Raising Emmy

Emmy's Training Going Well

2009-02-23T19:35:00.003-05:00

Bill and I received an email from Mike at Mid-Michigan Kennels with an update on Emmy's training! Emmy is doing very well or "WONDERFUL" as he put it. Emmy's brother Emu was also "career changed" from PAWS a few weeks ago and was moved to this same facility...so she's got another friend with her. Last week Emmy finished her "odor inprinting"...which I'm assuming means she's learning what explosives smell like. Then as of today she will begin "basic hides"...or finding the explosives in things when they are hidden.

We now know as well WHERE Emmy will be going...drumroll! She will be heading to Manila (in the Phillipines) to work in their airport. She will have her own handler, who will arrive in the U.S. on February 28th. He will work and train with her here for 4 weeks, before taking her back to Manila with him. She will then train with him there for 3-4 additional weeks and they will then certify as a team. She will then work with him on 747's, Airbus 330's and in the airport terminal areas about 6 days a week. These handlers spend a great deal of time on and off duty with their dogs and she will get lots of attention and love! That's all we could have hoped for.

Emmy's settled into her new home!

2009-01-30T08:14:00.002-05:00

We heard back from Mike at Mid-Michigan Kennels, Inc. yesterday, and Emmy is doing great. He said she has settled in nicely and sounds like he really likes her (he used "sweet girl" and "really nice dog" a bunch of times). Emmy will be training for explosives detection for an airline company. Her job will be to sniff out materials used to make explosives and sit so her handler knows it's there, they leave, and the bomb detection group then enters to handle the situation.

Mike said she's adapted well to being there. She's in training with 5 other labs right now. They get recess three times a day and she loves to play around in their yard.

He didn't mention how long her training will be...but he left us his email so we can follow up with him and get more updates as she progresses.

Emmy is Career Changed

2009-01-27T10:51:00.003-05:00

We received a call from PAWS this morning and Emmy has been career changed! As you saw in her January 15th update, the trainers at PAWS were working hard on her toy fixation...which they decided they weren't making progress on. Today, Emmy will be relocating to Mid-Michigan Kennels, Inc in Eaton Rapids, MI. There, she will work with Mike and his crew to train to be a detection dog. Mid-Michigan Kennel dogs have gone to work at places such as airports and even for Disney recently. Emmy will have an entrance exam today when she arrives and then will be training with them. We don't know much else right now, but will keep you updated as we hear things. The plus side to all of this is that we'll likely be able to visit Emmy if we want! Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers as we wait to see where Emmy will go!

First Update on Emmy

2009-01-14T19:46:00.002-05:00

Tonight I checked the PAWS site and they have the January 15th updates posted for the dogs in training. Below is Emmy's "report card" from her trainer:

"Emmy is working on learning to pay attention and also doing a lot of toy exchange (she brings me a toy and I give her one in exchange) to encourage her to interact with me when she is playing with her toys. She loves physical praise and petting and I use this to calm her if she gets excited. Her control greetings are very nice."

Can't say that we're surprised by any of the feedback. That sounds like our Emmy!

Update on Emmy's First Day at PAWS

2008-12-02T10:34:00.002-05:00

Good morning! We received word this morning from Julie at PAWS that Emmy did very well on her temperament test yesterday and that she is settling into the kennels well! YAY EMMY! So it sounds like all is going well for her...honestly this is probably a ton of fun for our little ball of energy!

On the home front, Bill and I are doing well...just takes time to adjust! Thank you all for your encouraging words. It's good to hear that no matter if this is your first or fifth foster puppy it is still hard...makes us not feel so bad for missing her a lot!

MAKE US PROUD EMMY! :)

Emmy is at college!

2008-12-01T11:12:00.007-05:00

TODAY'S MY BIG DAY!!!

Saying our goodbyes at home

"Let's go to college!!!"

One last picture in front of our building

Watching out the windows as we're driving to PAWS

"I love my mom!"

We arrived!!!

Julie takes Emmy to get her settled in

One last picture of the pup (she looks naked without all her tags and cape) before Julie gets her settled in. Bye Emmy! We love you!

This morning at 9am Bill and I took Emmy back to Paws With A Cause in Wayland to take her to college! Many, many tears have been shed in the past 24 hours but we thank you all for your kind and encouraging words to help us through this sad time. We said our good-byes here at home this morning (anticipating that our lovely, energetic pup would want nothing to do with hugs and kisses once we arrived at PAWS). She got very excited in the car when we pulled in...as usual as well. We met with Julie, the Foster Puppy Coordinator, who walked us through the steps of what Emmy will be doing. There were 8 puppies coming in today so Emmy will have lots of company...including two of her sisters: Emma and Elkie. This morning they were going to get Emmy all settled in with a bath and vet appointment and then this afternoon she will be taking her temperment test. We'll be able to call in tomorrow to see how she did and how her first night was. From then on, we'll have updates on the 15th of every month starting in January. Bill and I were both SHOCKED that Emmy actually was not all that rambunctious and behaved very well allowing us to give her one last kiss good-bye!

After that, we got a tour of the PAWS facilities to see where she will be training and living once she reaches Phase 3. As you can probably here in the video with Julie, Phase 1 and 2 will be about 10 weeks long with 2-3 trainers working with her during that time. Then Phase 3 can take anywhere from 6-9 months where she will work with yet another trainer on her client specific tasks.

It was definitely very strange and sad to come home afterwards. We spent the first little while putting away all the dog toys and things. We are not getting another PAWS dog right now because we are unsure of where we will end up once Bill graduates...so for now, we'll just have to get used to the quiet house.

We are so proud of Emmy she is such a wonderful dog. Cheeto and Marianne...thank you for bringing such a sweet pup into this world. This past year with her has definitely been full of ups and downs, but we wouldn't trade it for anything. Thank you to Amy and Julie at PAWS for walking us through this. Emmy is such a compassionate dog, willing to please anyone...as long as you'll rub her! She will be missed here in our house, but we are so excited for someone else to be blessed with such a precious gift!

We'll keep you updated as we hear more about her progress!

Last Day Home

2008-11-30T20:04:00.010-05:00

After church...

It snowed today!!! Emmy with her HUGE snowball we brought her!

Just the girls

"Oh Bob!"

Taking a snooze...

Today was spent together as Emmy's last day with us as a Foster Puppy. We had a pretty "typical" day which included going to church, and visiting with friends. Emmy did the best today that she has ever done in church. She has always done well, but we made it through the whole service without having to get up because she was fidgeting. Then we had our friends, Katy & JP over for lunch with their 6 week old daughter, Leila. Emmy was VERY curious when it came to Leila and she really wanted to help when Leila started crying. We enjoyed having them over and allowing Emmy the chance to be around more little ones!

We're having a good night just hanging out together and then first thing tomorrow morning we head off to PAWS! We'll post more tomorrow after we get home.

Thanksgiving in New York!

2008-11-29T20:58:00.009-05:00

Getting ready to head off to New York for Thanksgiving!

The drive was pretty tough as you can see....it...um...was really taxing on Emmy...as you can see! *note sarcasm*

Posing for a picture during our walk in the woods behind Amy's parent's house

In a "down-stay" at the health clinic during our visit

Having lunch with Teri at the health clinic

Learning more about the lab from grandma (we took a picture similar last time we visited but we lost it somehow!)

Visiting Aunt Betty in the nursing home (and we brought Amy's grandma too!)

Sitting in front of the nursing home fire place (if you look back to pictures from last December you'll see the change in Emmy's size from when we last posed here!!!)

Hanging out with grandpa...we had lots of fun playing!

Vacation can be exhausting! Taking a nap with grandma

Celebrating Emmy's last night in NY with some human Scooby Snacks w/ applesauce and Emmy under the table!

Headed back to Michigan...boy it was another long ride!

As you can tell, we had a great trip to New York for Thanksgiving. We're pretty much going to let the pictures and videos speak for themselves and all of our activities. We had so much fun visiting friends and family. It was wonderful to have a week-long vacation to spend together as a family and appreciate our last few days with Emmy before Monday comes. We just arrived home this evening, and are thankful to be done driving! We have a busy day tomorrow as we say a few more good-byes and spend time together, just the three of us. Then on Monday morning it's off to PAWS to bring Emmy back to college! We'll keep posting throughout the weekend, and also after we bring Emmy back...so stay tuned on her progress! :)

Good bye parties

2008-11-21T15:31:00.018-05:00

Emmy had a big day yesterday!!!! Since it is Emmy last time around Hope's campus with the students and staff around before she goes back to PAWS we had some "Farewell parties" for Emmy to say good bye and also thank you to all of you who have helped her in the beginning of her training for service work. Emmy's first party was at the Admission's Office where Amy works...

Everyone else has cake, so Emmy gets a peanut butter kong....

After that party Emmy got to eat dinner, take a short nap, and then all of her friends from around Hope's Campus and Western Seminary came over to Bill and Amy's to say good bye to their favorite dog. It was so exciting for Emmy, all of her favorite people came.

Emmy's best friend from Western Seminary Terika (at her going away party and her second day home)

My best friend Bobby, Bill's brother

Emmy and Jordan have been fast friends since this summer

Whew, it has been a long day...time for sleepy time.

December 1st

2008-11-08T15:44:00.002-05:00

This week PAWS Headquarters called to schedule the date for Emmy to return for her continued training. The date has been set for Monday, December 1st. We'll be taking Emmy home to New York with us for a nice week long vacation and when we return we'll take her back to PAWS. We're very sad that this day has come...but are definitely so proud of our little pup and are excited to see how she does in training. But until then, we're going to enjoy the most of our last month together! Please keep us in your prayers as we get closer to saying good-bye. And for those of you who have raised foster puppies before...any tips to help us cope?

