Who doesn't love puppy pictures!?

How much do you think we can get for these on the street?

Ok, so last time R posted, we were just about to take a six hour drive to northern Alberta to pick up my blue heeler puppy. R wants a dog too but he's more of a Lab man. He decided to wait until spring to look for his dog, but I couldn't wait one more month. So, we duct taped garbage bags and towels into the back of the Subaru, loaded up water dishes, blankets and rawhide chews, and hit the road at 7:00 Saturday morning.

Oh my goodness. I mean, all puppies are cute, but honestly.

Here is my little dog. She is just 8 weeks old. Her one ear may never stand up but I don't mind; in fact I really love her quizzical expression. Besides, there is a certain balance to her face with the black eye patch on the other side. Her name is Moxie. And she has plenty!

It's pretty hard not to make googoo voice when you're talking to that face.

So anyway, like I said, the plan was that R was going to wait until Spring to get a puppy.

That is, until he saw...
THIS!

"Hewwo. I wuv woo. Pwease take me home."

Yep, that's right. Meet R's new puppy, Django. R really had no choice in the matter. Django adopted him pretty much as soon as we walked into the house where the litter was. He is a really handsome dog and after we read up on the AKC Standards of the Breed we realized that Django was the pick of the litter. His markings are absolutely perfect and symmetrical and he stands like a little champ, even at 8 weeks old.

"You always want to look your best. You never know when there might be LAYdees looking."

They're still really tiny, even though they look like dogs already.

Blue Heelers naturally 'heel' or chomp on the ankles of livestock.
Clearly we will have to have a little discussion about this...

Allis, meet your retarded big brother.

So far the three of them get along pretty well. Allis is really interested in the pups, particularly their wagging tails, and it seems like she wants to play tag, but is still a little cautious. She did feel compelled to break her perfect housetraining record and pee on our bed in protest on the puppies' first day home, though.

"En Guard, pointy white mouse!"

"Hey, what's the cat thing doing to my tail?"

"Huh what? I wasn't doin' nothin'."

No matter what he's doing, Django looks statuesque.

You can't quite say the same for Moxie...!

They're learning to fetch, and although they've only been here three days, they both know "Sit," "Lie Down," "Come here," "Heel," and they've almost mastered, "Roll over." They are almost completely leash trained too, and we can walk them around the block with the leash slack... MOST of the time.

Unfortunately, housetraining is going slightly slower. But they're definitely improving.

Other than a few tense moments when we heard a train, some barking Collies, and saw an old lady with a rake, the pups did really well even on their first day walking around the block. I never understood how people can't train their dogs to heel properly, and are always either dragging, or being dragged by, their dogs. Of course, these guys are too little to drag anything much yet, so now's the time to get this lesson down.

"Heel, Django, damn it!"

Django (whose name is pronounced "JAN-go," like the awesome French Gypsy jazz guitarist from the '20's, Django Reinhardt) looks more like his mother, Jelly Bean (below), but without the black on his face.

It's Mom! By the time we picked up the pups, Jelly Bean was looking forward to quieter days.

Moxie looks more like her dad, Bingo (below), with no tan or brown markings at all. Blue Heelers, formally known as Australian Cattle Dogs, have an interesting genetic makeup, part of which is wild Australian Dingo. This is what gives them their very distinctive appearance and variations. No two look quite alike.

Dad was pretty beat too. He did his share of raising the pups, which I thought was really cool.

Subaru full o' Heelers.

We had promised a guy from Manitoba that we'd bring his dog to Regina so he wouldn't have to drive 12 hours to get his pup. Here's a tip for you all: do NOT attempt to take 3 puppies on a six-hour drive. It will become a nine-hour drive, and by the time you get home you will have puppy puke and loose puppy stool and urine in your lap, your hair, your burger, and under your fingernails, not to mention a car that may never smell quite the same. The other little pup was sweet too, but it was good to see him go home with his new family.

So now we've got two 8-week-old pups and an 8-week-old kitten. I call it a family but R just calls our house the "Ranch" now. We're definitely nervous about the responsibility and the energy that it is going to take to simultaneously raise three healthy and happy babies, but we love them all so much already that it's hard to imagine going back to living without them. Life is getting more fun all the time.

At the end of a long day, the puppies are pooped! And so are we.

So until next time, from Django and Moxie and little Allis and R and me -- Adventure!