A Party

Tonight was the Trinity Trooper's (the K-5th grade youth group at my Church) end of year party! I've been helping out with the Trinity Troopers for two or three years now and it's something I look forward to every Wednesday :) Joy is a huge hit with the kids and I'm sure they'll miss seeing her every week more than me. In fact, as I sat down to eat tonight with some of the kids, I was greeted with, "WHERE'S JOY?!?!?!" Not, "Hi, Allison!" or, "Sit by me Allison!" Nope, it's all about the dog now. (By the way, she was sitting by my mom being adored by people)   

Well, I took along my camera and got some cute shots of Joy and some of the kids. It was hard to get a lot of good ones because Ms. Joy was super crazed today (teething on everything, my hand was a recurring favorite) and was constantly wanting to run around in the Church's grassy field. This meant interrupting the kid's croquet game. Several times. Here are some of the not-so-blurry and much more calm looking pics (don't forget to click on them for a larger view) :

Joy does a good sit before petting

Some of the kids, Joy, and I.
I was unaware that I was a bunny-ears victim...

And I'll end this post with my favorite picture that I took tonight:

Until next time!
Peace, Love, Joy :)

Firsts

Exactly a week ago, Joy had her first vet visit! She was very well behaved and never made a peep. Not even when she had the dreaded "thermometer experience". Joy got one shot, and she wriggled a little when that happened. But as soon as it was over, she was all smiles again. I gave her a treat for being such a good girl. :)

After that, we went up to Jacksonville for Joy's first visit (out of what is going to be MANY) to the Avenues Mall. Our Obedience Training takes place in the mall's parking lot, so we arrive early and just walk around and usually grab a bite to eat in the food court. As usual, Joy was very well behaved. When we sat down to eat our sub, she just fell right asleep underneath our table. Getting up, however, was tough because Joy was very sleepy (possibly from the shot?) and every time I stood her up to walk, she just slid her eyes shut and sank back to the ground again. Apparently, the neighboring tables found this hilarious. I didn't. I finally got her to stand up and we continued around the mall until it was time for Obedience!

For a little puppy, I think she did fairly well. At first, she busied out in the grass. By this time, a couple of Joy's brothers had arrived and she was very anxious to pounce a dog that would actually reciprocate (Our Yorkie, Figaro just growls and flees). When we actually started to work, Joy did pretty well with the distractions and with 'sit'. 'Down' is something we definitely have to work on.

Joy will stay asleep under my keyboard even if I turn the volume up all the way and play an obnoxiously loud and fast song. But I mostly play the lullaby I wrote for her :)

Yesterday, we had a couple more firsts, first trip into St. Augustine and first trip to a very nice sit-down restaurant. We were coming from Church (which she slept through) with a quick stop at home to feed her lunch. I made reservations in the car for the Columbia restaurant near St. George St. in downtown St. Aug. If you have never been there, you should! They have an amazing salad that they're famous for and a bread that's so good, my mom and I have said that if we don't eat anything for the rest of our lives but that bread, we'd be fine. Seriously, it's incredible. Especially when it's hot out of the oven and the crust is all crispy, but the insides are all soft and you spread butter on it and it melts immediately...

Sorry. I have got to stop thinking about that bread.

Anyway...Joy was really well behaved in the restaurant. She never begs for people food so she just fell asleep promptly and stayed asleep as we ate our whole meal. No one even noticed she was there, which made me very happy! As we got up, (correction: as I forced  Joy to wake up and get up) I started hearing the chorus of, "Oh my gosh! It's a puppy!" "Look mom, there's a puppy under there!" "Awwww, he's so cute!"
I also heard from one parent, "Don't touch it! Insert name here- don't touch it!!!" To which insert name here quite angrily responded, "I'M NOT GONNA TOUCH IT, MOM!!!" Apparently, this kid has a history of dog-harrassment. 

As I am typing, Joy just snored underneath my chair. She snores loudly for a little puppy! Not that she's all that little, last week the vet tech told us she weighed 16.4 pounds! 4 pounds more than when we first got her. Right now, she weighs 18!

Posing in front of a fountain in the historic district of St. Augustine.

Well, the rest of the trip was great, Joy was very welcome in the the restaurant. Tonight we have another Obedience Class. I'm looking forward to it! I'll write back later.

