I know it's been a long time since we've posted any blogs but a lot of things have happened in our lives, making it difficult to find the time to sit and write our blog.
Tonight I'm trying a couple of new things, first, we hit the black Friday sales and learned that at Staples they had Dragon Naturally Speaking software at a great price. The software enables you to just talk into the computer any transfers addenda type for you which is what I'm doing right now. I'm still getting a little used to the software and how it works in some of the different little quirks ago with software but it seems to be working pretty good.
I wanted to bring you up-to-date on something that's been going on around here at the Fretts household though over the last month or so. After a couple years of being without a dog we were asked to take a serious look at a new pointing griffon dog. This is the same type dog Mark as his beloved Hans who is one of the best hunting dogs that I've seen around in a long time. Griffon dogs are normally pointing dogs used for field work such as pheasants quails and things along those lines, but after seeing pictures of the dogs we fell in love with one's very special dog that seem to really want to come home to Western Washington. These dogs are located just outside of Spokane a day at a kennel and breeder and they happen to have two litters of pups at the same time from the kennel and were looking for ways to get rid of or I should say to adopt out a lot of the dogs fairly quickly.
So we get this call from Mark who tells us about these dogs that are available and how they are rather the cutest thing that ever has been seen. He said several pictures and there was one that seem to stand out throughout all the pictures. I was very hesitant to take a dog as we get ready to go to Hawaii again and in January and didn't really want to take on the responsibility of having a small pet in the house that was good to require a lot of care. Then there was one picture that was sent and that's all it took, we found the dog or should I say the dog had found us even though it was through pictures.
We asked Mark to do a couple puppy tests to make sure that she was the right pup for us. She seemed to do very well on the puppy tests and was passing with flying colors. I get a call from Mark and he's sold on the dog and fallen in love with this particular little female and wants us to consider adopting her. I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and give it a try.
So Mark picked up the puppy and brought her home to his house for the first night and agreed he was coming over the next day and so he would bring her with him and we would get all set up and see how things worked out. Now what we name this pup? There so many names that come to mind but that one picture stood out and maybe want to call her Maggie so we talked about it and we shared it with the grandchildren. After long consultations and a little bit of bribery Maggie it was! I don't know why but she just looked like a Maggie dog to me.
We got numerous reports throughout the evening and night from Mark as to how she was doing and he was amazed at how smart she was for just being seven weeks old at the time. The next morning he set off from Spokane and headed west with our new little treasure.
Maggie seem to get along well with his two dogs both Hans and times but Tubbs seemed a little bit kicked out a joint because he was having to share his bed with her but everything seemed to work out that night and she was doing okay going out go to the bathroom. The next morning as Mark was headed west he told us the story of when they went out to go to the bathroom in the morning that all sudden Maggie went on point and just stood there while the other two dogs went out about their business. Soon Maggie will move forward and went into the brush and up comes a Quayle out of the brush on the back of his property. Mark was both proud and disappointed because a seven week old puppy had just shown up his dog on who is this grizzled veteran at bird hunting.
Soon Mark was in Western Washington but he had to stop and can't wear his fiancée Amber was staying for the time to introduce her to little Maggie. It seemed like it was a little bit of a struggle to get her away from Amber as they fell in love immediately. Once we finally convinced him that it was our dog and that she needed to come further west Maggie made her last little trip towards the coast and her new home was soon to be found.
The second she came out of the truck it was love at first sight. What a beautiful little puppy she was and she was so affectionate and seem to be what seemed to want to be friends so much. We let her explore the property and the backyard and get used to her new surroundings she seemed to fit right in. But now the work really started.
I guess this brings me to the reason for this blog and why am keeping track of everything that's going on. It's not so much to inform people about what's what took place the first few weeks in and/or months with Maggie but kind of a way of keeping track of things for ourselves, and why not share our fun adventures with Maggie and I have to be honest there some not so fun memories so already.
Day one was interesting to say the least when you have a seven week old dog or should I say she turned eight weeks the day we got her, her attitude and personality was already coming through. It was fun to watch her explore and to see how her attitude was while she explored the surroundings of the new home. Then there was the cat's we had to introduce her to both ki ki and Darrell. Neither seemed all that impressed nor excited to have somebody else getting in on their attention.
That first day was very interesting as we tried to figure out how she was doing things and what was going on with potty training we knew that it was good to be a little bit of work with her but I know how much. I was very surprised to find out the shortly after she's got settled into the house she was still having a little bit of problem let us know about going potty but she already was going to the door wanting out to do her business outside. What a smart dog Maggie is.
Day two was Saturday and we had things we had to do that day. This may be very nervous as she had just traveled across the state had even got settled in yet for an eight-week-old pup she has a lot of learning and socialization to do before she really feels comfortable being around her new home in an surroundings.
But with things the way they were, we needed to attend a memorial for a good friend who passed away a short time ago. But we had no supplies whatsoever for our new found puppy initiated only been a matter of about three days since she had come into our lives we needed a kennel for her, dog food, toys, and just about anything else you can think of that a young puppy at that age would need.
So we left a little early for our our trip down to Raymond, and stop by Dells Farm supply in Montesano. We found a crate for dog treats and several other little toys for her to play with and soon it was off to Raymond. Maggie didn't seem to like being in the crate that much in China wind a little bit for a part of the trip down. But soon she settled down and laid down with some of her toys and can arrested, after all it is been a tough couple of days for her and she didn't know what to expect from here.
We attended the memorial and Raymond and after the service was over we immediately went back out to the car to get her hooked up and take her for a walk. Lori decided to go out and grab her hooker upping bringer furl take her for a walk to try to get her to go to the bathroom. I soon came out of the memorial to find Maggie on the sidewalk next to the front door with approximately 15 people standing around giving her all kinds of attention and what was even worse was she was accepting it and just enjoying every moment. I knew this dog was good to be very social from that point on because she had no idea what was going on but yet she really enjoyed being around people.
Over the next few days Maggie settled in and got into her routine but it was soon time for work and trying to figure out how we were going to do this with a new puppy and both of us working full-time. I decided that I would come home whenever possible for lunch in an attempt to get her out before she would have of accident. First couple of days was a little rough but soon she was get the hang of it issues get used to her new surroundings and getting used to trusting me to get home in time.
We jump to spring 2013. Maggie has become part of the family and is one of thos dogs that are very special to their family. Her constant energy is a problem sometimes, but with a couple trips behind us, she has become our camp dog. She does very well and enjoys her many walks. Life is good and we hope to share many adventures with Maggie.
No comments:
Post a Comment