Amazing Storm

I haven't written in a long time and so much has happened. In January, we got a new puppy. Her name is Ella. She is a white German Shepherd and was seven weeks old. I fell in love with her from the start. I was her big brother. I made sure the other dogs didn't play too rough with her.

    Lou Ann and Ella

From the very beginning, she liked to climb on things. She slept on a little stool that Lou Ann puts her feet on. Mom said she will get too big for that real soon and she did.

    Ella asleep on the stool

Ella enjoyed playing in the snow. She would run her nose through it and come up looking like a snow maiden.

She is six months old now. She has been to two puppy classes and will start a Foundation class real soon. She has also started her Search and Rescue training. She really likes that.

    Ella doing her search training

It is really nice to have a best friend again. No dog can take Lilly's place, but Ella has a special place in my heart.

My best friend, Lilly, is gone. We learned in October that she had cancer. That's something bad that makes people and dogs very sick. The vets said there was nothng they could do.

At first, she was the same as always. Then she began not to play as much. When she stopped getting on the human bed to sleep, I knew she was feeling really bad. Mom and Lou Ann bought her a nice big bed and she slept in that much of the time. I was very careful not to bump her because she would cry. I watched the other dogs, making sure they didn't hurt her either. I slept close to her at night, just in case she needed me.

Lilly wasn't very hungry anymore. Even though she got all kinds of goodies, she didin't want them. I got to finish eating what she didnt' eat, but it made me sad. My mom told her she had to eat because her pain pills were in her food.

My mom hugged Lilly and tried not to cry, but she just couldn't help it. One day she wanted to take pictures of me and Lilly in the new bed. Even though it was big, I didn't want to get in with Lilly in case I hurt her. Mom made me get in and I was very careful. She tried to get us to smile, but we couldn't.

Finally, the time came when Lilly wasn't eating at all. She hadn't eaten in three days. Mom and Lou Ann said it was time. They took Lilly and me to the vet. Mom said she wanted me there because I was Lilly's best friend. I laid beside her until she was gone. Then we took her to the funeral home. When they put her on the table, I put my feet up and kissed her face to tell her goodbye.

It's quiet at home. I don't like being by myself. I've know Lilly since I was a little puppy. For a while, I just laid around like she did. My mom went to Texas without me and I was really sad and kind of scared. When she came back, I was so glad to see her that I started playing again.

Lou Ann will get a puppy to train for Search and Rescue. They said I will be like the big brother. I don't know though. I think puppies are kind of obnoxious.

Last night was Midnight Madness in Ravenna. Mom decided we (me, her and Lou Ann) should all dress as elves since we would be downtown helping. Okay, helping is a good thing. But no one asked me about this dressing up part. I DON'T like dressing in anything, but especially silly costumes.

She sewed all day on the costumes. And I will say that she and Lou Ann looked kind of cute in a silly sort of way. But as I said, I didn't want a costume. That didn't stop her. She started with a cape thing...red with white bones on it. It even had my name on it so I couldn't go incognito. Then she added a ruffly red and green ribbon collar with bells on it. And to top it off, a Santa hat.

She put it on me and I let her know that it was unacceptable. I rolled my eyes and laid my ears back. When she took my picture, I just glared. I was sure that would let her know that I HATED that costume. Do you know what she did? She just laughed and said, "Storm, get over it."

I did manage to get rid of the hat. Everytime Tudy looked away, I shook my head and the hat either fell off or hung under my head. She figured it just didn't fit so we left it at home.

Downtown was fun and I even managed to forget the silly costume for a while. I visited with lots of kids and grownups, too. Kids are my favorite humans. I got petted and scratched (bum scratches feel sooo good), and hugged (sometimes a little tight) and lots of people took pictures.  I had my picture made with Santa and even got to ride the train.

All in all, it wasn't a bad evening.

A ride on the train....is this the Polar Express?

Writing a Blog by Storm                                                                                             

Since I have my own website, I decided I wanted a bloggg to go with itt. My mom, Tudy, keeps up with the website and allll the pictures, so I Thought I should be the one to rite the blogg. It will take a little practice though or maybe loots of praactice. Dog paws weren'tt really made for typing so I hhit lots of keeeys I don't mean tooo.

I am really excited because my mom has started writing a book all about me. It starts when I was just a little pup and it will go all the way to when I'm a grown-up dog. At first I wasn't sure I wanted a book about me. What if she wrote about the silly or embarassing things I've done (althought admitedly, there aren't many of those.) So we made a compromise. Some of the chapters will be written by her and some will be written by me. That way, I get a chance to explain things that a human mind may not understand. After all, dogs have a unique way of thinking and looking at the world around us.

I hope I can talk her into putting some parts of the book on the blog. If she says yes, maybe I'll let her type them in. It takes me such a long time to do this typing stuff.

Check back often. I hope to keep my blog current.