Halloween and Fall

2008-11-04T16:57:00.008-05:00

Emmy and her best friend Jordan as a monster

Emmy all ready in her glow in the dark trick or treating shirt

Woah we have been busy, on Halloween Emmy went trick of treating at three of Hope's residence halls along with hundreds of members of the local community. Thank you to Cook, Dykstra, and Gilmore for letting us join all the kids celebrate Halloween together. Today Bill got out of class a little early and took the chance to go out and play in the leaves with Emmy. Emmy jump over in and around the leaves, but was far more interested in eating them than playing with them.

Trip to New York

2008-10-30T15:29:00.002-04:00

We got snow in the last few days we were there!

Visiting Teri @ the Health Clinic - getting ready to register some patients!

Learning all about how the lab works at the health clinic!

Out for a walk in the country with grandma!

Visiting Aunt Katherine's house!

Posing with Grandpa for a cute picture!

Watching some TV with Dawn (and later they fell asleep together!!!)

Playing in the leaves!

Emmy and Amy had a great trip to New York. Emmy did very well on the long car ride to New York (12 hours). She was such a trooper and slept most of the way. Once we got there she had a blast hanging out with Amy's parents (aka grandma and grandpa), sister, Amy's grandma, and visiting some of our friends and family. She also LOVED having more yard to run around. We picked a perfect time to go as all the leaves were falling off the trees and Emmy had a blast playing in them (see video below). We also had a little snow while we were there! We also were able to visit with lots of friends and family so we took a trip to see Aunt Katherine at her house and we visited grandma at work at the health center and got to have lunch with Teri there too. We definitely had a great time...and it was hard to leave...but we'll be back for Thanksgiving!

Going on a trip!

2008-10-19T20:59:00.004-04:00

Emmy's all packed up...she looks sad but don't be fooled...she'll be excited tomorrow morning when they leave!

As this is being written, Emmy and Amy are packing up and getting ready to head out on a girl's road trip. Amy has to go to New York on a recruiting trip for the Admissions Office and will have the opportunity to stay with her parents while she is out there for 10 days. We thought this would be a great opportunity for the McEwan's to spend some more time with Emmy before she heads back to training in a few months.

Also on a sad note, we received Emmy's final evaluations in the mail...or "the paperwork" as we call it. This is our last evaluation for Emmy and our chance to share everything with the PAWS trainers about Emmy's past year. Once we send those in, they will get back in touch with us to set a date to bring Emmy back in for her formal training. It's a very sad time for us but also we're very excited to see what she'll do! We'll keep you posted as we get more information!

Have a safe trip girls!

Halloween Party

2008-10-19T16:41:00.004-04:00

Emmy fashioning her costume

Griffin as Uncle Sam

Kieko as a dinosaur

This week, Emmy had a Halloween party at PAWS Headquarters. All the dogs came in costumes to celebrate the occasion. Emmy went as a college student with her little argyle sweater vest and a messenger bag. She was so cute. We had a little parade of the dogs in costume, a great dinner, and then we also took the dogs through "The Land of Leave-It's"...which was a little Halloween inspired room with things that may scare or tempt the dogs. Emmy did great!

Emmy's ACTUAL Birthday

2008-10-13T16:54:00.005-04:00

Today was Emmy's actual birthday! After such a huge celebration this weekend we just celebrated a little together as a family...which included us waking her up this morning with a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She's still trying to recover from all the excitement this weekend...that's what "old age" does to you! As a part of our little celebration we gave Emmy a peanut butter sandwich which was soooo YUMMY! Thanks to Purrs & Gurrs in Fishers, IN for making all of her wonderful birthday treats (www.purrsandgurrs.com).

Happy Birthday Emmy!!!

2008-10-13T12:56:00.014-04:00

Our little puppy is now one year old!!!! The weekend of her birthday we spent with Bill's parents, and before we celebrated Bill's brother's birthday Saturday celebrated Emmy's birthday, with a little puppy cake for her and everything. Emmy really liked the frosting, and that she got to play with Bill's Mom, Dad, and brothers (you guys are so much fun). Now that we are back home, Emmy is catching up on sleep from all the fetch, frisbee, and football that she played over the weekend with Bill's brothers.

Oh Bob, can I have the toy now? Look how good I am behaving...

I got it!!!! Emmy is great at catching, and flying through the air!!!

Emmy loves to watch airplanes

Hmmm, what is this, woah, that tastes good!!!!

Bye Bye Summer

2008-09-14T20:35:00.011-04:00

Summer brought lots of fun picnics, outings, and trips to other people's houses!

We even had our friend Duke over to visit...but playing got everyone really tired out!

Emmy also had her first experience swimming...she really liked pool life...such a privileged dog!

But most of all we just enjoyed spending time together!

We apologize for not updating the blog as often recently! We have been enjoying summer a little too much and not keeping you all updated on Emmy! Now that it's September, it's time to say good-bye to summer...and hello to a fun fall. And, we thought we'd recap a few of the fun things that Emmy did at the end of the summer and what's going on with us now!

Emmy has grown quite a bit even in the past month or so. She has really turned into quite a beautiful dog (but of course we're biased!). She is now weighing in just around 60 lbs. And we're pretty sure most of her growing is now done. Look at this gorgeous dog!

Emmy has continued doing lots of her usual outings to work, school, stores, etc. Toward the end of the summer we started bringing her to church with us on Sunday as well...including this morning! She has been doing quite well with it. The biggest struggle...is getting her to sit still and not army crawl under the pews to visit other people. We're sure that a lot of that will come with age. This morning after church, she was exhausted...which most of the outings still do!

Sleeping in the car on the way home from church.

What a sleepy dog!

Emmy also has a new friend that she has made! Bill and Amy's friends, Ray & Jenn, have a 1 yr. old, Jordan, who has become quite attached to Emmy. They love to play together...and Jordan has become so used to Emmy joining us at meal times with them (they live on campus too) that he always checks under the table to see if she is there!

Emmy, giving Jordan a good sniff to make sure he's ok to hang out with.

1 yr old + 11 month old dog = someone is bound to be blurry in every picture!

And as a last update...Emmy turned 11 months on Saturday! HAPPY 11 MONTHS "E" PUPPIES! To celebrate, we got Emmy some gourmet puppy cookies that were covered in yogurt! YUMMY!

Getting her 11 month birthday cookies!

Elkie comes for a visit

2008-09-07T21:32:00.000-04:00

This is Emmy's sister Elkie

Elkie sleeping with her blanket

Elkie and Bill and the football game

A few weeks ago, we did a puppy swap with Elkie who is one of Emmy's sisters! For three days, Elkie came to stay with us, while Emmy went to live with her parents. It certainly was fun to see what another dog is like and we had fun with Elkie. We could definitely see how dogs grow differently based on their surroundings. Being in a college residence hall, there is always noise of doors opening, people walking by, and we live near train tracks so that adds quite a bit too. Emmy has become so accustomed to it that we don't think about it much...but Elkie definitely noticed.

While Elkie was here we got a chance to go to a community picnic being held on Hope's campus and then we went to the first part of Hope's home football game! She did very well at the picnic and had a lot of fun!

Thanks for coming to stay with us Elkie!

New School Year

2008-09-02T21:40:00.000-04:00

Another school year has started which means that we have a whole new group of residents! Because of this, we held another "Meet Emmy night" so our new residents could meet our wonderful furry friend and also get all their questions answered about what training a Paws dog is like. We had a great turn out and Emmy loved meeting all of her new friends!

Welcome to College East!

Pool Party

2008-08-12T16:52:00.005-04:00

As a social outing for the foster puppies (and the owners) PAWS hosted a pool party for all the puppies in their yard. They had pools all over the place for the puppies to play in (see the video), and a potluck for all the owners. It was lots of fun for Emmy and for Bill and Amy as they watched their little girl splash and play with the other dogs. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, Emmy is heading in for her X-rays to determine if she is physically ok for service work on August 20th. We are hoping to hear that she has a clean bill of health!!!

Emmy and Emma her sister

Bobbing for treats

Emmy playing in her own pool (don't distract her she is focus on playing with those toys)

The life of a dog...

2008-08-02T10:12:00.008-04:00

To be a dog...

I like to color!

Splish, Splash in the sprinklers!

Lindsay & Josie (who is 4.5 lbs!)

Emmy & Josie learn to play together

Josie attempting to play with Emmy's big toys

A few days ago, we went to take Emmy out to the bathroom and we noticed that the sprinkler system was on...but one of them was broken causing an "Old Faithful"-like guiser to erupt on our front lawn. So what did Emmy decide to do? Play in the water of course! It was pretty cute to watch her running through the sprinklers all over the lawn.

Then later that day, Emmy had a visitor! Our friends Chris and Lindsay just got a King Charles Spaniel named Josie. Josie is still very young, but she also was the runt of the litter, so she'll be very small (max. 10 lbs) when she does grow. (To put that in relation to something else...when Emmy came home at 7 weeks old she was 12.5 lbs!). Anyway, Josie came over to meet Emmy and they did very well together. We weren't sure how it would go with such a difference in size of the dogs...but Emmy was very careful with Josie who had quite the brave little spirit! By the end of the night they were good friends..even sharing toys! Thanks for visiting Josie!

Dr. Emmy visits again!

2008-07-28T11:56:00.004-04:00

"Welcome to Holland Hospital....can I be your friend?"

