Goofy Clumsy Stage

Freja is now 5 months old. She is now at the goofy, clumsy stage where her agility is not quite in sync with her growing legs. Sometimes she trips over her own big feet. This afternoon I was out in the yard looking at the flowers and she was following me around. At one point she decided to dart out across the yard and just as I was admiring her beautiful movement she tripped and fell, but immediately stood right back up and looked at me with her big Shiloh grin and mile-long tongue as if to say, "I'm OK!" and kept right on running.

She'll pose forever for a Frisbee...

As long as I have the Frisbee in my hand Freja will pose nicely, waiting for me to throw her Frisbee.

I can just hear her thinking, "Are you going to throw that thing or what?"

Beautiful Girl with Azaleas

Our Azalea bush is in bloom, so I thought it would make a nice backdrop for our beautiful girl. To get this shot I just had her sit, told her to stay, and took her Frisbee and held it up over my head while snapping away.

Freja Gets Her DHLPP

Today Freja received her last puppy DHLPP vaccination. DHLPP is a combined vaccine for Distemper, Hepatitis, Leptospirosis, Parainfluenza and Parvovirus. In a couple of days it will be more safe for her to visit public places without risk of infection with those diseases. I was particularly concerned about Parvo in part because Freja's first vet here thought she might have it, but also because I have now heard of two different instances of rescue puppies from the Southeastern US being brought to CT with Parvo.

Here are a few links to articles about the diseases DHLPP vaccinates against:

Distemper

Infectious Canine Hepatitis

Leptospirosis

Canine Parainfluenza, which is one of the most common causes of viral Kennel Cough

Canine Parvovirus

Freja and the real, live bunny

I often let Freja out the back door at night to go potty before bed and only step out onto the back steps myself. Freja is so good about staying in the yard and coming back when called that I haven't been putting her leash on her, but I have now learned that it would probably be smarter if I did.

Freja met her first real, live bunny the other night. It was 11pm and I opened the back door, stepped out and Freja followed me and then went down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs she stood, stacked staring ahead and I looked to see what had gotten her attention and saw the flash of a cottontail's fluffy tail as it leaped through the grass towards our neighbor's yard. Like a flash Freja was chasing the bunny, tail wagging and despite my attempts to call her back she could not resist the chase. I don't think Freja wanted to hurt the bunny. I think she wanted to play with it.

I had to trudge through the damp grass barefoot and wearing my pajamas to retrieve her from the neighbor's back yard. In any case, Freja will now be on her training lead when she goes out at night.

Frisbee Freja Pictures

This afternoon Rohan, Freja and I went out for some Frisbee fun out in the yard. I brought my camera, of course.

Freja fetching her hot pink Frisbee:



Freja in motion:



Freja's face mid-scratch:



Freja and Rohan:

Ex-Pen Escapee

This morning we had to go to the Mall, so after playing Frisbee in the back yard I gave Freja a few ice cubes and her Buster cube and put her in her exercise pen in the kitchen. Well... apparently I did not make sure that the bottom two hooks were clipped around both sides of the opening, because when we got home the first thing I noticed was a stick of wood on the den floor. I said to my husband, "What is that?!" And then Freja came bounding up to us and I said, "Oh no! How did she get out?!"

Freja and Halle appear to have been chasing each other around the house as things were knocked over and strewn about. Freja also chewed on a number of Rohan's toys that were left within her reach.

By the way, the stick of wood came from the fireplace hearth. She pulled it out of the hearth basket in the living room.