stocking stuffers. Okay, so they're not actually wrapped, but whatever.

Reggie did sit for a few more attempts with harsher light so I included those here. Maybe we'll have more natural light in the near future and we can do some real photos inside. It's been rainy and cold (but not cold enough to freeze the water yet) so we haven't done too much outside. Reggie says "no, thank you" to the rain and we come back in after a quick potty trip. Even the doggie area is disgusting and mucky because of all the water - melted away the snow. Hoping for more snow so we can run around over there on the normal potty trips outside.

Sitting for a few test photos...Reggie says: "I know you have a treat over there..."

"...and I'm getting bored waiting for you to give it to me..."

Awww...you think this is like a really cute shot of Reggie snuggling with Santa, right? Nope. She's smelling his crotch. I swear! Gotta check everyone out. She's a big crotch-sniffer (that sounds wrong). If she can't get her snout in your face...well, watch out!

This is the other Santa toy that made its debut this week. Not destroyed yet, dad! Though we did show him who's boss by sleeping on him for a bit ;)

Visitor (fourth day)

Remember Gozo? He's here to visit for a bit today. Why are Reggie and Gozo separated by a gate? Gozo is a 7 pound Maltese. He's old. He doesn't care for "doggie" things like play and any activity at all actually (he mostly naps). Reggie...well, she has some personal space issues. I say that because I've experienced it firsthand for a few days now.

Reggie likes to smell your face. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. She is particularly fascinated by my left nostril and my lip. She shoves her snout into my face whenever possible to get a good whiff of my nostril. Like, she literally just smells the left one a micro-millimeter from it without touching my face. I'm quite paranoid about it now. Is there something in there? Then there's my lip. I should back up...I normally don't let dogs anywhere near my face, which sounds mean until I explain that I am allergic to dogs. Deathly allergic to Elkhounds in particular. So this obsession with getting her muzzle in my face causes some concern when she does actually touch me. That's where I was headed with the story. I'm completely convinced that Karl had a talk with her and this is all his doing. For all the times I have teased him about boy-girl issues, I now have his dog wanting to kiss my face all the time. Great. See, when she smells my lip it's just in preparation for licking my face unlike the I-just-want-to-get-THIS-close-to-smell-you nostril thing. I tried to avoid it, really I did. But she's damn persistent. So now I just walk around with a bright red splotch on my face (usually upper lip) that eventually dissipates in time for the next doggie kiss. What can I do? Back to Gozo...he's not as tolerant as I am with dog antics, so it took a while for me to convince Reggie that she did NOT need to get in his face. Gozo reinforced the message by snapping towards her (the warning snap gets about an inch from your nose) and then curling his lips into a ferocious look when she came near him on the bed. Without me intervening the first three dozen times, I'm sure he would have taken a piece out of her face to make sure she'd back off. At any rate this was the most progress we made (below) with them laying near each other for about thirty seconds.

Durmienda con los perros (third day)

Reggie is not impressed with the organic mattress, sheets or pillows. She did agree that our traumatic afternoon together meant we should be sharing that bed though. So last night Reggie slept with me. And she snores.

She mostly kept to herself over night but in the morning she decided we should play before we got up for the day. She let me know this by pouncing on my midsection and throwing her body into me, elbows first. An elbow in the gut is not pleasant, but I do like to cuddle so I let it slide. There were also belly rubs requested before we were ready to get going for the day.

Much of the day was fairly uneventful as far as Reggie was concerned. I had to take care of a few things because of the accident which left Reggie on her own for a bit. We had another good romp in the snow when I came back though. There's quite a bit accumulated in the doggie area now. Believe it or not we're the only ones that seem to make use of running around over there. Silly people think that it's cold and the snow is too deep for the small dogs in the building I guess. Reggie thinks the weather is great. We'll be able to spend more time together tomorrow.

Grooming day (second day)

Forgot that they were testing the fire alarm system in the building today. That's always a pleasant sound early in the morning...and every few minutes until you think you'll go insane from it...but glad all systems are go. Reggie was not exactly thrilled with the noise either, but she was very excited to see all the snow after she bolted from the building for the morning potty time in the courtyard. Started a bit slow today. Reggie didn't want to eat her breakfast right away, and we had to get her over to her grooming appointment, so it ended up being packed up as a to go meal for her.

The before picture when she was dropped off with the nice folks at The Bark Place in Chicago is above. I don't think she's in this picture (might be the blur in the background), but I was surprised to see Gideon's friend Lucy there! Lucy is mentioned in earlier blog posts written by Gideon himself, and there was an entry all about her visiting that is still in draft form pending the photos being added (delayed from June, yikes!). Apparently Reggie and Gideon have friends in common even though they have yet to meet in person!!

Reggie was scheduled to attend some of the doggie daycare activities as an added bonus to her grooming appointment so I was able to do some errands after work and before I picked her up later in the day. First stop was to get the temporary ID tag since she apparently ate her last one (not good, Reggie!). You can see the front being laser engraved above. Tough choice here but went with the heart design. Girly, I know...but I AM a girl, and so is Reggie for that matter! Probably doesn't suit Karl well, but he's not wearing it around anyway. For the record he is a sweet and kind guy on the inside. You just may have to microwave him a bit to thaw out his tough guy exterior.

The finished product front side that tells you Reggie's name is "Reggie"...duh.

And the back...So I wasn't sure what to put here, but this seemed appropriate. It says to "Please call my dad, Karl, if I'm lost..." along with his number.