Posing outside of the hospital

Emmy's cool Pet Therapy bandanna!

Dr. Emmy returned to the hospital today for another therapy dog session. This time, Amy was able to go along to see how well Emmy does. We were able to visit a few patients and Emmy enjoyed every minute of it. In fact, she seemed sad every time we went to leave a room because she had made herself right at home with each patient. She of course got lots of attention from nurses and other hospital staff. Probably her favorite spot was visiting the ladies at the welcome desk, because so many visitors and staff walked by and said "Hi!". Jillian, the Pet Therapy coordinator even gave Emmy a cool bandanna to keep for when she comes back again...and also as a souvenir of her trips to Holland Hospital! Thanks for letting us come visit Jillian! Check out our link on the right hand side for Holland Hospital's Healing Environment. There is even a link there for a story about their pet therapy program.

Dr. Emmy

2008-07-21T20:28:00.002-04:00

Emmy had a unique opportunity to play "doctor" today. This summer, Bill is interning part time with Holland Hospital as an Assistant Chaplain. While he has a variety of responsibilities in the hospital, Bill has also taken particular interest in the canine version of care...the Pet Therapy program. A few weeks ago, Bill shadowed the pet therapy coordinator to see what the pets do to care for patients in the hospital and after it all thought, "Emmy could do that!". Well, today she got just that chance. After Bill reported to the hospital this morning, he found out that they were short on therapy dogs coming in today and they had a backlog of requests for therapy pet visits throughout the hospital. When her heard their cry of need...Bill knew just the dog to step in..."Super Dog"....a.k.a. Dr. Emmy! He raced home to get her and brought her back where Emmy was able to visit with 6 patients of ranging ages. Emmy was AMAZING and was the perfect representative for Paws with a Cause! She was SUPER solid on her commands and the most touching thing of all...she knew exactly what to do to make each person feel better. Whether it be a sniff on the hand, or a nose rested on the bed...she brought a smile to the patients' faces...and of course there was lots of oooooo's and ahhhh's from the nurses station! Emmy was a hit! When she got home, Amy was already home for lunch and she ran in, tail waving high in the air with an attitude of, "MOOOOOOOOMMMM! Guess what I did today?!?! I WAS SO GOOD!!!" You could tell she was so proud of herself...it just brought tears to my eyes...and of course a great big peanut butter kong for Emmy too! GOOD JOB EMMY!

More summer fun!

2008-07-15T08:16:00.003-04:00

This past weekend Emmy continued to enjoy the perks of summer. On Sunday we took Emmy to church for the second week in a row. She did much better this week...even slept through part of the service! YAY! After church, we went over to a friend's house and they have Emmy's dream come true - another dog to play with, a fenced in yard....and... a swimming pool! Emmy spent the afternoon chasing their dog around, playing all over the yard and of course refining her swimming skills. Emmy conquered her fear of jumping into the water and fell in love with flopping into the water. She is quite the swimmer...and very fast! Of course she was also exhausted after all of this.

We also had a second round of hives this weekend with Emmy. Last weekend she got hives on her face and the vet thinks she ate a bug, such as a bee, that she was allergic to. Well, needless to say she did it again this past Friday night...this time we think it was a lightening bug. By Saturday morning she had hives all over her body and was quite itchy. A few more doses of Benadryl and she was all cleared up. Now we just have to figure out how to get her not to eat bugs!

I like swimming

2008-07-07T14:20:00.012-04:00

Well it has been a busy few days!!!! First Bill and Amy went to Chicago for their anniversary and Emmy went to spend a few days with her best friend Duke!!! If she wasn't tired enough already, then Bill's mom came to Holland for a few days, which was a great opportunity for Emmy to get petted and loved to her little heart's desire. Then for the finale we went to Bill's friend cottage at Gull Lake, and Emmy not only got to spend time running around the yard chasing ducks and geese, but Emmy had her first chance to swim!!!! You can see the videos, she was a little skeptical at first, but once she got in, she was clearly a natural!! She was all over the place splashing and chasing balls, it just gets me tired describing it all. To top off the weekend Emmy went to church on Sunday. Emmy was extremely well behaved and handled sitting still during church relatively well. The only issue is that sometimes she likes to sleep on her back upside down, and she rolled under a pew and began to scratch and tap the seats of those in front of Amy.....oooops, sorry. After church we went to a friend's house and Emmy met, Cooper, a 7 month old puppy who weights about 10lbs. Let's just say there was lots more running and play. Well after all that it is time for a nap for all of us, enjoy the pictures and videos.

What is it Lassie?

I love swimming

The First Dive

June Time Fun!

2008-06-23T21:17:00.005-04:00

Time out from fetch for a water break! Unfortunately, two heads don't both fit in that bowl!

Waiting patiently for Barb to throw the ball!

Everyone practices self control and waiting while Barb throws the ball

Emmy's most recent sleeping/hiding place...inside our closet! Silly pup!

Duke comes to stay for a weekend! Good thing there's enough lap to go around!

Sorry it's been so long since we've posted! The three of us have been enjoying the nice summer weather and using it as a opportunity to do lots of playing and having fun. It's pretty much been life as usual around here though. Emmy just weighed in last week at 53 lbs! YAY! She had been hovering around 50 lbs for so long that we never thought she'd take the leap into what's considered "adult" weight for her. She has really shot up in height the past few months and we think she's just starting another growth spurt which will hopefully help her fill out a little. We know she's growing, but we still think she's small compared to most dogs of her kind. We'll see...she may just be a petite one!

Now that it's summer, Emmy has had a lot of chances to go to work with Amy because the Admissions Office is definitely a lot quieter in the summer months. We set up Emmy's kennel in Amy's office so if there ever is a time when Emmy can't tag along we have a place to put her. Also too, as was the instance a few weeks ago...there are a few occasions when Emmy just isn't having a good day (a.k.a- she ate one of Amy's dress shoes while sitting nicely under the desk!) and needs a little time out. Everyone at work seems to really enjoy having her around and she's handled being in that setting really well.

We also have been spending time with our good friends' dog, Duke. One afternoon, Emmy and Duke had a playdate in the commons area of campus to play around and such. Emmy was a little sad because she had to be on her tie-out and Duke could run around freely but they adjusted pretty quickly. They sure love to play! Two weekends ago, Duke came to stay with us while his parents were out of town and so they both got to play with each other even more. The biggest adjustment has been for Duke actually because he is not used to Emmy being just about as big as him and she wasn't so strong last time they stayed together...so he was very tired by the time he went home.

This summer has also allowed Emmy to experience her first thunderstorm...which didn't really bother her at all. In fact she slept through most of it with no issues! Other than that, Emmy is up to the same old same old...but definitely more well behaved and more mellow than before- YAY for growing up (minus the fact that means that she gets closer and closer to leaving us for the next stage of training with every passing day)!

This week, Bill and Amy are headed to Chicago for their 1st wedding anniversary, and are leaving Emmy with Barb, Carl and Duke too (we have a lovely puppy exchange with them which is great!). She loves going to their house mainly because they have a fenced in yard that she can run free in...plus it doesn't hurt that Duke is there too!

Hope everyone is doing well! We promise we'll keep the updates coming more regularly!

Back to Chicago

2008-05-27T09:15:00.004-04:00

Look mom...I helped!

Bill's parent's new backyard!

This weekend found us back in Chicago for Memorial Day and to celebrate Bill's grandma's birthday. It was another beautiful weekend that allowed us to be outside planting, playing, and enjoying the long weekend. Emmy has been loving our trips to Chicago because of having a yard to play in...and lots of people around to give her lots of love. There was a lot to keep us busy and Emmy certainly tried to help! Saturday we spent a lot of time planting flowers, the Bill's parents had a part of their yard landscaped with trees and new sod. Of course it needs to be watered too...so Emmy decided to help Bill's dad. Well...help may not necessarily be the word. She decided to be like the grass and get watered too! Silly pup! I'm sure she enjoyed it though being it was a warm weekend in Chicago.

Now we're back home and Emmy seems to be pretty exhausted still this morning so I'm sure she'll sleep well. Her incision from surgery is healing very well and she is finally back to full activity now...yay! By the time the weekend rolled around she was mighty anxious to run around and play!

Emmy recovering from surgery

2008-05-20T16:34:00.004-04:00

Emmy & Amy snuggling/sleeping

Can't....keep.......eyes..........open..............

Thanks to those of you who have posted, emailed or called to check in on Emmy. For those that missed last post, Emmy got "fixed" Monday morning. Her surgery yesterday went well and she was able to come home in the late afternoon that same day. She of course was VERY groggy and we could tell she was pretty sore. She slept most of the evening except to eat a small dinner, which was good to see. Today she has more energy but is still pretty tired of course and you can tell she is restricting some of her movements to not make her incision hurt more. She is on a pain medication but only until tomorrow and her physical activity has been restricted until next week just to make sure she has time to heal. Thanks for all your "get well wishes".

Chicago- family, fun, and emergency vet visits

2008-05-19T10:35:00.006-04:00

Hanging out with the family at Bobby's birthday party.

Watching the guys play bean bags

Exhausted from a late night Friday

An entire lawn full of plush green grass...and she sleeps on the hard patio!

Another one of Emmy's usual "glamor shots"!

Tummy time! (below)

Exhausted from the weekend...boy does she look excited for what lies ahead today at the vet.

