June 2022

June 1, 2022 – Day 110

Gracie basking in the stream water as the temperature climbed toward 85 degrees today…

As recommended by the funny lady, Diane, I met earlier this week, Gracie and I went to a new dog park yesterday about 20 minutes away from my house. It has multiple places where she can run and swim. She loves it, and I expect it will be a frequent hang-out this summer!

Tomorrow is Gracie’s graduation from Beginner Puppy School! And we’re meeting Marci and Karen! So, I took her to a self-serve dog wash today for a much-needed bath! She was slightly traumatized by the sprayer and the noisy, heavy-duty blow dryer, but she emerged considerably cleaner and she’s smelling FAR better. (I came out of the dog wash, however, sorely in need of a shower.) Just hope Gracie can last for 24 hours staying out of the dirt! My neighbor, Bob, gave me some dog clippers to try out on her, so Gracie might get a spot trim tonight, too!

June 8, 2022 – Day 117

Yippee! Gracie graduated from Beginner Puppy School! Here’s her graduation picture! (The cap is on her head, but it’s a little bit difficult to see in the photo.)

The certificate shown in the picture announces that Gracie has SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED ALL THE REQUIREMENTS OF PUPPY EDUCATION at PetSmart!! Though, I have to say, there really weren’t any requirements to begin with except to show up for class. Nevertheless, how proud I am of my little Golden Noodle! And even Auntie Marci and Auntie Karen attended the “ceremony” to observe the pomp and circumstance!!

Here are a few more pictures of the occasion showing purple and blue-haired Jen (with Gracie) and the rest of Gracie’s fellow doggie graduates, Chip (white; very well-behaved), Dalia (black and brown; performed everything perfectly), and Poppy (black and white; crooked hat). Poppy is adorable, but fairly out-of-control. I think she graduated by the skin of her canine teeth, with Jen STRONGLY HINTING to her owners on her need for A LOT more training. Poppy was Gracie’s favorite friend in class.

Had a wonderful weekend visiting briefly with Karen and more extended time with Marci! Gracie LOVED getting to know her newest New Mexico relatives! On Sunday Gracie had her first city excursion – to the city of Baltimore – where we visited with Molly. It was a great day – getting a tour from the car of the Johns Hopkins campus (personally guided by Molly), as well as enjoying seafood and gelato on the harbor. Gracie tagged along, seemingly blissfully, taking it all in stride!

During her visit, Marci and I enjoyed lots of good eats, relaxed, caught up, and spent oodles of hours with my noodle in nearby dog parks! Gracie cuddling with Marci…

June 11, 2022

June 13, 2022

Gracie has already passed this test with flying colors!!

June 16, 2022

Yesterday Gracie turned 6 months old!! Happy half-year birthday, Gracie!!

Well, we’ve been on the road again!

Gracie and I had a fine visit with Mom over the past week. During our visit, Gracie’s behavior was – I’m trying to find the right word here – “taxing.” If I can manage to grow eyes in the back of my head, life will be easier.

Mom has a beautiful. large hand-woven rug in her living room that Gracie would not leave alone. Gracie wanted to pull on the fringe, tug at threads, and chew on the edges. I was constantly using the “leave it” command, pulling her away from it, and even locking her away in the bedroom. We even tried duct-taping the edges! Of course, that failed miserably. (How quickly I forgot how she peeled duct tape off of her pee pads.) Finally, one day, defeated, I rolled up the rug and put it away to make my life tolerable.

Mom and I were finally able to relax that evening, enjoying a glass of wine together. That is, until Gracie took a sip out of my wine glass while I had turned away for a mere split second.

Gracie also did a whole lot of “table surfing” at Mom’s. She stole countless napkins, drank water from plants, and sniffed for table crumbs. She chewed Mom’s wall, left stick debris all over the carpet, gnawed off the cover of a hardback book, and destroyed a bookmark (after she pulled it out of the place in the book I was reading). At least this time, when she dropped a dead bird (just the head), it was BEFORE we went inside.

I have to say, though, despite all this, believe it or not, Gracie’s overall conduct had IMPROVED since the last time at Mom’s!

Gracie has endeared herself to many of the residents at the Oaks. Here are pictures of Gracie with Mom and one of Gracie with Mom’s wonderful friend Linda. (Guess what OTHER animal Linda loves, besides the dog.)