After the errands it was back to pick up the neatly trimmed and conditioned Reggie. She's smooth like butter now. And she smells like clean laundry. I'm sure it's an actual scent but I don't use scented detergent (it's actually a biodegradable sport wash) so I can only equate her freshness to whatever clean laundry smell is stuck in my sensory memory.

Reggie took her new 'do out for a spin in the snow. Seems it works just as well as the old one. She's also sportin' the temporary tag. Look how pretty she is there.

We did a quick visit to dad's job on the way back here. Not too much going on there but Jerry enjoyed getting to see Reggie. And customers told her how pretty she was too.

Before we got back in the Jeep we had to visit Al's for Ronnie. If you look closely you can see the guys inside being very entertained by Reggie posing in front of the door. Note to self: stop in soon to explain that Reggie is Karl's dog and we took a picture for the blog.

One of the other new additions courtesy of the errands is the "treat" ball that dispenses whatever you put inside as the dog rolls the ball around. In this case it's Reggie's dinner. She "worked" hard for a bit getting all that food out. She did take breaks and seemed to enjoy the "game" for dinner. Hoping that will be one of the things to keep her occupied when she's left alone. Seems like it may work out okay. Below is the photo that shows defeat...a few pieces of food remain in the ball but Reggie has given up. She took a nap shortly after this photo was taken. I give this round to the giant orange "treaky treats" ball.

For our second to last evening potty time we had a great romp in the courtyard in all the fresh snow (several inches out there). We ran around the doggie area for a bit. We sort of played a game of chase but Reggie cheats. She bum rushed me several times trying to knock me over. And she uses her teeth when we wrestle (not fair!). My favorite game during this outing is an old one that Reggie was kind enough to go along with me on tonight. I made a snowball and tossed it towards her. She picked the exact snowball up and ate it. She also took the ones I offered her directly and gobbled those up too. I'm not sure why, but this is endlessly amusing to me and made me giggle quite a bit out there. And finally...while writing the blog Reggie laid down by me and put her head on my knee. If you wonder why all these photos are snapped with a BlackBerry's camera, this is why. It means I can capture moments like this when it's not practical to have my real camera handy. We miss you, but we're doing just fine, dad. Just fine.

First day

Things are not going as planned. Reggie is not settling in here at all so far. Today was exhausting and frustrating to say the least. Our conversations have mostly consisted of some variation of "no," "sit," and "down" today. It was a rough first night and Karl left very early this morning. After returning from the airport and getting a few more hours of sleep, we were up and out for the day. Morning walk, potty outside, and playing in the snow. So far so good.

In between the morning walk and dinner earlier this evening things get a bit sketchy. Excessive barking caused a delay to the morning meeting and showed Reggie still wasn't settled here. An extra trip to Target provided two gates to give her a non-carpeted space for hanging out when I got back for the day (an uneventful walk right away). The cleaning from last night did not go well and can't really be summed up here. Several hours and a second trip/rental still did not solve the problem from last night. Before that second trip though we explored an option to keep Reggie occupied.

Part of the after work shopping included a Kong toy and peanut butter. The result of that plus a third of her dinner serving is what you see here. Surprisingly not too terribly messy (still involved washing the whole kitchen floor by hand after though).

After giving up on the cleaning from last night I finally sat down to play some ball with Reggie. A few minutes later we took a brief nap on the kitchen floor.

The nap gave her enough energy to go out for a run and more play time outside. We headed out to the normal potty spot first and then played ball around the helipad area. We probably looked silly but it seemed like the right thing to do. That didn't wear her out enough and it was hard to stay focused on the ball. It was dark, there were lots of noises etc. from the street, and it's just tough to play while connected to a leash. We tried running in circles around the helipad. I'm guessing that looked even sillier than the first bit. Eventually we jogged down the ramp to see if Reggie had to go potty anymore. No such luck on the potty request but we did happen upon Walter, a small dog (Jack Russell Terrier?) from the neighborhood. At first Walter was not so sure he wanted Reggie in his face, but after they dashed around each other tangling leashes he was all tail wags and smiles. Reggie wanted to follow Walter and his owner on the rest of their walk but as we pointed out to the dogs: it's cold out there for us. So we detoured back up the ramp at a run and gave the helipad one more lap to make sure there really was no other potty need before heading in again. We still took our time back in the courtyard, but just to sniff and eat more snow. The last picture is after this outing described above. Reggie is worn out a bit now, and just in time to turn in for the night. I hope tomorrow will go much smoother but it will be an off day with a trip to the groomer planned for first thing in the morning.

Reggie

So Reggie is here to stay for a while starting tonight. Gideon is letting her take over the blog posts for the next couple weeks while she's visiting...even though he hasn't met her yet. What an adventure THAT will be!! Reggie rode in the front seat of the Jeep on the way over here and was all over the place.

Here she is climbing the door to stick her nose out the window...while we're driving. She also climbed up on the dash with her front legs, jumped between the front seats (including in Jen's lap), and hopped into the back seat when Jen was unloading the car in the garage.

When we got back to the suburbs we took a long walk to explore the neighborhood. Once we got everything in and settled a bit Reggie got to play with some new toys and finally lay down for a minute. She's still exploring things since it's her first time here...we played fetch a bit (floppy disc and tennis ball) and now she's laying down next to me while I finish writing about her new job updating the blog for a while. We have to go finish setting up because we're all (Karl is on his way) watching The Hangover tonight. Very exciting!