So Long Lucy So Long Grizz

The final puppy from our winter litters went home today. Lucy stayed with us longer than any puppy so far, almost seven months. She is such a sweety with her tail always wagging no matter what. We are glad to have found the perfect home for her. So in all it has been a bittersweet day. Happy for Lucy. Sadness over the news we received from J in Afghanistan.

After J arrived in Afghanistan, he started talking about seeing a couple dogs all the time that hang around the base. One almost got shot because it was hanging out at the firing range. One of the dogs soon became a room mate and would go out with them on missions. They named him Grizz, like grizzle bear. One of the guy's family sent them a collar for Grizz with their platoon emblem. We sent them dewormer, you never know what dogs eat. Everything was great until another camp dog bit one of the trained ARMY dogs. Then the order went out to get rid of the camp dogs. J saw a few of them shot including a pregnant bitch that was sleeping under their quarters. So he says they kidnapped Grizz and took him up and left him in the mountains. Not long after that J came home on leave and was gone for 30 days. He just returned this week to Afghanistan to find his best friend there had been transferred out of his platoon. Then J writes that he had sad news about Grizz. Said he carried him up the hill and tied him to a post and stood there while Grizz got shot. J said that at least he got to be there with him at the end. While I understand the orders and the need to protect the trained dogs, at the same time I hate to see an animal put down for no reason and hurt for my son loosing his friend.

Summer Fun

Some times I go back and read the last post to see were I stopped in our sage. In just four days after the last post, our Grandson's or the "littles" as I like to call them moved back in. This time we are petitioning for full custody, as I said last time, I could fill another blog with that story line, but here I'm just choosing to say that they are back and we welcome our little puppy whisperers with tight hugs and big smiles. They are experts at what they do when it comes to puppy/child training, us grown ups just can't do it. They have a special touch. Bear takes his job seriously and usually carrying around a puppy around it's rib cage while the rest of the puppy dangles and sways gently as Bear walks around passing on his store of knowledge to the puppy. Mind you Bear is a whopping two years old and in the mist of toilet training. With Bear, everything's about eating, sleeping, potting and playing. Now it's Cubby's job to inspect the troops and their quarters, when ever a door is open, Cubby's going to be there to crawl/enter Crates to inspect puppies and make sure everyone is sleeping in an orderly fashion. If there by chance happens to be food or bones or even a chew toy. Cubby is also going to be working as an inspector/food critic. Yes folks, Cubby does indeed sample the local fare to insure it is high quality.

J came home for 14 days from Afghanistan and kept himself very busy the whole time seeing friends and making new ones. M got to come home while he was here also so they got to spend some good brother time together and the littles went along too.

On the 4th of July, Gretchen had her puppies. She had them during the peak time for lighting off fireworks. She started when they started going off and was done when the neighbors were too. She was very fast and I wonder if the noise had anything to do with the timing. She gave us 8 beautiful healthy puppies in 3 colors, black chocolate and one cream. Today they are 3 weeks old and have their eyes open and are moving around quite a bit on their bellies, some times one will get up and try out it's wobbly legs. Next week they will be getting their first set of vaccinations.