Happy 1st Birthday Abby - October 1st

Thanks Mom for the nice Birthday Hat!!

Little Abby turns 1 year old today! WOW, where did the time go? We do not know the particulars of Abby's birth, only that she ended up at a Shelter with her litter mates. A wonderful lady named Delia, who works with a rescue organization, rescued Abby and her siblings on November 15, 2008 and she estimated the puppies were around 6 weeks old at that time. Other than Abby's brief stay at the Shelter, she really has only known love, compassion, a gentle hand and caring words. We travelled one Canadian province and through 3 US States to pick up our special package and we vividly remember seeing her for the first time when she came off the trailer which transported her from Arkansas. She was even more cute than any of her pictures and she had us at the first woof! Abby arrived at our house at a time when we needed her as much as she needed us.

It was a long long ride from Arkansas going from warm weather to cooler weather and finally to cold weather and snow. Abby has turned out to be a pretty big girl, approximately 63 pounds of silly! She knows the difference between a week day and a weekend day by our routine. Monday to Friday she awakes to a soft voice saying "good morning little girl" and her response is a thumping tail, a wet kiss and a "come on Mom lets go for our walk" tilt of her head. Saturday and Sunday brings the opportunity to sleep in....until 7:00am when Abby decides everyone needs up! Even the cats know that Abby runs the show at this house. Yes, the cat situation, we will talk about that later....

Abby has chewed the leg on two of the good dinning room chairs which are both going for repair this week. Thankfully the chewing incidents have been few. She is going away with us this weekend on a mini-vacation to St. Andrews, New Brunswick. We are going to stay at the Fairmont Algonquin and it was our delight to find out that they allow canine guests too! Can you believe Miss Abby is booked in at the Algonquin? She will be able to visit Smudge, the resident dog at the hotel! www.fairmont.com/algonquin

Abby has lots and lots of toys but her favourite one seems to be the tennis ball. She brings the ball and drops it at your feet, stands back and waits for you to throw it for her. This is all good for the first 10 or 20 times.....then.

She still loves playing with all the dogs at the dog park and gets along well with both the dogs and the people we meet in our travels. She is however, a bit scarred of simple things we see on our walks. She will sometimes decide that she is not walking past a garbage bag sitting at the curb on garbage day or she sees a construction sign ahead and her hackles go up and she tries to warn us that there is something very "dangerous" up ahead! She makes us laugh....

She has lots of funny little habits...for example she will not lay on the leather couch unless there is a blanket for her to lay on. She spins around several times fluffing up her big flop bed before settling down for a nap. She travels around the house trying to find ideal locations to hide her bone treats, when she is lucky enough to get a special treat. Sometimes we find large bones hidden under bedroom pillows at night time! Yuck!

Abby's first year, and in particular her 9 months with us and been full of firsts. She experienced her first snow fall, spring gardening (well she learned how to rip plants out of the garden), she has been to school, a sleep over at cousin Pipers, swimming in the ocean, overnight at a hotel, shopping in Department Stores, she has had Tim Horton's timbits (although it appears they are an acquired taste for this puppy), she has been to Mamas work office, the dog park and into a car dealership to pick out a new car. All in all it has been a great 9 months with Abby. We could not have ordered a more perfect dog for us. We are so grateful for Delia and the good work of her organization and in particular, for the loving hands that gives these puppies a second chance at life. It is a long road from Little Rock, Arkansas USA to Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada but we sure are glad this puppy was willing to take the trip.

We understand that many of you read the Blog on a regular basis because you tell us. Some have mentioned that they are unable to leave comments for some reason or another and others say they really have no comments to leave but that they love following the story of Abby. Just when we wonder who is still reading, we run into people who say "you haven't updated the Blog in a while, what is going on? " or "I see Abby is in Level II obedience" and then we realize that many family and friends still follow. So for now, we will update the Blog as Abby's adventures continue. Until next time...