This weekend we went to Chicago to spend some time with Bill's family. Emmy and I headed out on Friday and met Bill, who was already there. We had great weather on Friday and Saturday, which Emmy loved because we were able to be outside a lot more. We brought Emmy's tie out and were able to hang out a lot in the backyard playing and relaxing. Friday night however, brought some issues as Emmy found a mushroon in the yard where an old tree stump is hidden underground. She got a piece of the mushroom apparently (Bill caught her in the area and rushed her away, but she must have snuck a piece of it without him seeing) which made her sick. We assumed mushrooms weren't good for dogs, but didn't realize the sickness they could cause until we looked online. In the process, Emmy vomited 3 time within 30 min. We of course were very concerned and didn't know how much mushroom she had injested, so we took her to an emergency vet close to Bill's parent's house. By the time we got there, Emmy was feeling better and we assume she had gotten it all out of her system. But, to be safe the vet gave her some activated charcoal to make sure that all the toxins were out of her body. She is now doing great...in fact she bounced back full swing the next day! We were definitely very scared Friday night though.

The rest of the weekend we spent still out in the yard (complete mushroom checks were done on the yard first) enjoying the sun. Saturday we also had a birthday party for Bill's brother Bob, so there was a bunch of family over in the afternoon. Emmy certainly loved the attention! We played lots of fetch and ran around with everyone. On Sunday afternoon we headed back to Michigan to recuperate from the long weekend- Emmy was exhausted!

Today Emmy is off to PAWS to get "fixed". We dropped her off this morning and will pick her up later this afternoon. We're assuming she'll be pretty sleepy and lethargic for the next few days because of that now!

Tulip-ed out!

2008-05-11T21:12:00.004-04:00

Earlier that Day we met Jim & Trudi VanderPloeg and their PAWS Foster Puppies- Griffin (left) and Aspen (right)

Hanging out at the parade - (from left to right) Amy's mom, Emmy (nose is the only thing visible), Amy, and Amy's grandma

Getting comfortable!

Watching the parade go by

Waiting for more ice cubes from Amy's mom
Standing up as flag passes by

*PHEW!* Parade is over...let's go HOME!

We concluded our Tulip Time Festivities with Amy's parents this weekend. Saturday we attended the Meijer Musikparade...basically a 2 hour long parade with over 50 bands, and equal numbers of floats and such. We brought Emmy and she did SO WELL! We were a little hesitant as to how it would all go as the first car of the parade was a police car and motorcycle who kept blasting their horns. Emmy was not a fan at all. Once that got by, she settled in between Amy and Amy's mom for most of the rest of the parade. She kept munching on treats, carrots, and ice cubes most of the time...and was happy as a clam. The only thing that caused her to get up was the drums from each passing band...but Emmy never barked...only sat up and looked with a very curious look. She also did very well with the crowds! After about an hour and a half, she needed a break, so we slipped away from the family to let her "break" and get some fresh air. When we got back to the parade, she finished in style and didn't let all the people climbing over her (seriously people...dog in cape= walk around!) bother her at all. We were so proud! When we returned home she of course got lots of love and her favorite frozen peanut butter kong. The rest of the weekend we enjoyed relaxing around the apartment- we're pretty exhausted from all the festivities this week!

Tulip Time

2008-05-09T15:44:00.006-04:00

Emmy & Bill taking a break during the festivities!

Welkom to Holland...WOOF!

Tour Guide Emmy showing the family around!

Getting some love from Grandma

"I'm EXHAUSTED!"

Emmy at the Dutch Dancing Expo

Amy's parents and grandmother are in town this week for a visit and to check out Tulip Time here in Holland. Tulip Time is an annual festival celebrating the Dutch heritage in Holland and of course, the TULIPS! Emmy has loved having the company around and also having a chance to tag along to many of the Tulip Time activities.

First on Thursday, we took Grandma for a tour around Hope's campus because she has never been to see where Bill and Amy went to college and now work. Emmy of course helped give the tour too and showed Grandma all of her stomping grounds! Then Thursday night we brought Emmy to check out the Dutch Dancing expo in Centennial Park (in downtown Holland). Dutch dancers from all of the local high schools circle the park (which is about 2 blocks long and 1 block wide) for a huge expo. We brought Emmy and she handled not only the crowds (and lots of other dogs) but also the dancing (those wooden shoes are quiet loud on the pavement) very well! Now she's EXHAUSTED! We'll keep you updated with more Tulip Time adventures (we're going to her first parade on Saturday)!

Bath Time & Workouts

2008-04-29T21:00:00.000-04:00

Summer is here!

Emmy had her first "big girl" bath the other day. She really hasn't been one for getting very dirty so we don't have to bath her that much. Granted, she still LOVES to hop into the bath tub and play with the water dripping from the faucet...but she has only had a few full baths in her lifetime. It was about time for one, so Emmy and mom climbed in the tub for a good ol' washing. Emmy did very well with it...but of course she wasn't the only one dripping wet by the end of it! Now she's all squeeky clean again!

It also is the end of the school year so all the students are moving out and going home for the summer. We will have a few students here for the summer as this is one of the buildings they use for summer housing, but it won't be full. While preparing for the students to leave, we decided to clean the storage room and we found "Work out Care Bear"...or that is at least what we call him. Anyway...it sings and does a "workout" with you...pretty much like Tickle Me Elmo. We tried it out on Emmy to see how effective the workout is...haha...actually we thought it would be a good test for her around Children's toys. Check out the third video!

Spring Fling

2008-04-25T22:16:00.002-04:00

Emmy visiting Bob at the dunking booth

We had a chance to enjoy the wonderful weather today and take Emmy to Hope's "Spring Fling" - basically a large carnival of sorts in the commons of campus. There was an inflatable obstacle course, jousting, a mechanical bull, concerts, BBQ's, and LOTS of college students! We started out by visiting Bill's brother, Bob, who was being targeted by his peers at the dunk tank. When Bill took his chance at dunking his little brother (yes that's correct...the older more responsible one tried...and succeeded in dunking his little brother) Emmy got really excited and wanted to play fetch with the oversized balls they had. The splashing and noise got her all in a dither and it took some cheese stick treats to get her to focus again. During a lull in the crowd, Emmy was able to go and visit Bob while he sat in the tank. Bob even spashed a little of the water on her, which was great being it was an 80 degree afternoon!

After that, we wandered over to "The Push" which is basically a shopping cart derby around the common area of campus. A bunch of students get involved and dress all crazy, make lots of noise, and push shopping carts around, while hundreds of other students line the sidewalks to cheer them on. Emmy and Amy met up with Aspen and Griffin (two other PAWS dogs being raised by Jim and Trudi VanderPloeg) at the starting line and watched The Push start. Emmy did very well on staying controlled and maintaining eye contact, especially when students started running past us to get to the next best "viewing spot".

We obviously received lots of attention at Spring Fling too because it's not every day that students see a dog...especially one as cute as Emmy (well ok, so Griffin being only a 9 week old black lab kinda takes the cake on cuteness...but Emmy is still pretty darn cute)! After walking back home, Emmy was pretty beat. In fact, she fell asleep in the kitchen right next to her water bowl (it probably would have taken too much energy to walk across the room to lay on her mat).

It was a great day! We're definitely excited for the nice weather and a chance to go out and about the town more.

Beautiful Weather

2008-04-18T22:47:00.005-04:00

We have had some AMAZING weather this week. Today the high was 73! Emmy has been loving this week because she's been able to go for longer walks and play outside on her tie-out in the afternoons with Bill. She has been exploring a lot as well, especially since she has never really seen much grass until this stage in her life...so she insists on smelling and exploring every inch of the lawn.

Tonight, Bill's brother Bob came over to play video games, and Emmy definitely enjoyed watching them play (see the videos!). She has been doing so good lately. She is in the midst of another growth spurt in which we're noticing her getting taller. In fact, just earlier today we caught her sticking her nose on the coffee table to see if she could snatch something off the table now that it's the same level as her head. When we caught her she looked like the cat who ate the canary!

Emmy is also just getting over her first cold! For about the past week, Emmy has had a running nose (especially in the morning and after lying down), sneezing, bloodshot eyes, and has been more sleepy than usual (hard to imagine!). We checked with the PAWS vet, and they didn't think it was anything more than just a common cold or even seasonal allergies (much like people!). We felt lucky though because just this week we found out that kennel cough is going around the area, and had hit a few of the PAWS dogs even...including some foster puppies. Luckily Emmy was not one of them. Thankfully, she's feeling much better now (I think the warm weather and sun had a lot to do with that!).

Happy 6 months E puppies!

2008-04-13T22:43:00.003-04:00

Today the E puppies are 6 months old! YAY!! Happy (1/2) Birthday to you! We celebrated today by upgrading some of Emmy's toys. Because of her age and weight (we went the vet just the other day...and she's just shy of 50 lbs!) some of her "puppy" stage toys are no longer appropriate for her to have...and many of them she's beginning to destroy. So, for her birthday we got Emmy a regular sized Kong (and she LOVES it because there is much more peanut butter in it!), a Galileo bone from Nylabone (Duke had one that she loved, so we got one just for her), and we tried out "Greenies" which are edible bone-like things (shaped like bright green toothbrushes) to help clean her teeth and give her fresh doggie breath (or at least as fresh as doggie breath can get!).

Puppy Class & Reunions

2008-04-02T22:29:00.000-04:00

Puppy Class @ Paws

Emmy & Emma (it's hard to get two puppies to sit still long enough for a photo!)

