Christmas with the dogs

We have been having a wonderful time here with the dogs recently. We have not had any new dogs who have not been here before, but some of the regular cast of characters have been around....Jeda (love him), Terrapin (love her), Boudreaux (love him too) and of course, good old Uben (love him the most of all).

Jeda was just here for a couple of days, but he's just so adorable and cuddly and I love how he smells. Not everyone loves that dog smell and I don't like WET dog smell, but healthy dog smell I LOVE! I'm a new fan of Border terriers because of him. He has a good time playing with Uben and Uben likes him very much. After he had been here a couple of days Boudreaux arrived. This did not go as well as planned and since I'm not Cesar Milan with the skills to magically make them get along, we lived for one day with baby gates and rotated the dogs in and out to play with Uben in the backyard. I was a little surprised that sweet Jeda took the attitude of "I was here first and you are not really welcome to be here so LEAVE RIGHT NOW" but it all worked out in the end though I was a bit panicked in the beginning...they were both pretty vicious with the other. Terrapin and Boudreaux are here until mid-January. What can I say about Terrapin? She's perfect. Aging and seems sore but perfect. She has a big vocabulary and understands everything. She goes on the walks every day come rain or come shine, but spends a lot of her day resting and sleeping. She still loves to eat, now and then breaks into a bit of a run out in the fields, loves to have her belly rubbed, and I think really misses her family. We think she thinks about them every day and as she's been here a lot she knows they will come back for her so she waits by the front door for a portion of each day. She eventually joins the rest of us in the living room and settles in. She struggles to come upstairs every night and sleeps next to Bernd in Uben's bed. She is comfortable here and likes us but I think will be happy to go home. She is precious unless you are another dog and get too close to her food...in this case she has food issues and will not be nice about it! Otherwise she gets along perfectly with others and does not have a mean bone in her old body.

Boudreaux. If I ever write a book about the dogs the best chapter will be Boudreaux. He is young and adores his pal Uben. Whatever Uben does Boudreaux does it too. If Uben is on a leash Boudreaux does not even need to be on a leash because he stays right next to Uben. Uben seems to be ok with the adoration and they play together all day every day. The play is rowdy and noisy but they seem to be having a great time with each other. Boudreaux is so enamored with Uben that I've had the thought that if he was a kid with his own room he would have posters of Uben everywhere. I love how he pays attention to EVERYTHING, stays very focused, and really wants to behave which for a young labrador is pretty amazing....he reminds me of Marley in the book Marley and Me but he is much better behaved than Marley and tries hard to be a good boy. He stays with us perfectly on walks and he's a joy to have around. He gives me a look that seems to say "I know you are not my mom but I like you anyway and so whatever you say to do next is ok by me!"

I'll take some Christmas photos and get them posted as soon as I get over my uploading photos laziness.