Welcome to 2024! As I was born in April 2023, this is the first time I’ve ever watched the humans welcome a New Year. My humans sure had a good time, playing ‘Minute to Win It’ challenges with their family. I supervised calmly from my bed – and the visitors were very impressed. I was impressed with how entertaining humans could be when trying to move a cookie down from their forehead to eat it. I would have GLADLY had a cookie, but no one offered one. And I know not to eat things that aren’t given to me and to not eat off the floor. I do enjoy a good kibble-filled Kong, however. I also started off the month with a short visit with another fabulous PADS sitter Marlene. She was lovely and had a neighbour with a dog friend to play with! Lucky me!
News has spread about my existence at the big school my raiser and I work at – so I often get lots of visits during lunch and breaks. I’m quite happy to ‘go say hi’ and enjoy all the complimentary scritches and pets that come with it. It was recently VERY cold in Calgary, so I’ve appreciated several mall walks. I even had a moment of indiscretion when I thought a friendly dog friend was waiting to greet me in one of the stores. I quickly learned that it was a FAKE dog. Can you imagine?! I’m also enjoying getting in some good laps of the empty school hallways before the students arrive on cold days. I often have the place to myself!
My raiser feels that this month was more about her being trained rather than me. We had some online classes, and she is becoming a master at brushing my teeth. I’m learning to rest my head and stay calm. We’re both making progress. It’s fun to learn together. My raiser says she’s pretty sure I’m a teenager now. Sometimes I think the world revolves around me… so she must be right, as that sounds very teenager-ish. I have, however, mastered the art of walking out in the cold wearing winter boots. That’s right California dogs – take note!! The humans put boots on our paws up here. Apparently, it’s to keep us safe and warm, but I certainly wasn’t convinced at first. I don’t think my raiser can share movies of me during our monthly pupdates, but there’s a pretty funny video you can see on my Facebook page of me getting used to walking with boots on. Booties are still not ‘love’ for me, but if it means I can go take a sniff-ari outside, I’m all for it!
Happy New Year!
Blair
Submitted by: Lindsay & Michael McWilliam
