More Phoebe

Phoebe has been settling in very well - she seems to be more comfortable with us than she was to begin with. She can go up and down the stairs by herself, and she's a pro at staring down the German Shepherd next door. She's becoming a friendly, happy little girl.



On Sunday the 15th, we met up with a group of other Westie owners in the Twin Cities for a walk around a park. There were at least 30 little white dogs there, so there was lots of frenzied sniffing going on. Afterwards, we went to one of the participants' backyards and let the dogs run around and play.

We'd kind of expected Phoebe to hang out in back where no one was behind her, but she took off at the front of the pack.



In front on the right hand side is Sue Storms and her Westie Booker C. McDuff. Sue and Booker came to visit us and make sure we would make good Westie owners.



A whole bunch of Westies (and one Weimeraner).



Over the past week, Phoebe's been discovering her toys. She absolutely loves her Kong, which is a heavy-duty rubber toy that can be stuffed with a treat. It's great for when we're away at work, but it does tend to get stuck under the couch...



Tennis balls are not safe in our house - luckily we have a few to spare!



We're having fun!

Phoebe

On Sunday, we added Phoebe, a 5 year old West Highland White Terrier, to our home. Phoebe came to us from a woman named Carol in Fort Dodge, IA. Carol had rescued Twinkie (as Phoebe was formerly known) from a breeder at the end of January. Carol thinks that Twinkie spent most of her first five years in a cage. Unfortunately, Twinkie didn't get along well with Carol's other Westies and needed a home where she could be the only dog.

One of Carol's friends posted on the Terrier Club that Twinkie was in need of a new home. I was looking through posts, and saw this. A few e-mails, phone calls, and visits later, we were on our way to Clear Lake, IA, to pick up Twinkie and bring her home as Phoebe.

Phoebe sat on my lap all the way from Clear Lake to St. Paul - a little more than 2 hours. She trembled a little as we left Clear Lake, but settled in well and enjoyed being petted and watching out the window.



When we got home, we explored a little in the yard. The garage door closing was kind of scary, and Phoebe didn't like being on her leash right at first. We put her on a long lead in the back yard and let her sniff around - that was better. With the help of a Milk Bone and petting, she started to come to us on her own.





We went in the house and explored the kitchen, too.



You can see in these photos that she's a little leery of being touched, even though she loves being petted and cuddled. Later in the evening, she'd start coming up to us, wagging her tail, and put her paws on our leg or the chair, wanting to be petted. But when Craig or I would reach out to pet her, she'd shrink down. Once she got into the chair or on our lap, though, she was great.







You can see her special flower collar - what a distinguished dog!



So far, we've had a great time with Phoebe. She's still getting used to us, but we can tell that she's a real sweetie and will be a wonderful companion. She slept all the way through the night in her kennel without making a peep, and took a little walk around the block with Ellen this morning. Check back for more pictures - this may become the Phoebe blog instead of the house blog!

Ducks...

I woke up the other morning and was getting something out of the upstairs closet. I looked out the window, and saw two ducks sitting on the ridgepole of a nearby house. If you look closely through the rain and mist, you can see them. Somehow this never happened in Iowa.

A few house-y updates

I haven't updated in a while, mainly because we haven't done much with the house or yard. It's been rather cold and nasty lately. It even snowed a little bit on the first of May.

My parents, Bob and Mikki, came to visit last weekend. We gave them the grand tour of the house and neighborhood, and introduced them to our fencing gear as well:



They brought with them the last piece of furniture that's going to fit in our living room - a 1940's waterfall style cedar chest. It was originally a gift to my grandmother from her mother. We need to add some furniture oil to the chipped part on the bottom, but other than that, it's a beautiful piece of furniture with family meaning for us.



After having brunch on Sunday, we went to Linder's to find a little bit of color for the yard. We ended up with a really simple solution - a hanging basket of pansies. I have much bigger plans, but for now they look nice.





I also divided the hostas in the front planters, so that they'll fill in the space a little better. It remains to be seen whether I killed them or not!



The grass that Craig planted is coming in nicely - we're starting to look like we have an actual yard.