Emma (left in background) and Emmy (foreground) waiting for the beginning of class

The resemblance is uncanny! Emmy (left) and Emma (right)

Emmy & Bill train together during class

Today we went to puppy class which is always exciting, but today was especially exciting. First of all, Bill is done with church activities on Wednesday nights (at least for the summer), so now the three of us can go to puppy class instead of just Emmy and myself. Second, we were able to see several of Emmy's siblings- Emu, Elwood, and Emma! Emmy and Emma haven't seen each other in a while and they enjoyed being able to "catch up"! We can't get over how much the two of them look alike, especially since most of the rest of "E" puppies look different than each other. We were also early to class so we were able to take Emmy out to the fenced in play yard to let her run around. Boy does she like that!

Emmy is doing very well in classes. We have been working a lot on heeling and staying recently and Emmy is really picking up on it. We did have to laugh though. At one point we were asked to get the dogs excited by rubbing them, talking to them, etc to give them some physical love as an affirmation. Most of the dogs got really excited and jumpy...but Emmy...well, Emmy just loved the rubbing and actually just put her head down on Bill's knee and looked like she would fall asleep! Silly pup!

Emmy's Still Growing!

2008-04-01T22:21:00.002-04:00

Let sleeping pups lie!

Bill: "La,la,la..." Emmy: "woof,woof,woof...."

Yeah, um...I'm tired again.

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while since we've written. Honestly, we have been forgetting to bring our camera with us on adventures and such and then we forget to make posts to keep you all updated. Well...the biggest news...Emmy's still growing! Recently we have been looking back at our old pictures and realizing just how much Emmy has grown! You all probably notice it more being you don't see her everyday! Emmy has had a good time going for lots of walks (yay for nicer weather!) with Bill, visiting me at work, and just doing normal daily activities with us...oh yeah...and lots of sleeping! Here's some of the latest things we've caught her doing this month!

Duke visits for the weekend

2008-03-19T08:34:00.011-04:00

Emmy's new Zogoflex bone from West Paw Design!

Two tired pups!

Training time x 2!

Let's get him!

This past weekend Duke came to visit us, as his parents went away this time. Duke and Emmy certainly had a lot of fun together and were VERY active! Luckily we had some great weather so we were able to take them both for walks, play outside, etc. While both dogs are definitely very familiar with each other by now, they still were both fighting "only child syndrome". They were constantly playing give and take with each other's toys and both got a little fiesty with each other when they were tired and wanted some quiet time.

Duke has caught on, being the "older, wiser one", that Emmy just wants to do what ever he is doing or play with whatever he is playing with. Therefore, Duke learned that if he wanted the toy Emmy was playing with, he could bring her another toy, drop it in front of her so that she would start playing with that, and then he could grab the toy he wanted from her. It was like clockwork! But don't worry, Emmy was pretty smart too. She has learned that Duke LOVES playing fetch (we're pretty sure he would do it all day if he was allowed to) and would hardly ever allow her the chance to catch the ball (her legs are still just a little to short to out run him!). Therefore, Emmy started her own game of crowtching down (I think she thought he couldn't see her...) by us, waiting for Duke to run back with the ball, and then POUNCE! Because of this we nicknamed them both Simba (Emmy) and Mufasa (Duke) from The Lion King, because that's what they looked like!

Training time was also fun, because we had two dogs to work with. We caught some great pictures of them doing their commands together, which is great that Emmy was focused enough to do her commands with Duke right next to her (although it probably helped that Duke was doing them too!). This certainly made meal and bed times easier knowing that they would each still listen to commands so that we could do things in an orderly fashion!

Duke went home yesterday afternoon and I think both dogs are exhausted from the weekend's adventures. While they enjoy playing, I'm sure that they are both happy to have their parents to themselves and their own homes to play in. (Emmy had to search our entire apartment for Duke before she was satifsied that he was gone). Emmy did get a new toy though...a new bone that Barb and Carl brought back from their trip. It is from the company West Paw Design . Their toys are virtually indistructable and made from all recycled materials. Emmy has a Zogoflex bone which floats and bounces too. She just loves it and has been carrying it all over the place. Check out their website by clicking on their company name above! Barb also referred us to another company that makes great dog toys and I think they have a little mint in them that dogs find irrististable. They are Planet Dog .

Happy 5 months "E" Puppies!

2008-03-13T22:00:00.000-04:00

Just hangin' out!

The girls!

Look mom! I'm CUTE!

Snuggling with dad!

Happy 5 months to all the "E" Puppies! We've really enjoyed being able to see some of Emmy's siblings on CheetoBreeders' blog too! Boy are the puppies getting big. Emmy is doing very well and is growing like a weed! We have definitely entered the fun phase with her of being able to take her to many places and to have her know a lot of her commands. We've added some updated pictures and movies of what she's like- boy is she a snuggler! She loves to play with Bill and loves to snuggle with me! How fun!

Update

2008-03-09T20:02:00.010-04:00

Emmy making herself comfortable in our laundry

Training with Bill

Play time!

Emmy's new cape!

We realized the other day that it is the beginning of March and we haven't given everyone an update on Emmy recently! Emmy is doing great! All three of us have really slipped into a good rhythm together as a family and bringing Emmy to the various places we go is becoming more of second nature (and less of a fiasco!). Emmy is getting pretty big too! We're estimating that she's close to 40 lbs now...hardly the 12 lb puppy that came home in November. She's very active and is getting her commands down pretty well now. Because of the cold weather, Emmy has been playing more in the building than outside (plus we don't have a fenced in yard, so that makes outside play hard). Luckily our building has a LONG main hallway right outside our door, so Emmy loves to run up and down it playing fetch. We caught some videos tonight of her playing. I thought you'd all like to see what she can do...so there are a couple clips of that too (she got distracted in the first one when some people came out of an apartment...we had to "cut" filming and regroup).

This weekend, Hope College held their annual Dance Marathon. We went Friday night to check it out, and of course brought Miss Emmy. She was a hit from the moment she walked in the door. Within five minutes of being there we ran into one of the "Miracle Children" (Dance Marathon raises money for the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids and different Hope organizations dance/raise money for specific children who are patients at the hospital) who just got a PAWS dog, Buttons. Buttons is 5 1/2 years old and has been moved to this little girl after her first client passed away. They just received Buttons close to Valentine's Day and are now working to get certified with her. It was such an amazing time for us to meet a family first hand who has been touched by one of these dogs. We definitely are thankful for that reminder as we continue to get close to Emmy and love her with all of hearts- that we will one day be sad when she leaves us to go on for training and work...but she is going to help someone like that...and that is an amazing gift we can give!

Training for us is at a stand still as we are in a two week break between puppy class sessions. We've been making sure to spend a lot of time on training at home and using the extra free time to get more social outings in - including Best Buy, more Meijer runs, downtown Holland, Dance Marathon, a spaghetti supper fundraiser, and even some church events. At our last puppy class Emmy did get a new cape as her original one that she came home with was getting pretty snug. Now we have a nice new one that is quite roomy! Yay!

Another piece of big news on the Emmy front is that she is losing teeth...LIKE CRAZY! You all saw the posts when she started losing her front teeth, which have all fallen out and her adult teeth are in. But now she's losing everything from her canines back- on top and bottom. In the course of one week she's lost about 6 or 7 teeth! But, as fast as she is losing them, the new ones are coming in. We are definitely watching her food when she eats and trying to slow her down a little in eating everything so that we can make sure she is actually chewing her food. She seems to be doing well so far, and I think most of the puppy teeth are out now. She certainly has been a huge fan of ice cubes and frozen peanut butter kongs this week as you can imagine! Unlike her front teeth, we've either found or been able to dig out of her mouth most of these back teeth, so we have a nice little collection now. I guess the puppy tooth fairy needs to come soon!

Thank you all for your continued encouragement and support as we continue this adventure with Emmy. We are certainly loving every step of this journey (especially now that Emmy's house-broken and spring is around the corner!).

Tucker

2008-02-27T19:56:00.001-05:00

Emmy & Tucker playing

Emmy has come to work with me several times now for short spurts of time. One day a few weeks ago, there was another special guest at work too...Tucker. Tuck is the son of one of my co-workers and I was his babysitter when I was in college. Tuck loves dogs and just got a huge kick out of running around the office playing with Emmy. The few pictures I got are a little blurry but you can see they both were excited to have someone their own size to play with! Emmy even listened really well when Tucker gave her commands like "sit" and "down". Thanks Tuck!

Puppy Class at the Mall

2008-02-18T22:12:00.000-05:00

Emmy at Puppy Class

Some of the other Paws dogs resting after class

Stella and her raiser

Siren- one of the little dogs. Paws is now accepting donations of small breeds for hearing assistance. (Sorry the picture is so blurry)

Tonight Emmy and I went to puppy class at Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids. This was a great outing for the dogs and a chance to work on their skills with LOTS of distractions! Each puppy & raiser team was paired up with another puppy/raiser. Because I'm a new raiser, I was paired up with a veteran raiser and we had a scavenger hunt like list of things to do during class time. We went off in the mall to accomplish tasks such as: sitting in the food court with the dog in a down, having strangers pet the dog (that wasn't a hard one to accomplish!), sitting in the bookstore, standing by the escalator, riding an elevator, walking around the mall without pulling, walking near the children's play area, etc. Emmy did fairly well. She was on overload a little at first with all the commotion, but after a while she relaxed, got a little more tired and settled right in to what she needed to do. It was a great class and I was able to capture some pictures of this great PAWS dog outing...never thought I'd see so many teal and maroon capes in one area!

