Happy Holidays and all that good stuff!!
Last Friday, I drove down to Longmont to pick up Logan and finally take him home after all these months of waiting - from before the parents were even bred, through the pregnancy and the whelping and watching him go from a little piggy-looking baby to the mini-shepherd he is now! He said bye to his parents and siblings and up the canyon towards Estes we drove... And he buried his little head in my lap and cried, and cried, and cried! And got car sick, of course. I brought him to my still-unfurnished cottage and he followed me everywhere! But I was amazed to see that he's already potty trained, at 8 weeks old! He scratches at the door or cries when he needs to go out. We didn't have a single accident for the first day that I had him, and only after he got sick (I gave him too many new treats at one time) did he ever mess in the house... and that's because he couldn't hold it in his cage and went all over everything (including himself) when I went to work at the Rock. Poor guy! Thankfully things were back to normal soon after, and I've been pretty lucky that he knows to go potty outside! ;)
That first day, I took him to see Rocky, who is Jen and Mark's wiener dog. Logan was very shy and a little scared of this little bouncing barking hyper pudgy-puppy at first; I would be too, since Rocky literally bucks and jumps like a rodeo bull! Logan warmed up a little later on in the evening, but it was a big scary day for him and I knew he'd gain confidence as the days go on.
I hoped that Rocky tired him out sufficiently to ease his first-night-away-from-home jitters and maybe I'd get some sleep. I put him in his crate and for the first couple hours, it was fine. After that, he'd wake up and cry for 5-10 minutes, then sleep for an hour or two. Repeat. All night. Ugh. That, and the fact that my furniture is still stuck in Lyons and I'm currently sleeping in my sleeping bag on the floor in Estes... I was a little bit tired the next morning. Logan made sure I was up at 7 am to let him outside. Looks like I'll be an early riser for the next 15 years or so... ;)
Saturday was the day he got sick in his crate while I was out grocery shopping. I gave him a bath and was busy cleaning out his crate, and created even more trouble for myself when I didn't let him outside soon enough... He was all wet and cold and I didn't want him outside in the blowing wind (it's been howling on and off the past few days) and freeze, but that let him to pee on my floor for the first time. My fault. It was just one of those days, where you're busy trying to fix one thing and something else breaks or goes wrong, one of those chain reactions... Kept me on my toes, for sure. I worked at the Rock Inn that evening doing dishes. It was weird seeing all of my friends sitting on the other side of the bar, drinking and having a good time while I was running around washing dishes and prepping pasta. I had a few visitors back in the kitchen though which was nice. And some free food and beer... I'll be working there tonight through the 31st, then on the 3rd... Then, unemployed again unless I decide to do some tree work.
Saturday night was Logan's second night with me, and when I came home from work I told him to go to bed. He obediently walked into his crate, tail wagging, and plopped down and went to sleep. I had a sock that smells like his mom in there, and added a tshirt that smells like me. He didn't make a peep all night. How cool is that?! Except my back just isn't digging this "sleeping on the floor" thing, and I didn't get any sleep again. At least the dog seemed comfortable. :P
Sunday was Christmas eve. Dave (Tim's roommate) had nothing to do, just like me and a few other folks that were around town. I was supposed to go to the bar with Stephanie, but ends up it was closed for a private party, so instead Dave baked a turkey and made homemade garlic mashed potatos; I whipped up some peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate (5 cups powdered sugar, 1 cup peanut butter... no wonder they were a childhood favorite) and ate too many (believe me, 3 is too many)... Logan and I went over and ate dinner and were going to have another puppy play date with Rocky that night, but I took Logan back to my place for his dinner and I went out the door and he didn't want to go with me. So I asked him, do you want to go see Rocky? Come outside! And he sat there. So I asked him, do you want to go to bed?? And he turned around, went into his crate and layed down. I shut the door and he didn't care. I went outside and started the truck, then went back inside thinking he might be crying to come out now. I opened the door, and he was just laying there. I asked him again just to be sure that he wanted to go to sleep, and he didn't make a peep. Smart little bugger! Ends up Mark was sick anyway so I went over to the other Mark's place (Mark and Amy) and brought the nice bottle of wineI got from Bruce and Kerri for X-mas. So those two, Dave, Smitty and I sat and drank PBR and wine and watched Billy Madison(never seen it, and it's so freaking stupid) and Ice Age, and laughed at the "movie' on Cinemax called "Kinky Kong" instead of Donkey Kong... ha ha you can only image what kind of movie that was! That was definitely a first for all of us on Christmas Eve...!
Here's an interesting side story: I was talking with Mark about hunting in Montana and I mentioned I worked at a wildlife refuge there. He asked which one, and I didn't expect him to know which one I was talking about; nobody has ever heard of it. So I tell him, Red Rock Lakes. He says, "No shit... I turned down a maintenance worker job there last November." This is crazy, because the refuge only has 7 permanent employees, only 1 of those is a maintenance worker. He told me to tell him about it, and well he now regrets not taking the job after I told him about the peaceful solitude, the bald eagles, moose and owls in the front yard; the grizzlies and wolves hiding out there... and all the hunting! It is a small world. That job is actually the job my friend Howard retired from last year, the 60-something year old guy that taught me how to weld and I visited him just this past fall up in Dillon. Mark will be bummed when he sees pictures of just how beautiful that place is!!
