On 25 August, an update on SISSY . . .

. . . now known as RUBY. Her best bud is a Cairn puppy named Scooter.

SISSY is doing great! She was so afraid of everything when we first got her that we knew why someone named her SISSY! Soo we renamed her RUBY for her beautiful red coat (even though she is truly a SISSY!) She responds to RUBY and is growing more confident every day.

Right away we started taking her for two daily walks. The first walk, about two blocks, took thirty minutes because she froze at every new sound. Now she walks for thirty minutes at a good clip, walks on wet sidewalks, ignores all the usual enviromental sounds, and even pees and sniffs like most dogs do on a walk. RUBY goes to the dogpark several times a week, and is very well socialized with the other dogs.

We were so lucky that she was basically housebroken and has only had a few accidents. The puppy, a Cairn Terrier named Scooter is RUBY's best bud. We only wish he was housebroken but he is only 4-1/2 months old and he has a way to go.

We are trying to figure out how to RUBY clipped and washed. She is so afraid of water, falling in the pool didn't help! But we jumped in to save her. We are hoping that seeing Scooter swim in the pool will help her not to be afraid of water.

She finally let me brush her. She ran everytime she saw The Brush. We put The Brush in our family room on the floor. She would jump and bark at it. Scooter picked it up one day and chased RUBY for five minutes with the brush in his mouth.

Our vet said he thought RUBY was around eight months old. He said it didn't look like she had gone into heat yet.

We are so happy to have found RUBY. She is very sweet and loving.

And on 26 August, an update from Melissa in Phoenix:

ONYX spent most of his time IN the house today. Ted & I thought we'd pull a fast one on him and closed the gate between the kitchen and living room and brought in a crate. I put his dinner in the crate, but he cried and barked because the crate moved when he tried to get dinner, so I put his bowl outside it and he ate like there was no tomorrow.

A few minutes ago, I opened the gate and he & Cash & Susie are still sound asleep in front of the fan. Then I went into the kitchen and found Lizzie & SHADOW in the breakfast nook. SHADOW woke up and wandered into the kitchen while I was in the refrigerator getting another glass of wine. Maybe tomorrow . . .

They're both such NICE dogs that it breaks my heart to see them so afraid.

GINGER is living the Lush Life, according to this report from Ted & Teresa on 26 August:

Are we there yet, huh, huh????

Isn't GINGER just beautiful? Picture of her in the backseat of the car saying let's go, and the others are along the Central CA coast.

GINGER is learning down stay in class and the teacher used her as an example, he actual had her in a down stay and dropped the leash and walked away. I almost had a heart attack as I would never drop the lead but as he explained she must be trained in case she ever gets loose.

I swear she is sweet and smart! As always our gratitude.

On 30 August, Melissa reports on ONYX & SHADOW:

Last night we had either a major breakthrough or a minor anomaly.

ONYX was in the living room, snoozing gently, so I got down on the floor (with some difficulty, I admit) and inched toward him. He woke up, wagged his tail and rolled over about ten degrees and lifted his hind leg about two inches. So I started to pet him and ruffle his hair. He finally realized what was going on and decided not to give in, so he got up but didn't move away. I put my arms around him and started to runkle him up one side and down the other, then scritch the ears and cheeks and he started to moan.

After some two minutes, I let him go, didn't try to stop him. He went directly into the back yard to think it all over.

This morning he won't let me pet him. He's probably pissed with himself for showing what a loving patsy he really is.

We'll see how it goes. Next in line is SHADOW, who's now sleeping every night in the house, but doesn't want to be touched, at least he doesn't think so currently.