Emmy's Weekend Adventure

2008-02-17T14:18:00.003-05:00

Guest writer: Emmy

Friday afternoon Mom and Dad packed up my things – I was headed to Duke’s house for the weekend. I was surprised when Mom’s words got caught in her throat as she said, “See ya, Emmy, have a good weekend”. What? Was she leaving me? I hung out at the Admissions Office as Duke’s mom finished her workday… I rode home with her and to my surprise I rode “shotgun”. I was so excited I had trouble staying in the seat, but it was a quick ride to Duke’s house. When I arrived, I found he was there to greet me (along with Duke’s dad). He’s a big dog and he made it very clear, as I entered his yard, he’s boss – and I had better remember this or else I was in for a long weekend. I was excited and scared at the same time. This was the infamous PAWS dog that ingested 50 rocks and lived to tell about it. Well, he’s no longer a PAWS dog, so there would be less rules…. so I thought! WRONG! I’ve heard mom and dad tease by calling Duke’s house – “boot camp”. I’m not sure what they meant by this, as I actually had a lot of fun. I got to run around in Duke’s fenced in yard. And boy did I run. I actually can run faster than Duke and although he throws his weight around – I can now take him on. When Duke plays ball he totally ignores me – talk about being ball crazy –he has a major case of it. I don’t have a chance at getting the ball – so I run after Duke instead. I charge him with all my might – but he has a one-track mind. When he’s not playing ball – he’ll play with me - it’s pretty fun. One thing I didn’t like so much is Duke is pretty jealous of me, but he’s realizing that there’s enough love to go around for 2 dogs.

On Saturday, Duke’s mom and dad took me out for breakfast! I got to go and Duke was left behind. I guess it’s one of the advantages of being a PAWS puppy. I showed Duke’s dad all that I have learned. And he was pretty impressed. Mom and Dad would have been very proud of me! All sorts of people wanted to pet me – I liked being the center of attention. Saturday afternoon I took a long nap, as Duke went cross-country skiing. I take more naps because Duke and I play pretty hard when we’re outside. Saturday afternoon got pretty exciting… you see there’s a hot tub there. The routine for Duke is to play fetch by dropping the ball in the hot tub and then he fetches again. He could do this all day long if they let him. I got kind of bored because Duke doesn’t pay attention to me when he’s got the ball – so I turned my attention to the hot tub. I put my paws up on the edge – and the next thing I knew Duke’s dad was lifting me out – I had fallen in…my head and shoulders went under, but he saved me from totally falling in! My time outside was cut short – and Duke’s dad dried me off – and warmed me up. I’m sure grateful for a warm house and dinner at the end of the day.

Sunday we woke up to rain. Ickk! I liked playing in the snow better. Duke and I wrestled inside quite a bit – and he even let me “win” for a while. Duke’s mom got some video of us roughhousing in the living room. I like it when she calls me “wiggles”. I can’t help it I wiggle whenever she comes into the room. Duke’s a pretty good dog. He’s a bit set in his ways – but I think my winsome personality and good looks helped. I left his house no longer intimidated by his formidable reputation, knowing I have a new friend.

Puppy play time!!! (Listen at the end, the way they play will be explained)

Downtown, friends, and a new toy!!!

2008-02-09T14:19:00.000-05:00

This week has been fun and exciting for Emmy, Thursday and Friday night we had friends over for dinner, so Emmy had lots of friends to play with and social with. On Friday Emmy spent the afternoon with Amy at work, and after we went to the Outpost downtown who was having their end of winter sale we wanted to check out, and instead of fun things for us, we found a new toy for her!!! You can see her new friend below, which is loves to play with and thrash!!! Emmy has really latched onto this guy, as you can see in her video and pictures. This weekend we started with her first visit to Phelps Cafeteria, which again Emmy is surprising us with how well she watches and stays with us in busy social settings.

Emmy and her new toy!!

I love to chew on his rope hair!!!!!

Show no mercy!!!!

As you can see, this toy is lots of fun, a great way to get some aggression out for her...

So I met this BIG doggie the other day

2008-02-05T08:45:00.000-05:00

This weekend Emmy had an opportunity to go and meet Duke!!! Duke is a PAWS dog who had a career change, and is now a house pet. Duke is a 2 1/2 year old golden retriever, and is someone that Emmy is going to spend the weekend with in a few weeks when we are gone on a retreat. Emmy was not sure quite what to do with herself in the spacious yard, being it was her first time off of leash in a yard before. Emmy decided that it would be best to be Duke's shadow most of our time there, just following him around trying to figure him out, and get him to chase her and play with her. Needless to say after about an hour of running frantically in the snow with Duke, Emmy was exhausted and pretty much was groggy and sleeping on and off for the rest of the weekend.

If that was not enough Monday Emmy had lots of socialization. We went to three different offices on campus to visit people, and allow Bill to run some errands, then we went to the bank along with a few other stores. To finish off our voyage Emmy had her first chance to go to Cook cafeteria. Emmy did a great job just following us, and watching the students. Emmy is clearly a social dog, she loved just being able to watch the world go by and see all the fun at the cafeteria.

Amy and Bill with Emmy and Duke

Hmmmm....what do you smell like?

Freedom to roam, what shall I do with myself?

Will you be my friend?

2008-02-01T13:38:00.000-05:00

So last night was a HUGE night for Emmy to socialize and make new friends. Amy and Bill hosted a meet and greet event for Emmy in their building, where Emmy got to meet and play with about 25 people!!! Emmy did a great job being very excited. Emmy also loved just sitting on people's laps and being able to get loved and petted by 3-5 people at once!!! I guess Amy and I will be boring after that. Overall it was a great event for Emmy and the residents. It gave us a great chance to share with the residents about how they can help us to raise Emmy better.

Another one bites the dust...

2008-01-28T11:04:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I'm not going to post every time Emmy loses a tooth, but the first two are pretty exciting! Emmy lost another tooth tonight...the bottom front one that I predicted would be next. This time she was playing with her puppy kong on the floor and must have caught it on the carpet. After a short spurt of howling and squeeling, she wriggled free and the tooth was gone...yep she swallowed this one too! Silly dog! Apparently she hasn't heard of the tooth fairy before! Now Bill and I have been singing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..." to her! It's also pretty nice because when she goes to snap treats out of our fingers it doesn't hurt as much because it's all gums on the bottom.

Emmy seems pretty exhausted from the weekend. Saturday and today, she and Bill played in the snow a LOT! They had fun exploring the backyard of the building and all around the snowpiles from the apartment complexes. We took Emmy to the Kletz on Saturday too, which is Hope's little restaurant on campus. She did a good job...and really just seems to love sitting and watching people! It's great for us! On Saturday she also watched the Hope v. Calvin basketball game on tv. She didn't find it all that interesting except when I would yell at the TV every once in a while...then she would jolt awake! Poor pooch!

Lost: One tooth. If found, return to Emmy

2008-01-25T21:52:00.001-05:00

You guessed it...EMMY LOST HER FIRST TOOTH TODAY!!! We knew she was teething a lot but today we noticed a little blood on one of her stuffed toys. After some mild confusion on our part we came the realization Emmy probably lost a tooth. And sure enough...Emmy lost one of her bottom front teeth! We worked really hard to get her to sit still enough to take a picture...and we got two...look for the little red dot on her gums...there was a tooth there. Small I know, but that's where it was. We haven't found the tooth yet, we're guessing that she swallowed it. From what we can tell it looks like she'll be losing the other bottom front tooth pretty soon. For now she is still pounding down ice cubes and loving when she gets treated with a frozen peanut butter kong (pretty much a big peanut butter popsicle)!

Snow and Friends

2008-01-24T22:00:00.000-05:00

Emmy in her new favorite place

Playing fetch with Lindsay and Chris

"Pinned 'ya!"

Lindsay, Emmy & Chris

Today Emmy had lots of fun. Bill has no classes at the seminary on Thursdays so he can be home all day with Emmy...and boy did they have lots of fun. Over the past week and a half we have had A LOT of snow here in Holland. In fact, we have close to 2 1/2 feet of snow on the ground here right now! As you all know, Emmy loves snow...and this much snow is probably her favorite. Below is a video of her playing in it...look carefully, she pretty much get's lost in the snow!

Later tonight, our friends Lindsay and Chris came over to visit, and we of course had to make sure we entertained Emmy. Bill and Chris loved playing a game of monkey in the middle with Emmy which definitely tired her out. We also caught video of her doing what she does best...making noise with her squeeker ball. She gets so proud of herself for being able to make it squeek that she just walked around squeeking it all the time. So cute!

Emmy also has a new quirk of curling up in the bottom square of one of our shelving units. We're not sure why she likes to go there...maybe she likes the small space and being it's right outside her kennel and looks pretty similar she may also think she IS in her kennel. Regardless it's cute and she's not hurting anything.

With the weekend pretty much here, I'm sure we'll be adding more pictures and videos of Emmy's adventures in the snow as we're supposed to get warmer weather next week (high in the 40's!!!) so our snow will be melting soon!

Emmy's getting bigger!

2008-01-19T10:44:00.000-05:00

You compare! Above is Emmy on her first day home, and below is her today. And no, Bill didn't shrink!

So many people have been commenting on how big Emmy is getting and I guess I haven't realized it as much as I see her everyday. Yesterday, we took Emmy for her monthly check-up and shots. She weighed in at 26.1 lbs! Yep, she's getting a lot bigger, considering she weighed 11.5 when she arrived at PAWS on Nov. 26th! She is doing very well and the vet gave her a very clean bill of health!

