What a difference a week can make.  Since last Sunday when we played monkey-in-the-middle with Toby, we have been playing tag or ball each day and faithfully walking him with the Gentle Leader we got from our vet. It has made a tremendous difference in him and today for the best part of the day he has had the run of the house without going crazy and eating it!  I think we have turned a corner. Our vet keeps telling me, "Don't give up on him Elaine, I think he's gonna be a super guy, just needs to grow some." I hope she is right because when he is being good he is so sweet.

I bought a snail to help clean the fish tank and he scared me to death the other day. The top to the tank was up and he crawled right out, crawled around on the counter for a while and fell to the floor. Toby found him and was playing toss up!  Luckily he has a really gentle mouth and didn't bite him. I picked him up and put him back in the tank thinking for sure he was dead.  He never moved for about 6 hours and then in the evening he started to climb the tank again.  Praise the Lord, Frank is alive!! We are very, very careful to keep the lid down now for our Houdini.

Well the joke is on me. Toby is now 4 1/2 months old and he is 48 pounds. What am I going to end up with. It wouldn't be so bad except he is sooooo bull-headed and only listens if he feels like it. He is so strong that I can hardly hold on to him sometimes.  Other times he is an angel and just listens to everything.  Go figure; I don't know quite what to do with him.  We are having him fixed on July 7 and he is losing some of those nasty needle baby teeth, so maybe there is hope. I sure hope so, or it will be a long 12 or 13 years. We probably should have taken the female. My mistake for not listening to my instincts.

I was just re-reading this and it sound like I don't love him, which isn't true. I really do love him, but sometimes just get so discouraged.  Since I wrote this, Gabe and I took him out and played Monkey-in-the-middle with two tennis balls with him and he had a great time. He ran back and forth as we threw the one ball and the whole time had the other tennis ball in his mouth!  Silly guy.

We went on our first camping trip of the season last weekend. Went up to Burt Lake and it was beautiful weather.  Toby was pretty good considering he didn't have a clue as to what was going on.  It should get easier as he gets older, I hope. He did sleep in his crate, except for the last night and it got too hot for him.

Summer has come to the North Country.  We have the garden in and are getting ready for our first camping trip of the season.  Love it! The zucchini is already broken through and our tomatoes never missed a beat with being transplanted. They are really growing with this heat.
 Toby is growing like crazy too. We have started walking him out on the street now that he has had the last of his puppy shots.  Boy he really has a hard time with them.  Had a bad tummy and digestion for about 4 days after. He was 33 pounds at his last visit. He still hasn't grown into all that extra skin or his big feet!

We got the green house up, so now we can go get some tomatoes and other plants. We put it on the patio this year and put the table and chairs on the deck.  I think I really like it a lot better. The patio is beautiful, but the rocks are so uneven it was hard to find a spot where the chairs were even.

Took Toby to the vet this morning. We put the crate in the back of the car. No more holding him on my lap!  He is just too strong and won't sit still.

Silly Toby is fascinated with the dishwasher.  I have all I can do to get it loaded with him around "helping".
Then when it is time to unload the clean dishes, he either has to go outside with Daddy or into his crate. Call me picky, but I don't want all those puppy kisses on the clean silverware!  LOL

He is really missing Teagan this week. They have become really good friends.  She blows bubbles for him and he tries to catch them. Then at meal time she likes to hold his bowl for him. Last week I told her Teagan you can't keep helping him eat, because Nana doesn't want to sit on the floor and feed him while you are on vacation in Washington! So the poor little guy is on his own at mealtime this week.

Betsy, Jeff and Teagan left for Washington State on Friday. We have Sage here with us and she has been so upset. She finally ate some food this afternoon. I was ready to go buy some hamburger and make her hamburger and rice to see if that would help, but  when I added a lot of canned food to it she finally ate some lunch and then at dinnertime she had more.  What a worry. I was afraid she was going to get sick.

The weather has finally warmed up and we brought the camper home.  I will get it stocked this week and maybe we can go next weekend or the one after if the weather is good!

Toby is doing wonderful. He is thrilled to be able to get outside in the yard without a leash, although I do still put a leash on him to go potty when I want him to come right back in. We are still working on "come" and don't have it down real good yet. Jen was over today and said she couldn't get over how much he has grown in just the last week.