Anyway, Logan was a sweetie and didn't yell at me for coming home late on Christmas Eve, or that I smelled like wine and PBR. ;) I curled up in my sleeping bag next to his crate and tried to sleep. He made cute puppy noises in his sleep and chased rabbits that he's never seen before. I tossed and turned.
Woke up early and realized it was Christmas morning. My first Christmas away from my family. It was eerily unceremonial and quiet. For years, we'd always wake up ridiculously early and harass my parents until they'd get out of bed... hurry up, get the camcorder ready, we want to start!!... They'd turn on the lights and we'd read the letter from Santa (yes, I still read that letter last year, even though I was 24 years old...) while Dad would mess around with the camcorder... The dogs would know it was a special morning too and would sit in anticipation of opening their presents too... Of course, the past few years, everybody else was up and harassing ME to wake up, ha ha! Then later, my sisters and I would go over to our Dad's house ("real" dad, haha) and he'd be busy cooking tons of foodand turn on the Christmas music, he too would have to set up the camcorder (that's a lot of Christmas movies between the two sets of parents!) and we'd open presents, then get harassed the rest of the afternoon to "Eat more! Take some leftovers! Eat more!" Yes, those are the crazy noisy hectic Christmas days that I am used to. I'm so glad I had Logan there, he made it a little less traumatic.
I walked out of my bedroom into the living room and saw my tiny 7" tall living Christmas tree (with lights, ornaments and everything) on the window ledge, and my little treasure pile of presents on my end table, stockings for myself and Tim hanging randomly from some nails on my loft, Christmas lights around my windows. It was too quiet, and I realized I left my Sintra/Crosby/Jazz Christmas CDs in Michigan. Bummer. So I dug out my little shower radio and found a fuzzy station playing holiday music... It was the best I could do to recreate something officially Christmas, a small shadow of what I was accustomed to; I sat on the floor with Logan's head in my lap, tin-can music coming out of a single speaker, and opened my presents, which had been mailed to me from the many people that care about me back in Michigan. Salt and peppercorn grinders, lots of socks, some underarmor, a dog trick book, a couple CDs (White Stripes from Debbie and Pat; Yonder Mountain from my family), a photography book, an ornament of a german shepherd angel, plus the dog supplies my sisters gave me that I opened early... There are still a few things that haven't been shipped yet from Amazon.com (hoping it's a certain couple DVDs... Northern Exposure, Grey's Anatomy or Deadwood perhaps??) but I was very happy for everything.
Once that was done, I didn't really know what else to do with myself. I was so tired that I risked it and decided to take a nap in Tim's bed and hope that Logan would let me get some rest without disturbing Dave. I think I slept for 3 hours, and it still wasn't enough, but the puppy let me do my thing peacefully. He's such a good dog!
With nothing else to really do, I left Logan in Estes and drove to Lyons to try and dig my way up the driveway... which is challenging because it's a long steep gravel/dirt driveway with 2 feet of snow. It took me about an hour but I did finally get my Focus out, then almost go my truck all the way up. Close enough. Filled a load up, then went back to Estes and made my place as homey as possible, minusthe furniture. Tim and I played phone tag all day, but it was nice to hear from him. He'll be back by Sunday, maybe Saturday night. Then I'll be going back to Michigan for 2 weeks in January, then he's doing to Las Vegas for trails training in February... Then come April, whether or not I have the lead hazard tree job or not, I'll probably be living in Grand Lake for the week for 4-6 weeks again, then he'll be in the backcountry doing trails work for weeks at a time...
Anyway, I went over to Mark and Jen's with Logan later that night for another play date. Guess what? Logan's not so shy anymore. He had Rocky a little upset for jumping all over him! I think those two are gonna be good friends. Fortunately, Rocky likes big dogs, because in a few months he is going to be Logan's mini-me! I really like Mark and Jen too, it's nice to have an excuse to see them. :) Mark works for trails for the Park and Jen works in town. For their wedding, she wore a bright red cowboy hat and cowboy boots with her dress; he wore a western shirt and cowboy hat. Very cool.
I decided to try sleeping at Tim's all night with Logan. He's been so well behaved it erased most of my fears of him either barking all night and ticking Dave off, or going potty all over the floor. It would have been the best night's sleep I'd had in a while, except I'm getting a head cold!! But Logan was an angel. Tonight my friends Tina and Travis may be staying at my place, and I have to work.
And one more bit of news: CONGRATULATIONS BRIAN AND MELISSA! Brian Mount proposed to his girlfriend while underwater scuba diving I think in Australia!! How clever! Woooo hoooo! Ha ha so that's 3 ex boyfriends in the past year that are either getting married, or already tied the knot! Jason, Brian, Steve... who's next?? Ha ha!
So that's my holidays in a nut shell. Now time to go back to the pup and give him lunch! Happy holidays!! And I am uploading my photos from Keystone and Christmas to a new location to see how I like it. It's called Picasa, through Google. If anybody wants a Gmail account let me know and I'll send you an invite.
Logan on Christmas Eve
Our view from our condo at Keystone
Logan is getting big - about 12 pounds!
A picture of Logan from my visit earlier today!
