Michael & Liz are Bloggable

So it has been about two months now since we got Daisy and while she has always been kind and nice to us, lately we feel like she is finally loving on us as if we have always been her owners, and as if she always wants us to be.

Today I went to see the Bengals game at a local bar and when I came home Liz was napping on the couch and Daisy met me at the door. I picked Daisy up and sat on the couch and she immediately went into hibernate mode and just closed her eyes and went limp on my chest with the occasional kiss here and there. After about 10 minutes I put her on the ground and opened the sliding glass door to let her out. She ran out and then turned to see if I would follow. I closed the door to stay inside and she ran up to it and starting scratching. I opened it up and she just stood in the doorway waiting for me(see Exhibit A above). I made my way out and she wagged her tail and led me down the stairs into the yard. We played fetch for a bit and when I got bored and went inside she came right in after me. I sat on the couch to check some fantasy football scores and Daisy climbed up to the couch and slowly walked over to Liz, walked all the way up her legs and plopped right on Liz's stomach into a ball to go back to sleep(see Exhibit B, Daisy tried to get up when I got the camera, so she was no longer in "ball" form). This of course woke up Liz but it's without a doubt the greatest way to wake up, let me tell you. And while this is not the first time this has happened, it has been much more frequent and we feel like she is finally 100% comfortable with us.

I must say there are times when this love waivers, and that is any time we put her in the car to go anywhere. Up until 2 months ago, car=bad. It was either to go to the Vet to get spayed or even worse, to be taken to a new home and will not come back to where ever she was. But we are beginning to change that because everyone at the Vet loves her, and by loves her I mean I'm lucky to walk out of there with her in my arms, and any other car ride is to fun places where she can run around. We think she is beginning to know what the words "go to the vet" or "going to see cousin Dewey" mean.

It has just been nice to see her transform the way she has and I'm sure she will continue to do so. After all the reading I have done about dogs and dog training, people always say that a dog won't obey you and won't want to do tricks for you unless it loves, respects, and trusts you. So now with that being said, it seems like lately she has been a lot more well behaved. Whenever we say "no bite" she actually stops, she hasn't gone to the bathroom in the house in at least a month, and she has very quickly picked up on the tricks we are trying to teach her. She has mastered, "sit", "stay", "come", "no bite", and "go to the ramp". And now we are working on "shake", "stand up", and "lay down". She will willingly do these tricks but we have to show her. We'll see how long it takes her to do them herself. Luckily for us, dog training has been a ton of fun so I see no reason why she can't learn English by at least next September.

Tonight she has another full night of fun. We are going over to Jon, Julie, and Cousin Dewey's house for dinner, pumpkin carving, and some scary movie fun. Probably going to watch "The Thing" and another scary movie like "The Shining" or something. She'll of course be preoccupied by the Deweymeister.

Here is one more picture of Daisy sleeping on us:
I also want to include one more thing. Liz came home a few days ago with a surprise. The back story is that on our honeymoon the cruise ship sailed by the Na Pali Coast on the western side of Kauai. When we were sailing by I took the camera and took as many high resolution pictures as I could and there was one clear and overwhelming favorite of the bunch. For a long time I had it as my background on my computer and just love it. Well Liz took that picture, and with the help of Stacy, they got it blown up and framed and Liz brought it home the other day. It is absolutely amazing and is a perfect picture to put above the mantle. I really love having meaningful things hung up around the house rather than just a generic picture we buy at the store, so that picture will be a reminder of the awesome time we had on the trip to Hawaii. Here are 2 pictures of the picture:


PS - I love the Bengals, but they depress me. Fire Bresnahan and draft 7 players for the defense.