Week 2

And now for another installment of Maeby: Year 1. The following pictures are from Maeby's second week in the family. She was just so little and cute and full of life. She kept us laughing, when she was good and kept us on our toes when wasn't so good - or should I say she kept on our toes as she liked to attack them as we walked down the hall. She was also kind of a handful with the little puddles she would leave in the middle of the floor and the stealing of slippers and socks from the bedroom. Thankfully she had a very noticeable poop-sniff, she spun around at least 5 times before squating, so we could usually catch her before she did the deed. Sadly though, when she was doing cute things we often didn't think to grab the camera, and when we did get the camera, she was usually too interested in the camera to continue doing the cute thing we grabbed the camera to take a picture of. And when we were able to get some pictures, she was usually running and bouncing and playing so much and so quickly it was difficult to get a good picture of her. So, many of the pictures that weren't blurred or out of focus were those from when she was sleeping. Sleeping on the couch, sleeping on the floor and sleeping on the air-conditioning vent to keep cool.

But we did get some pictures that weren't sleeping pictures or blurry pictures, like this one (below) where you can't see her face, but you can see how big (or small) she was compared to the fire hydrant.

And the next two are still two of my favorite Maeby pictures. They just show how full of joy and happiness she was.

And I think that this one is in fact my FAVORITE (but I have lots of favorites).

Monochromatic Maeby

These are some of our favorite pictures from Maeby's first week (Aug 27-Sept 2, 2007) in our home. She loved to sleep, and we soon discovered that she matched our house quite well. As you can see from the pictures below, she matches the hardwood floor right down to the woodgrain matching the darker hairs in her face and ears. Her hair has lightened since then, but now she matches the couch much better.









She loved sleeping, still does but we thought it was funny that all of her favorite sleeping places were hard surfaces, whether it was the hardwood floor, slate tile, the metal airconditioning vents or my law books.

But it wasn't all just sleeping and napping. Maeby was adorable and bouncy and playful, just like a puppy should be. She loved licking but we tried to discourage that because while it is cute and tickly to have a little puppy tongue lick your hand or face, it's not so cute with adult dog tongues with dog breath. The same with her desire to nibble on our fingers. Here are a couple picks of Maeby giving Suz and I kisses.

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And here is a cute pic of her in her bed, but you can tell she is looking down at that hardwood floor longingly -- notice the shades of beige from the couch, throw blanket and dog bed. And then playing on the rug which is also in the same color family.

Beige, tan, khaki, apricot, light brown and tan are the colors of our apartment, so Maeby fits right in.

As a puppy every part of her was cute, but her bum seemed especially cute. Like a miniature kodiak bear cub bum. This picture doesn't capture the cuteness as well as we hoped, but it gives you an idea.

But probably my absolute favorite photo of Maeby is below. The proportion of her head to her body, the little tufts of fur sticking up from her ears, the cute little paws, tiny lack nose and big black puppy eyes. She is almost a precious moments puppy.

But you know what, I still can't quite decide whether she was cuter then than she is now. She's just a cute dog all the way around. What do you think?

Puppy Pick-up Day!!!

Since Maeby is one year old and we are just barely starting this dog blog, we have a whole year’s worth of cute Maeby pictures and fun Maeby stories. So, interspersed with current events will be pictures and stories of Maeby’s first year. And as soon as I take the time to cut the video, I’ll add that too.

So, let’s begin at the beginning. On August 25th 2007 we drove down to Fredericksburg and met the wonderful people of DC Dogfinders and they brought out the most adorable little puppy ever. She was so timid. We spent some time in their puppy play area letting her get to know us and while I was kind of expecting her to want to run and play, it was so cute that all she wanted to do was curl up in our arms. Suz held her while we filled out the adoption paperwork and got some last minute tips on puppy care from Avery and her husband.

Let me just blatantly plug DC Dogfinders now. They were wonderful to work with. They answered emails and returned phone calls promptly even when I asked dumb questions like whether a synthetic lambs wool bed was what she meant when she said that the puppies prefer lambs wool beds (I could not find a real lambs wool bed). They sent out a puppy parent instruction booklet a few days before we picked Maeby up so that we could buy all the necessary gear (crate, bed, blanket, toys, food, dishes, treats, Kong, Dingo Bones, leash, collar, etc.) additionally, they made sure we had a veterinarian before we could adopt Maeby. And they continued to answer our questions in the weeks following. Plus, she was already partially potty trained to go potty on puppy pads.

Now back to puppy pick-up day. Maeby slept and laid on Suzanne’s lap the whole way back and when we got home we put her in her crate and put her crate in the laundry room with the door open and just let her sleep. She was so sleepy. We put some toys outside her crate to give her some incentive to come out which she did a little bit, but mostly I think she missed her mom and she missed her brother. Later that evening our friend Harold stopped by and dropped off a new toy for Maeby, rubber squeaky newspaper, it was that squeak that woke Maeby up. She heard that squeak and just had to have it. She came out of the crate and bounded to the newspaper. It was as big as she was, but she loved the squeak (or hated it and was trying to get the squeaking to stop). She was so cute that first evening, but soon she just wanted to go back to bed. It had been a long day and we didn’t want to overdo it.

Happy Birthday!

One year ago today(June 14, 2007) a toy poodle mother and a yorkshire terrier father became parents to two wonderful puppies who went by Sebastian and Tinkerbell. At 9 weeks old they were ready to make their own way in the world and they were put up for adoption by DC Dogfinders, where we spotted Tinkerbell and just had to have her for our own. One week later, she was ours, we changed her name and she changed our lives.

Maeby's dad. We now know where Maeby got the habit of letting her tongue peek out of her mouth -



















Maeby's mom -

(Pictures forthcoming)

Maeby's brother Sebastian (picture that was posted to the DC Dogfinders website) -


Tinkerbell (soon to be Maeby)(picture that was posted to the DC Dogfinders website) -