Also, during our visit, I contacted Debra, who met Gracie and me several times first at Tudek Dog Park, then at Millbrook Park where Gracie could cool herself off in Spring Creek. When I left a voice mail for Debra, letting her know Gracie and I were in town, Debra’s voice-text translated my word “Gracie” to “greasy.” We had a good laugh about that – calling Gracie my “Greasy Noodle.” Here’s my greasy noodle playing with Rex (left) and Jonas (right) at Tudek.

June 19, 2022

I took my greasy noodle to the Teegarden Dog Park on Friday. (By the way, I just read about this park online and realized I’ve been totally misspelling the name of the park. It’s TEEgarden (like kids playing TEEBALL), not TEAgarden (NOT like having an English tea with your dog)!! Anyway, I was hoping we’d meet up with funny lady, Diane, who tells crazy stories, punctuated with sarcastic comments. Diane and Zeke WERE at the park, but we only saw them for a few minutes as she had to leave for an appointment. Her adult son was with her this time. As per Diane, “NOT the New York banker, son, but the political one.” She didn’t tell me his name. And the political son seems to be as quiet as Diane is loud.

When I recently asked Diane more about her dog Zeke’s breed mix, she rattled off about 10 different kinds and acerbically quipped, “ZEKE’S NOT ONE OF THOSE MAIN LINE FRU-FRU DOODLE DOGS.” I felt a bit insulted but realized maybe Diane didn’t know Gracie’s breed. I simply stated, “Gracie is a mini golden DOODLE.” Then, after a pause, giving her the benefit of the doubt, I explained I got a doodle because I needed a hypoallergenic dog. I watched Diane’s uncomfortable face sort of relax as she added, backtracking, “Well, of course, UNLESS it’s for health reasons.” HA! HA! Gotcha, Diane.

Diane has relayed stories to me about raising her sons, such as her hard-lined, no-nonsense interactions with her sons’ teachers (I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that!) and disciplining philosophies (i.e., “kids sometimes have to learn the hard way”). Diane has talked about a camp she ran in her backyard when her sons were growing up: Camp Di-Di. According to Diane, all the neighborhood kids LOVED it and begged their parents to allow them to go to CAMP DI-DI. Camp Di-Di??? Really?? If you heard that from your kid, would want to send them there??

Diane once told me she wouldn’t give me her address because I’d probably report her. I wonder what Diane’s reaction might be if I happen to mention to her that I’ve been writing about her.

Well, enough about Diane for now. This is about Gracie. Gracie is STILL in a major chewing stage. Despite my best efforts to control her, she’s pretty much destroying my carpet and takes ANY opportunity to grab a shoe from my closet and gnaw on it. It’s really annoying when I slip my foot into a wet, slobbery sandal.

June 20, 2022

Today’s entry is about dirt.

Last evening Gracie dug in my large potted plant in the hallway. She had previously left it untouched, but for some reason decided now was the time to wreck it. She threw the wet dirt from the pot onto my carpet and then she traipsed through it, leaving her paw prints everywhere. I found the plant itself in another part of my condo.

After discovering the mess, I spent the next hour or so cleaning it up. Then I was grimy and REALLY ready for a shower. Only to discover I had no hot water. Looks like my water heater went kaput. I should have predicted this, SINCE I’M GETTING A GUEST TOMORROW FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS. I took a very fast, lukewarm-at-best shower then spent all this morning on the phone with vendors getting estimates and lining up the WH replacement. FORTUNATELY, I’m getting a brand new WH first thing in the morning. And, fortunately, I had planned on replacing the WH later this year, anyway.

After all my calls to plumbers, I took Gracie to the dog park for her daily run. She jumped in the stream several times and then we ventured onto a baseball field where she gleefully rolled in the dirt WHILE SHE WAS STILL WET.

When we left the dog park, I took Gracie directly to Braxton’s to get a VERY MUCH NEEDED bath. The dirt poured off of her. (And, of course, some of it onto me.)

So, Gracie is clean; I am dirtier.

I hope the theme of my next update won’t be so filthy.

June 25, 2022

Over the past few days, Gracie was completely spoiled with attention by Jules, Tina, Michael, Philip, Nancy, and me while Jules was visiting. Some picts and videos…

Tina cuddling with Gracie: