Friday, August 6, 2010

Here He Is!


Meet Puppy #4 - Lowe! A male chocolate lab that joined us today. Isn't he cute?? His eyes are greenish but will fade to a golden color. He's being affectionately referred to as 'zipper-nose' for the ridge of fur down his nose. Very distinctive! He's eight weeks old and about twenty pounds. He is being sponsored by Marines stationed in Japan and he has been named in honor of a Marine who lost his life in Afghanistan. How incredibly honored we are to be raising this pup in honor of our fallen.
Today he got weighed, microchipped and vaccinated. It's also his first day wearing a collar and trying to figure out a leash. Right now the leash is mostly held out of his way so he can go potty and so he won't start chewing on it. I go to the kennels to volunteer each week so it will be pretty easy to ask questions and groom him and get his further vaccinations. In our orientation meeting we were told that even though this is the primary time to get them socialized, we need to be careful because they don't have their immune system built up enough yet. That means when we go to Costco we can take him along but he gets carried and put in to the cart to ride along. Probably a good idea anyway since he's potty training! He won't be going out much the first couple of days because I want him to get a bit more settled with his new family first. This first night without his sibs will be rough - for everybody! :-) At 2am I will wonder why we signed up for this - LOL! And it will all be very worthwhile.
Lowe is a very active puppy and loves to tear around just for fun. He loved walking in the grass in the back yard this afternoon and pouncing on the dry leaves that have fallen from our sycamore tree. Our personal dog, Remy, isn't real enthused yet but since he's been through this before we know everything will be fine after a few days.
We are also boarding another guide dog in training starting today. Her name is Cali and she's getting close to a year old. She is absolutely fascinated by the little guy but we keep her at a distance as she's a big girl with lots of enthusiasm. Cali can show Lowe the ropes for a week while she's here! :-)
OK, time to tire him out as much as possible to see if I can snag a couple of hours of sleep.