Anniversary

A year ago Terry and I started our search for a puppy. We thought it would be easy, but oh my it was difficult. We went to the pound but there was never female puppies in the type of breeds we wanted. We searched for hours online. We actually fell in love with one puppy and applied for her. But we never heard back. We even had our parents apply for her too and they never heard back too. It was very discouraging. Not to mention a lot places wanted to come to your place and do a home study. At the time I had cousins trying to adopt from China and I felt like I was going through a lot of hoops just like they were but mine was for a dog not a baby!

I started going to the pound just about every other day looking and hoping to find the right puppy. One Saturday morning we stopped by the pound and found nothing that appealed to us. Later that day on our way to my parents I suggested to stop by again. I walked into the dog kennel area and laid eyes on  the cutest puppy. I quickly hurried over not wanting anyone else to see her. I quickly looked at her paper work to see what she was and age. I was happy to find out that she was a female, Australian Shepherd mix and six months old. I called Terry over and started pleading my case for her. I talked to her through the kennel as Terry found someone to talk to about her. I filled out the paper work and then they allowed us to go into a clean and empty kennel with her. We sat on the floor and she quickly climbed in my lap. She did not want to leave my lap! I finally had to carry her over to Terry so he could hold her too. I knew she was the one!

This is our first picture of her from Terry's cell phone.

The only sad thing was we had to wait until Wednesday, June 30th to pick her up she had to get spayed first. Those three days were long days. Those days were hard trying to find a name for her. I didn't like her name, Dottie. We argued over names for days. He would shoot down my names, Ella, Luna, Zoe and several others. And I shot down all of his names, Jessica, Jennifer, Kahlan and others. Finally, I came up with Lucy. He thought about it and even though he wasn't thrilled he agreed as long as her middle name was Xanthecar, which is the name of his favorite character from one of his games he plays.  I couldn't wait to pick her up! Finally June 30th came and Terry finally got home from work and we raced over to pick her up. We walked into the kennel area to find her. (We were slightly hoping she would look cute like another puppy we saw who just had his surgery. He had been laying there sleeping with his tongue sticking out.) I spotted her quickly and she knew us right away too. She was jumping up and crying when she saw us.

We brought her home and slowly introduced her to the house starting with the back. At first she didn't know how to do our stairs and I had to help her up. She played around in the back. That night 2 friends came over for dinner. Anthony and I took a walk around our back and found out that she likes to herd because if I walked slow she would run between us until we were together again. My parents came to meet her and she learned from early on that Grandpa always has a treat for her! I was very happy to have her in our lives! She has changed our lives but I couldn't dream of a life with out her!

Lucy's First Camping Trip

This past weekend we went on our first camping trip together. Wow, what an adventure we had! Lucy is just now starting to regain some of her energy. We went to Fort Stevens park in Oregon, which is on the coast. Our first night was really rough! She barely slept! We now know to wear her out some before we go to bed. The next morning Lucy was outside and Terry and I were in the tent getting dressed. Well she decided she wanted to be with us.  So she first tried to climb the side of the tent and I guess she almost made it to the top. When that didn't work she made her own doggy door in our door. It was a brand new tent! Now we have a duct tape door! (Sorry no pictures of that).

We then went on several walks and spent some time on the beach. She of course loved the beach and was everyones' entertainment!

This is her posing with the Peter Iredale a shipwreck.

Everyone took turns throwing her chuck-it. She even supervised the sand castle building!

Later we went to the South Jetty. She proved that she is a mountain goat like her daddy! Terry decided to climb the rocks and she of course had to follow him.

But got tired and decided to lay down!

We walked down to the Columbia River. Where she preceded to chase all the birds off the beach. At one point she got out to deep by the rocks. She then decided to give up and come back in! But that bird was taunting her!

She did a lot of exploring and mosquito eating during our trip. I have never seen her so pooped out before!

We took her kennel in case we needed to lock her up because she was a pain, which we only did the first night. But Saturday night I was so surprised when I found her sleeping in her kennel on her own accord! I even went to check and make sure she was still alive. I spoke to her and got no response so I tugged on her leash and finally got a low grumble from waking her up.

She was also a little wearied of the fire. Our family and friends all made popcorn over the fire and of course some spilled. Our lovely neat freak Lucy had to help clean up. It was hilarious watching her try and grab the popcorn close to the fire. She would move in and grab it real fast and cautious!

She slept the whole way home and only awoke occasionally! But she tried sleeping like this, which does not look comfy at all!

Last but not least is her sleeping (and peeing) in my mom's lap. (you can kill me later mom)

She likes sleeping with her head dangling over things. We had a fun time and she had a blast!!

Lucy vs The Ocean

When we first got Lucy, we had a heat wave. So I got my old kiddie pool out for her. Yeah, she hated that thing. I had to force her to stay in and if she jumped out she wouldn't come anywhere near me for fear I would put her back in the water. Then when it first rained she wouldn't go outside unless she really had to and then she would try and go on our deck or the pavement. So I came to the conclusion that she hated water. But my husband and I, us being our evil selves decided when we took her to the ocean for the first time we would throw her Frisbee or ball in the water and trick her. Well no tricking was necessary!

We decided for our one year anniversary to day trip to Ocean Shores with Lucy. We loaded the car with tons of towels, Frisbees, and balls for Lucy. We got to the beach played a little ball and finally threw it in the water. I was expecting a freaked out puppy when she hit that water but instead she fell in love with the ocean! She was the cutest thing ever! When she runs through the water she hops like a frog! Her back legs fly behind her just like a frog.

She would also wait for waves so she could jump over them. Or just jump right in!

At one point she was out deep and a wave went over head. After that she was done. She didn't want to go back in the water. So we decided to dry her off because it was a very cold and windy day. So we dried her off and then went for a walk down the beach. Well we wanted her to get dry so Terry carried her over the little stream and then put her back down. Well that goofy dog decided to chase seagulls out into the ocean. It was quite funny and I'm pretty sure that seagull was laughing his butt off at her. Then we found these rocks which had tide pools around them. Well one of them we couldn't see the bottom because the water was really murky brown, but our Lucy found the bottom! She found it by trying to walk to the rock and went completely under water again! Then she had issues getting out but was able to do it on her own. Her fear of water is over I am sure now!

She also thought her ears made a good wind breaker or she liked the sound of the ocean a lot! She had her ears up a lot and the next morning I looked at her ears and they had so much sand in them! I think there might still be some in there a month later!! We have a very cute video of her hopping through the water that I will have to get posted on here at some point. Now I can't wait to go back with her for more than one day. She will be exhausted for a  week!