Having a rather rough week. Toby got his next batch of shots and they really have bothered him. His poor tummy and intestinal track and my poor floor!  Gabe hurt his arm raking and now has cellulitis and it is so itchy and nasty. Going to have to go back to the Dr. tomorrow.

One good thing, my new laptop came and it is fun. Not sure what I think of the new window 8.1. Oh well, I will learn.

I joined the Master Scrapper challenge at Gotta Pixel.  Should be fun.  I had a great time doing it last year.

Spring has finally arrived in the North!  The grass is starting to green up a bit and the daffodils and tulips are peeking up through the barely unthawed ground. Most of the snow is gone in the backyard, although we do still have a couple of hills where the boys shoveled off the roof.  I can't wait to get the camper home and start restocking it.

Toby is growing like a weed and is doing so good. Going to have to invest in a new bed soon. He learns so fast. After the next set of shots I think we will be safe to take him for walks and teach him to follow and walk beside us. I am going to run up and get a new harness for him that will be for walking to protect his neck. We had really injured Maggie's neck with letting her pull too hard walking. I don't want to make that same mistake again.

He really likes his new crate. It is so great to be able to lock him in when we run uptown and know he is safe (and so is the house!).

We have had Toby for two weeks and he is doing just wonderful. Everyone that comes in is just crazy about him and so are we.  He is so smart and such a pleasant little guy. He is pretty well housebroken with only the occasional accident. I am so glad we got him. I still miss my Maggie like crazy and probably always will, but he sure softens the pain.

Teagan only has one month of school left. They are out the middle of May. She has done really good & is starting to enjoy going. It has taken her most of the year to be happy about it.  Next year she will be in preschool 4 and it is mornings - 4 days a week. Should be good for her.  She and Grace are starting to really get along together without competition and fights. It is so nice!. They are both growing.

Toby is having a wonderful time on the snowbanks outside the back door. We take him out to go potty and he climbs like a little mountain goat. He also figures he needs to hold his leash in his mouth. He just cracks me up. He is sleeping the night through without any messes and waits until he hears somebody get up before he says anything. I am slowly switching him over to Blue Buffalo food and he is loving it.  It is expensive, but with his heart murmur, I thought he should have the best one we could find. Just love this baby boy.

Amazingly enough we have had Toby for 6 days and this morning I woke up on my own at 6:30 and thought, oh my gosh, I'll bet the kitchen is a mess. He didn't wake us up all night. When I got out there, there were no messes or puddles anywhere and he was awake playing with a stuffed toy.  I couldn't believe it at 8 1/2 weeks old. What a good puppy he is. It just blew my mind. I took him right out and he went potty and then came in so proud of himself. It was so cute. The picture is of him sleeping with his wee elephant just before I went to bed at 11.

We went to the vet today for his first check up here. The heart murmur is no better, actually a grade 3 up from a grade 2, but our dear Dr. Tuck thinks we may still be OK. He is growing so fast. Has gained 6 pounds from his last vet appointment.
He is so silly, He squeezes under the rungs of the stool at the counter to eat his treats!  Silly dog.

Well today was puppy day. After church Gabe and I went to Alpena. I could hardly eat lunch, I was so anxious to get to Jeff's and pick our guy up.  They are just the greatest people. Couldn't believe what a start they gave those puppies. They had him all ready for us. He did really good on the way home. Didn't cry much and never got car sick or messed. We've decided to call him Toby. With his little polka dot face it just seems to suit him. What an exciting day.

Here I am once again not having posted in months.  It has been really hard losing Maggie. I don't think it would have been so bad, except that we had to have her put down.  It was so so terrible. She was such a special little thing. We still have 2 1/2 feet of snow in the backyard and it has been so cold. Maybe once the weather breaks things will get better.

Now on to good news. I am getting another dog. It is another Brittany, only its a male and he is orange and white.  We haven't named him yet, thought we'd wait until we pick him up and see "who" he looks like. We really like the names Quinn, Murphy and Toby. But you never know we might come up with something completely different once we have him home. This photo was from March 13.