Peace, Love, Joy :)

Just One More Picture...

Look what came in the mail a couple of days ago!

At Long Last: Pictures! (Lots of Them)

The internet is back at last! All is right with the world!!! As promised, here are some pictures of Joy's first couple of weeks with us.

:)

Joy and I at the Puppy Party.



At first pretty much all she wanted to do was sleep.



And sleep...

AND sleep...

She also had small bursts of playful energy.

Buuuut then she went back to sleeping...

"Yoda ears"

Joy in cape at Church



Joy's new favorite spot in my room







Joy's first trip to the beach!

Joy was hesitant about the water...and her shadow.

Our other dog Figaro relaxing in the water.

Joy decides to take Figaro for a walk. Figaro becomes confused.

The making of a puppy portrait at the beach

"Yummy sand."

"The sun is too bright!"

Perfection.

A wet, wild, and windblown Figaro.

Time to go home!

Now Joy is MUCH more hyper...

"What?"

And we end on a happy, yet slightly deranged note!

Talk to you soon!

Love, Allison and Joy

A Bundle of Joy

I know, I am a terrible blogger! I've had Joy for five days now and I haven't posted anything!!! However, my Internet usage has been suspended for nine days and my laptop's screen has decided to die (it literally died as I was trying to write this post the day after we got Joy). R.I.P. So this means no pictures until it either A. Gets fixed or the more likely B. My 5 in 1 iPad SD card reader arrives. Because I'm having to write this from my iPad. But enough of that, let's talk about Joy! :)

We arrived home at around 10:30 after the awesome puppy party with a soft, warm puppy and several bags of goodies! I could tell Joy was starting to attach herself to me and she didn't even seem too upset about leaving her brothers. (Mostly because she was asleep.) We opened all the nice presents and Joy loved ALL her toys! We had a quick playtime and then it was the moment of truth. Bedtime. How will she do? Will she whine all night? Will she go in her crate? Will she wake me up every thirty minutes? I was prepared for a night of no sleep. I was pleasantly surprised, though! She whined for about ten minutes and I mostly ignored her. After that I could tell through my big, bulky, ancient, stoneage headphones that she had stopped and was sleeping. Hallelujah! I could sleep. Not for TOO long, though. She woke me up whimpering again at 2:30. I couldn't really tell if she was upset because she was by herself in a crate or if she had to go. I ended up taking her out. After that she woke me up at 6:00, which was fine because that was when I was going to get up anyway.

The rest of her day went well, playing and eating and pouncing on her new brother Figaro (who is absolutely terrified of her). The next day was Easter, which meant Church, which meant bringing Joy to Church. I was a bit nervous. I had no reason to be, though because she slept through the entire service! Even the part where my pastor had me hold her up and he introduced her to the congregation and explained what I'm doing! She got LOTS of love at Church and is quite the celebrity over there.

Monday, we had to run some errands. Joy liked going in Target, even if she did have a little accident in the Deli section... Yesterday, not much happened. We played a lot and walked a lot and worked on 'sit' some. She's pretty good at it already! Last night was very exciting because she did not wake up ALL NIGHT and we were able to sleep in until 7:30! She didn't make a peep. I told her that that she is a very good girl and she smiled a big, goofy grin at me and licked my foot. Well, I'm going to have to take Joy out soon so I'm going to go. I promise to post pictures as soon as I can!

A Name, a Crate, and a Brand New Date!

Well, I've just come back from another fun puppy meeting in Jacksonville where we walked away with some new information (and a crate!). Oh, and awesome news- we found out a couple of days ago that the Pretty Puppy Pick Up Party has been moved to this upcoming Friday!!! That's in 4 days!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I am EXTREMELY excited. We have been shopping all over the place looking for stuff for her and we ended up buying her two cute puppy toys and a beautiful collar with a matching leash! 

When we arrived at the meeting our AC said that she had JUST received the names of the four puppies before she left. And our girl's name is.......................

*drumroll*

..............

JOY!!!

It's just a perfect name for how excited we are about raising our first Guide Puppy! She's going to be our bundle of Joy! :) Well, that's all the exciting news I have for now. I'll write again on Friday night, with many pictures of Joy and her brothers.

Until then...