Thursday, Bill returned home from his trip to Israel and Emmy and I went to meet him at Grand Rapids airport. This was Emmy's first trip to the airport and she did really well. There were a LOT of people at the airport, but she stayed pretty focused on me. She definitely was a main attraction though. I think just about every child in the airport started shouting at their parents, "LOOK A PUPPY!!!"...and many adults went "awwwww...look at the puppy!". Emmy the superstar didn't seem to mind. She stayed pretty focused on me the whole time...so much so that Bill was able to come up right behind her before she ever picked him out of the crowd! I was very impressed at her calm nature, as this was probably the adventure that put her around the most amount of people...with lots of bustling activity.

She certainly seems happy to have Bill home, but I can already see how the time with just the two of us was helpful in establishing me as another alpha in the family. Before Bill left, she would rarely come to me when called, if Bill was around. Now she can easily decern the difference between us and responds to be as consitantly as she does to Bill. YAY! Now we're just trying to get back into a normal routine as a family.

Happy 3 Months "E" puppies

2008-01-13T10:50:00.000-05:00

Today was the "E" litter's 3 month birthday! Boy how big they are getting! Today Emmy and I celebrated with just the two of us. She of course got some birthday presents, mainly to help make her mouth feel better as she continues to cut teeth. She got a Chilly Bone that is basically a reusable canvas bone that freezes (basically replicates the effects of an ice cube). She also got a treat capsule, that looks like a big rubber pill- but has holes on one end that treats come out of every once in a while...with streamers and bumps on the other end. Boy does she love that!

Bring your...dog...to work day?

2008-01-11T21:16:00.000-05:00

This afternoon, Emmy accompanied me to work. This was the first time she had been there in cape for the full time and in "work" mode plus this was the longest she had been there (4 hours). Her other visits had been shorter and at times when she could just wander around my office. But today we gave this a try instead and Emmy was WONDERFUL! She actually seemed to take her cape wearing duties quite seriously. She was very good about staying down by my feet while I was sitting at my desk, and was very willing to stay by my side as I walked around the office building for various things. She made quite the impression! I'm excited that this went well and look forward to being able to bring Emmy to work in that capacity much more in the future! Plus, it's even better because she's pretty tired tonight because of it! YAY!!!

Other than that, the two of us are doing pretty well. Emmy has been a trooper about having to be in her crate more being I am I work and Bill isn't here to take her out more frequently. I think we're both excited that it's the weekend and we'll be able to relax together for the next few days. Then we're in the home stretch until Bill comes home Thursday night. As of right now we're planning on meeting him at the airport, so that will be a fun new socialization event for Emmy too!

(P.S.- Sorry we don't have any pictures right now. Bill has the family camera in Israel with him!)

Just us girls!

2008-01-06T16:30:00.000-05:00

This afternoon Emmy and I saw Bill off at the seminary for his eleven day trip to Israel for a seminary trip. We had a fun time walking the 2 blocks to the seminary but Emmy managed to get totally muddy on the way so we had another mini bath when we got back just to clean up her belly and legs! Before doing that she looked like a chocolate lab on her lower half!

Emmy and I are doing pretty well together, but as I'm writing this I'm struggling to keep her from chewing on a box here in the office! Anyway...please keep Bill in your prayers for a safe trip and return home on the 17th!

Emmy's first bath

2008-01-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

Getting Ready for the Bath

All done!!!

Tonight Emmy had her first bath and first experience with a substantial amount of water. She did pretty well...not sure if she really enjoyed it however. Here are some cute pictures and videos though...

We're going home!

2008-01-02T21:42:00.000-05:00

Where to next?

Well, our journey/road trip has come to an end. The holidays are over and its time to go back home to Holland, MI and get back in our routine. As you can see, Emmy has done so well on this trip and she well exceeded what we were expecting from her. Way to go Emmy! Today, we packed our bags and headed home. Emmy has grown to love visiting the Flavin's in Chicago and I think was sad to leave...either that or she thought we were packing up and heading to a new place. Boy was she shocked when we arrived home in only two and a half hours instead of twelve!

Now we're home and getting settled in again. Emmy has very easily gotten back into her routine and actually we are excited at how much progress we seem to be making.

The next adventure you ask? Well, Bill will be leaving us for 10 days when he heads to Israel for a seminary trip on Sunday. Where's the adventure? Well, that is going to leave Emmy and Amy to their own devices! To see how we girls survive...keep tuned in!

P.S.- Thanks to all of you for your encouraging comments. We truly appreciate everyone staying so in tuned to our adventures with Emmy!

Ringing In 2008

2008-01-01T21:34:00.000-05:00

Emmy waking in time to count down to 2008

A not too awake Emmy in the wee hours of 2008

Bill's birthday party

Playing with Uncle Tom at the party

EXHAUSTED!

Emmy's last few days in Chicago didn't prove to be any less exciting. For New Year's we celebrated at Bill's parents house. Emmy struggled to stay awake until midnight but woke up in time to celebrate the coming of the new year (probably not by choice though...more by default being there were lots of fireworks and noisemakers throughout the neighborhood).

Then, on the 1st we celebrated Bill's birthday. Emmy got to see a good chunk of the family again but did even better this time about not being overly flustered by all the people. But, by the end of the party, Emmy was wiped out. It had been a long day and she literally took a sigh of relief and fell asleep on Amy's lap as the last guests walked out the door!

Now we're off to Chicago!

2007-12-29T11:59:00.000-05:00

An exhausted Emmy sleeps upside down in her crate! Silly puppy!

Now that our visit in New York is over, we are headed to Chicago to spend New Year's and Bill's birthday with his family in Chicago. Emmy did very well on the trip again...and actually slept even more on this trip...probably because she was tuckered out from our time in New York.

Christmas Day!

2007-12-25T11:38:00.000-05:00

Christmas Day!

Playing with frozen peanut butter kong at Amy's grandma's.

Play time!

Merry Christmas everyone! Today was another day filled with lots of excitement. This morning, Emmy got to be with the McEwan's as they opened presents on Christmas morning...and Emmy even got a few herself! Oh boy! Her favorite gift was a nice soft play mat that Amy's parents got for her (see video of Emmy opening it!). Later that day, we went to Amy's grandma's house to celebrate with the immediate family on the McEwan side. Emmy brought her play mat and her puppy kong filled with frozen peanut butter! What a treat!

Visit to Health Clinic

2007-12-24T11:32:00.000-05:00

Making quick friends with "Grandmom McEwan's" co-worker Teri!

At the lab with Amy. Emmy may very well see a place like this again once she's working!

EXHAUSTED!!!

Today Emmy paid a visit to St. Mary's Family Health Center, where Amy's mom works. We went and visited the girls in the lab, Teri and Taya to show they what a good future assistance dog Emmy is. Boy did she have a great time! While were were there we tried to weigh Emmy on the scale as many of you have been commenting on how big she is getting. From our rough estimates (boy what a wiggle worm she is on the scale!) she seemed to be around 20 pounds already!

After all the excitement of the past few days, Emmy had started not only to settle in at Amy's parents house, but also started to get tired out! So, we let Emmy have a more low key day, knowing that Christmas is coming tomorrow!

Nursing Home & Barn Vists

2007-12-23T11:13:00.000-05:00

"Super Dog" Emmy on her way to the Nursing Home to bring a smile to everyone's faces!

In the lobby of the Nursing Home by their pretty fire place and fake cat!

Out in the barn, ready to explore. This is Emmy with Amy's dad in the milk house.

Emmy quietly checking everything out. She's not so sure about those cows!

Emmy does eventually make friends with a baby calf...probably because they are much closer in size...

I mean...isn't this one huge from Emmy's perspective?

Today was another big day for Emmy. After church, we took Emmy to Palatine Nursing Home in Palatine Bridge, NY. We went there to visit Amy's great Aunt and Uncle. Emmy put on her cape and became "super dog" which makes her trot around all proud and such. The staff and patients and the nursing home adored her. She did a wonderful job greeting people and being calm. What a wonderful treat for them!

Later that day, Emmy went out to visit Amy's parent's barn where there were lots of things to explore- mainly COWS!!! Emmy first checked out the milk house where all the milk machines are. Then we ventured into a new world...the actual barn where Amy's parents have 24 younger cows (only 3 old enough to milk). Emmy got to meet all the different sized cows and decided that the newborn calves were the best. Big cows were definitely not her favorite! She also got to meet some barn cats, who weren't huge fans of her, much like the house cats. It was all a lot of fun!

Christmas Party and Snow playing

2007-12-22T11:02:00.000-05:00

At the Schwabrow Christmas

Playing in the snow

Today Amy's parents hosted a Christmas party for her mom's side of the family- the Schwabrows. Emmy enjoyed meeting lots of dog lovers and was definitely the life of the party. Earlier in the day, Emmy also got a chance to go out and play in all the snow. Being Amy's parents own a farm there was lots of yard and land to play on...plus they had over a foot of fluffy snow! Emmy had a blast and did really well all day. She really wants to play with the two cats but they don't seem to be very fond of Emmy. Oh well!

Emmy's Trip To New York

2007-12-21T10:58:00.000-05:00

Emmy did SOOOOOOO well on the 12 hour drive to New York. We used a travel crate that can collapse so it was easier to travel with. Emmy seemed to really like it and enjoyed sleeping most of the trip and playing in her kennel. She was teething quite a bit during the trip, so she definitely enjoyed it when we stopped in Syracuse, NY to get her a big ol' cup of ice! YAY!

First Road Trip

2007-12-19T08:22:00.002-05:00

Emmy with her kong "jack" from Bill's family

Emmy has a new puppy friend...and boy does she like him!

We LOVE snow!

Exhausted from a weekend in Chicago!

