She's my Zadeelah Boo

Here's our girl! Leelah Bean, Zadeelah Boo, Blossom Bean, Sassy Pants...


I am dusting off the cobwebs on this blog to update folks on life in Leelah Land. It's exciting over here.

At the moment, Leelah Bean is convinced that there might be a Freddy Kreuger lurking in the window. She trots over, very concerned, and then trots back to me and beds down for a minute or two before attempting another lap around the house. I'm sure she is wondering why no one else is worried about this obviously terror inducing reality, but can they help it if she's the only one who sees reflections in the glass?

She has an absurdly short stride so it looks like she's always trotting or strutting. Makes her appear very deliberate and proud.

Right now we are lucky enough to be petsitting two golden retrievers in a beautiful home. And yes, it is possible for five dogs to sleep in one bed (I discovered this last night).

Here are a couple of my fave pics -

totally evil. so convincing!!


and here we have the laziest play session ever. look how tiny she is next to Vaida!


So our life is consumed with house hunting and house sitting and CGC classes and work. We hop in the car at the start of each day and drive around, checking out houses, going to appointments and practicing skills for her upcoming CGC test. It's a good thing we get in her social time by house sitting, since I haven't been able to do anything else lately.

But soon we'll have a little farm to entertain her and Kai and Rowan and the cat that has yet to be adopted. I am researching chicken coops, eager to get some chickens to eat the ticks and give us nice fresh eggs. It's a lot of fun.

Right now I have an offer out on a place. It's small - just 1.5 acres, but it abuts 30 conservation acres and there's a lovely trail that goes to a lake. Very exciting!

Leelah is getting spayed on the 28th... and there are probably other interesting Zaboo updates but I'm drawing a blank. More pics on Flickr if you want to check them out!

She's such a gooooooooood girl.

Life in Leelah Land

Today we went for a walk in a nearby field. The first excitement was when we walked by some cows. Leelah Bean huffed and puffed and tried to blow them all down but when that didn't work she just walked away.


Indeed, she would not make a good wolf. However, she would like to remind everyone of her sassy pants.


We walked through a beautiful field of sunflowers (sorry Leelah Bean but it's not always all about you).


And LB proved her camouflage skills. Can you find the Leelah Bean in this picture?


Because her brothers couldn't find her...


And truthfully after a moment Kai realized the opportunity and hoped to never find her! So he galloped around like a gazelle.


Alas, not all of Kai's dreams can come true and the former Blossom popped back like an energetic pinto bean.


She came very close and dazzled her brothers with her big pink tongue.






Unable to withstand her cuteness, they joined her for a moment in Leelah land.


After some more walking we ran into some equipment. Kai was pretty excited because it coordinated with his harness and, really, he thinks red is just his color.


Smart puppy took advantage of this as a chance to crawl under the big red thing and relax in the shade.


It was a very hot day but the fun of the walk was well worth it. Thank you for visiting Leelah Land.

Video!

A video. There are some more on Youtube under the name Petbehaviorconsult. The ones of Rowan and Leelah on the bed are really cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uveXzM5xfgg

Hello Lucy!

when actions pictures go bad....


woosh!


an increasingly rare moment of Leelah Bean being sweet and, uh, deferrent.


Lucy, one of the weeks visitors.


I call this swushy. Sweet and pushy. LB's expertise.


So serious. Eating a twig.


Look how tall our girl is!


Leslie helped teach her to love the hose. Now Leelah seems to think she has gills.


Everyone loves a day at the pool.

Sunny Saturday

A July Day in Vermont

We had a wonderul super fun time seeing handsome, big brudda Dru in beautiful Vermont! We played at a field, went for a swim and then had a nice walk in Downtown Brattleboro. Good times! Here are some pics from today.

Things to note:
...insane, weird tufts of fur growing out of these Ivy x Peat pups
...toothless grins
...cute, reciprocal play - even lazy, on the ground play!
....um, Leelah Bean once again stealing things and running around with great pride. I swear, if she could shoplift I'd have a complete klepto on my hands

Gumming Ham & Bubbles

Hey, pretty girl! Here you can see her eyes pretty well.


And here she is stalking a Corgi puppy.


This is Cate, the Corgi puppy. She is visiting for a few days. She likes to bark. And squeak.


This is Rowan before things got crazy with the Boomer ball. This is about as calm as it gets outside.


They are looking at me, expecting me to get the ball out for them. Not gonna happen. They go crazy after that stupid thing!


But, of course, Rowan takes matters into his own paws and gets it out himself. This is the routine. Shortly after this, Kai will (no doubt) take it from Rowan and hog it to himself while Ro stares after him with swirly crazy border collie eyeballs.


And, indeed, this is what happened.


Oh, and there's the Bean! With her beloved frisbee.


Finally, Rowan got a go at the ball. This is his happy Boomer ball face.


And here's Leelah's favorite way to run these days...


Full of grace, that one.


Oh yeah, I see ballet in the future. Or maybe so you think you can dance auditions...


Here she is, elegantly watching the Boomer ball fiasco. You can also get an idea of how tall she is these days, sitting next to the chair. Oh, and what's up with that GUT? My god, you'd think she lived on a diet of beer!


On other fronts...

She is in full teething mode! She has lost all of the little baby teeth in front (still has her baby canines) and is a crooked smiling gawky little creature!

And... she's 20 pounds! I'm sure her siblings are at least 30 by now, but without them by her side, she seems so big! She's all legs and polka dots. She is getting waves in her fur, the brown fur is much less fuzzy and the long white hairs are disappearing. Her ears are still up although each day one or the other tips down for a bit and when she runs they flop all over the place so who knows what will happen with that.

She's definitely getting to the point of starting to switch from the dewy attitude of puppyhood into the environmentally aware (and cautious) attitude of early adolescence. She notices things like it's the first time even though they've been there forever, she has decided trucks driving by are utterly terrifying (while on a walk) and so on. At the same time, she has a lovely new cocky side full of her typical piss-n-vinegar PLUS a little extra sassiness :)

We graduated puppy kindergarten and are planning on joining a second round. I really want to keep her interacting with young dogs. She is still super soft with confident dogs and a bit too pushy/bitchy with timid dogs. I haven't given her much practice time with being bitchy but since I've seen it, I want to do what I can to safeguard against it being a habit. She also gets very guardy with other dogs if they give her the option. I have a Corgi pup staying with me for a few days. Today she was eating her breakfast in her ex-pen and Leelah Bean (who had finished breakfast) went up to the ex-pen, sat in front of the food bowl and started growling at the Corgi. Nice! Well, it goes without saying I didn't let THAT continue. This has been a habit for her (but only with pups or dogs that allow her to do it... if a dog tells her to f*** off she is a perfect angel). So we do lots of exercises where she gets treats for sharing... and lots of practice with Leave It and Come so that if she's being a wench I can call her away from whatever it is. She's not guardy at all with people.

It's awesome watching her grow up. She's pretty amazing and I love her bunches. Kai and Rowan don't exactly *love* her but they are tolerating her pretty well these days.

So, that's the latest from Leelah land!