Fearless Fourth on KeaNeato.net

Here are some of the images I included in my Fearless Fourth Fireworks post on KeaNeato.net. This idea first came to me because of Blue Aroo, who was very sensitive to fireworks and other loud noises and flashes. These look kind of like fireworks but without any negative effects.

New Dog in the House

This is Jasper (with Gem in the background). We adopted him on Saturday from the Longmont Humane Society. He's a 7-yr-old husky mix, though he looks like a malamute to us. We're going to get a doggie DNA test just to make sure. He an Gem are getting along well so far, except that Gem has some resource guarding issues, so no chew treats outside their crates. We'll keep on working on this. Also, I think Jasper has some separation anxiety, but we hope that will diminish as he gets used to being here. We gave Jasper a bath yesterday (that was fun! he was a good dog!) and were surprised and pleased to see that he indeed was black and white with a beautiful fluffy tail rather than tan and brown with a matted tail. More pictures soon...

Gem Update

Things with Gem are going smashingly. He has become quite the sweet, mature, but still puppyish, dog. He's about 15 months old now and has probably reached his final size, though he may fill out a bit (hopefully not too much). He's a lot smaller than my last golden retriever, Buddy, who was very tall and barrel-chested. I used to joke that Buddy had a whiskey barrel for a rib-cage; keeping that analogy, Gemmie has a half-keg. :)

Gem has kept up with his training and gets along with every dog (and human) that he meets. He has yet to met a cat... We do have lots of squirrels and birds here; so far, he has shown little interest. However, our neighborhood is facing an infestation of bunnies (first I saw one, then I saw two...), and we'll see how he deals with that.

I've been spending a lot of time working on my other blog — KeaNeato! — but have plans for this blog as well. This is going to be more personal, with some longer posts.