This weekend was Emmy's first road trip. We headed to Bill's parents to celebrate Christmas and be there for a family party. Emmy did a great job in the car, sleeping most of the trip. Once we got there not only did Bill and Amy get some gifts for Christmas, but Emmy got gifts from Bill's family. The big blue dog and the red jack were her gifts from Bill's brothers and parents, thanks guys, they are so much fun!!!! Also when we were in Chicago we got a foot of snow on Saturday night!!!! This was Emmy's first time to play in powdery snow, and she loved it. It was like watching a kid in a candy store. Emmy ran and jumped, of course ate lots of snow, but really just had a lot of fun. This week Emmy also had her first visit to the vet to get a few shots, and we receive comments from the vets that she was so well behaved and easy to work with. A few more days and we head East to Amy's parents and Emmy gets to try a 12 hours car ride....

Emmy Prepares to Travel

2007-12-14T08:34:00.000-05:00

Over Christmas, Emmy will become quite the traveller, with her first trip starting tonight. We will be headed to Chicago (near where Emmy was born!) to Bill's parents house in Palos Heights, IL for a family Christmas party on Saturday. Emmy will get to meet a whole lot of people during that time...but we have a suspiscion that she will love it!

Next week, we're leaving Michigan to spend Christmas with Amy's family in upstate New York. It will be about a 12 hour car ride to get to New York...so that will definitly be an adventure for all three of us! After Christmas, we'll head out from New York and straight to Chicago for New Years with Bill's family...and then back to Michigan! WHEW!!! Emmy will definitly have the whole car travel thing down by the end of the holidays! We are so excited for her to meet our families as well...and they seem to be excited too!

We cannot believe how big Emmy is getting! She's pretty much growing before our very eyes! Her adult fur has started to come in along her spine...boy are we going to miss that puppy fuzz! She's been working really hard on her commands and has been exceeding our expectations. Probably one of her favorite games is the kennel game in which we throw her food/treats into the back of her kennel and then praise/cheer/say "yes" when she goes in the kennel. If nothing else I think she gets a kick out of us making fools of ourselves!

On Wednesday, Emmy spent 3 hours at work with me in the Admissions ofice. She did a pretty good job (definitly much more controlled then in past trips), but she wasn't too thrilled when I had to do some phoning. So, she ended up spending some time with Barb downstairs in her office. She did very well listening and Barb just loved her of course because she misses the puppy stages.

Marianne has also posted on CheetoBreeder's blog that they have made a calendar of Cheeto's two litters- the O's and the E's. And, our little Emmy is the cover girl! We of course have ordered the calendar and matching notecards! When the calendars are purchased, $2 of the proceeds go directly to PAWS! Here is the website: http://www.cafepress.com/cheetopups Enjoy!

Lots of Socialization Today!

2007-12-09T18:38:00.000-05:00

Today was a preety busy day for Emmy. This afternoon, Amy invited the Admissions Tour Guides over for a study break (they are getting ready for finals this week) and a few came to visit Emmy and play. Then, Emmy went on her first "official outing" off of Hope's campus. We needed to pick up some things from Walgreens to Emmy went with us! We weren't there very long, but she did very well! And, she certainly did attract some attention! But then again, how often do you see a dog at Walgreens? After dinner, Bill's brother, Bobby stopped by to play and let Emmy release some energy...and well...she had a lot of energy to get rid of (see video!).

Emmy has been doing so well for us...she's getting less "mouthy" with both Bill and Amy and she is responding to her name about 85% of the time. We've also got "sit" pretty strong, but "down" is a bit of a struggle still but we're expecting that (all of these without verbal commands of course).We have also included a little clip of what "tummy time" looks like for Emmy...it is very calming for her although she tried really hard to wiggle out of this session.

More visitors!

2007-12-06T22:03:00.000-05:00

Today Emmy was visited by our puppy mentor, Deb. Deb had such a fun time meeting Emmy and she taught us so many things! We were so impressed with all of the things that Emmy can do when she puts her mind to it. Deb taught us a lot more about "down", "heel", and even "leave it"...which Emmy thought was a very fun game by the way. Honestly, we learned that we can be even stronger in telling her "NO" and how to control her biting of everything under the sun. Thanks Deb for all your insight!

A little while after that Emmy and Amy went to visit our friends the Fritz's. Their son, Tucker, just recently lost his dog, Bardy and we knew this would be a welcomed treat of puppy love. Tucker was SO surprised and just LOVED Emmy to pieces. Emmy was most thankful for someone closer to her size! Unfortunately, we left our camera at home, so we didn't get any pictures of the two of them playing...but we promised many more visits in the future! It was so wonderful to put such a joyful smile on Tuck's face! Emmy was so exhausted from all the excitement that she fell asleep in the car before we'd even pulled out of their driveway!

First Puppy Class

2007-12-05T22:30:00.000-05:00

Emmy's sister, Emma (hard not to confuse them I know!) sitting very well!

Emmy working with Amy on sits

Tonight Emmy and Amy attended their first puppy class at PAWS. Emmy did...well...ok. Actually she did great...she's almost 8 weeks old...what can you expect from here but enthusiasm for her siblings and wanting to put everything in her mouth. We learned more about eye contact, name recognition, sitting, downs, and a little about heeling. We also got to meet lots of other puppies who are in all different stages of the program. We'll have a few weeks off due to the holidays and then head back to class in the beginning of January. By then Emmy will have grown so much and will hopefully know her name a little better! Here are some pictures of Emmy and her sister Emma at class!

Snow and Christmas parties

2007-12-05T08:10:00.000-05:00

Emmy has almost been with us one week already!!!! It has been so much fun to watch how much she has grown and is adapting in this first week. Emmy is quickly learning her name when called, she is able to respond to a command to sit when she is inspired (often when she is hungry). Since her second night home Emmy has been sleeping through the night each day with no complaining or other issues. Tonight is her first night at puppy classes, so it will be an adventure.

Last night was the building Christmas party and Emmy had a chance to meet lots of people!!! She clearly was the guest of honor at the party, or at least the one that everyone wanted to interact with. Now that the party is over she now has some more apartment to explore with all the presents out. She LOVES the snow, it is clearly a highlight of her day to go out and romp in the snow, and of course if we romp in the snow we might get to meet new people, which is clearly something that Emmy loves to do.

First Taste of Snow

2007-12-01T17:47:00.000-05:00

Emmy slept through last night with only one potty trip at 4:30am. She seems to be adjusting very quickly...at least we hope! Today, she had a pretty laid back day which was wonderful for her. She mainly slept and played while Bill worked on some homework. You'll see a video below of her playing with her first Christmas present from Amy's friend/colleague, & former PAWS Raiser, Barb Miller (Collen & Duke were her puppies).

This afternoon, Amy brought Emmy to the last session of a Hope Visit Day. It was a small group mingle session and Emmy did very well. She wore her cape and did a pretty good job at controlled greetings. The hardest part was not jumping on people, but she learned very quickly. After about 30 min of that, she passed out while Amy finished talking with families. She did a great job on her first official outing as a "Future Assistance Dog".

Tonight, Emmy experienced her first snowfall too! She wasn't quite sure what to think of that frozen stuff...but like any good dog, she put it in her mouth to find out what it's all about! The only problem is, she got really cold outside and was shivering...so we had to do some warming up- which she didn't seem to mind at all.

Emmy is still not eating a ton- still eating less than 1/2 cup meals 3 times a day. We're continuing to do a mixture of hand-feeding and eating out of the bowl...but she seems to lose interest in the food before she's done. Hopefully as she gets more familiar with us and her new home she'll get better about eating more.

Coffee Table Sleeper?

2007-11-30T21:05:00.000-05:00

Emmy seems to have quickly found her favorite spot in the house...the ledge under the coffee table. She especially likes to curl up in there for a little mid-day siesta. Sadly the day will come quickly when she finds she can't fit in there anymore!

Emmy's First Day Out

2007-11-30T20:46:00.000-05:00

Sleeping at the Admissions Office

Just keeping Bill's seat warm while he runs an errand.

Playtime with Terika

Naptime under the coffee table

After a long night (Emmy wasn't the biggest fan of being with her siblings...and having to be in a crate) Emmy had a much better day. This morning she visited Amy at work. Amy is an Admissions Representative for Hope College, and Emmy sure did a good job of "recruiting" lots of attention...that is until she passed out in Amy's office. After some recuperating, Emmy went to visit the Student Development staff at Hope as well with Bill. Tonight, some of Bill's friends from seminary came over to visit Emmy...she enjoyed playing with them! In playing with Emmy we also discovered that she really enjoys watching tv....check out the video!

Ms. Purple is Emmy!

2007-11-29T17:10:00.000-05:00

Today at 1pm we picked up Emmy from PAWS in Wayland. They brought the puppies in in a little crib on wheels...except that most of the puppies found out they could escape through the bars so they all came running. Ms. Purple found us quickly and it turns out that is Emmy! She is so precious and certainly full of a lot of energy! We had a quick obedience lesson of how to work on eye contact and "tummy time". Let's just say that Emmy was not the most attentive student in the class. But, after that we jumped in the car and after some exploring, Emmy was out like a light! Now we're home and we've had a few trips to the bathroom, found a new chew rope that she loves, and right now she's passed out on the floor.

Waiting For Emmy

2007-11-13T14:20:00.000-05:00

We're a little over 2 weeks away from Emmy's arrival and we're so excited! Today we got word of a blog created by the breeder about Emmy's mom, Cheeto. We don't know which puppy is Emmy yet, but feel free to check out the cute "E" litter...and how much they've grown already! http://cheetobreeder.blogspot.com/