Puppy Training/ People Training

15 weeks. 30 pounds. Stubborn. Exuberant. Running full speed into the water standing in our wetland areas. Fearless. Learning to heel and walk nicely. Not jumping on people. Not eating soap. I should explain that last one. In order to "save" our perennials from the deer, we Mainers place metal sticks around the tender plants and attach a clothes dryer sheet filled with Irish Spring soap. Deer don't like smelly soap. Or so they tell me. Dogs DO like smelly soap. Sometimes Reny is wet AND soapy. Then I have to get a five gallon bucket of warm water and pour it all over him. Could we have had him for only 5 weeks?

Reny no longer looks like a puppy. He looks like a reduced size adult dog. I would take a picture but he is never still unless he's asleep. And he is VERY black. Taking pictures of a VERY black dog is near to impossible. I got an Orvis catalog yesterday and they had a black lab in several pictures. I could just refer you to the catalog.

Also it's been 17 weeks of the new "life/eating" plan. ( I would like to think I have also lost 34 pounds-2 a week, but I haven't done my walking so I don't think I've met my goal) Some days I am starving. And then in a day or two, not hungry at all. Still wearing the same underwear. My clothes--the old ones--look better on me now. I want them not to fit--but they still do and that makes me very sad. People who see me infrequently, still do not register that I look any different. Perhaps it's because I still wear all the same clothes? They don't see the altered seams or tucks. Or perhaps it's because people don't really "look" at others and "see" them. They just don't pay attention.

On our one sunny, hot day last week I wore sandals, short pants (capri) and a linen shirt. I felt light as a cloud. Like I could push off the earth's surface and float into the air above me. I almost wanted to try to do it.

I have obligatory borders to cut and sew onto the obligatory pieced quilt top today. Then I can pass it on to the next person and be done with it. And then I have no other obligations other than the puppy. And now that we have come to terms with the choke collar----Sigh---I can do a peaceful, positive one mile walk with the puppy. And really, he seems content with it. Like he doesn't have to work so hard thinking of bad things to do. He can just walk. And listen to me telling him how wonderful he is. What's not to like about that?