A LOT to catch up on (Now we'll see who's really paying attention)

Well, it has been very eventful around here, and that's why I haven't been posting so much.

Here's what's been happening. Nettie had some good working adventures when my parents visited for Andrew's birthday. We went up to Freeport and met Nina, our AC. We took Nettie and Kessler, who is about a month older than her, into the L.L. Bean flagship store for the first time. They were awesome! Both of them were so quiet and well-behaved. The biggest obstacle to working them was the number of employees and shoppers who kept coming up and complimenting them. We tried a Gentle Leader on Nettie and it made a huge difference for her. She still "takes notes" but I think it really helped her focus and not have to think about reacting to everything. She had begun to have some issues with pulling, so we wanted to nip that in the bud.

Nettie was, of course, very excited to meet my parents, but they couldn't believe how quickly she settled in and became calm in the house with them. Of course, they remembered Murphy's exuberance! We threw a birthday party for Andrew, with five 6-year-old friends visiting, so Nettie got to spend that Saturday with a sitter family in our area. She would NOT have liked to have been cooped up during the party, and she would not have been a good addition to the festivities. Why? This shot of playtime at my house gives a hint, I think.



I had several great outings planned for Miss Nettie last weekend, including a trip by ferry to Peaks Island, where we'd meet up with another raiser and her pup. Unfortunately, my girl had other ideas and went into her second heat last Friday. Argh! So instead we stuck close to home.

At least she can pose and look pretty in her jacket.....

Now, the other big thing that's been going on ... I alluded earlier to the fact that, much to our shock, Nettie won't go IFT until April or May.

The complication is that I'm pregnant, and the baby is due April 6! Which of course we are all thrilled about, even though it means that my puppy-raiser days are going to go on hiatus post-Nettie. What we're going to do is that Nina, our AC, and I will co-raise Nettie as of about December or so. We'll just see how much I can handle. The one big worry is that I probably won't want to be trying to handle Nettie in February, when it's icy and I'm 7 1/2 months along. I am not the world's most graceful human anyway, and that's asking to fall down. But we'll figure it all out. Nettie is actually over at Nina's house right now, as we're going to take a vacation for a few days. Nina has always adored Nettie, and Nettie loves going there. Nina has a release dog, Sal, who was released from GEB because he was going blind. (He's now totally blind.), and he and Nettie are great buds. I'm just so relieved Nina can help us out; I would have hated to just send MissNet off to NY and to someone I didn't know .. and we'll still have her a lot, too!

So .. did I live up to the headline?