Paige

 I've been needing to get Paige posted for some time now and get going on trying to find her a home. It's been slow because I sort of need her as a companion for Oakley but Oakley's not going anywhere any time soon and that's not fair to Paige. Also, Paige needs some experiences and influences other than Oakley. Today I took her on a solo walk so I could get some pictures and this is what I've come up with as a write up.

Paige is approximately 6-8 months old, a female Great Dane who will be spayed prior to adoption. Paige is a sweet, somewhat shy girl. She's living with seven other dogs, but has not been around cats as far as I know. She was a stray from a shelter, never claimed, so we don't know her backstory, but she seems like a normal pup, actually fairly calm for her age. Her puppiness shows mainly in her lack of experience with anything new. She's not fearful, however, and is willing to try most anything asked of her. She's got decent leash manners, really doesn't pull, but she does have a tendency to cross in front of me while we're walking so she's a bit of tripping hazard. Paige uses a crate without any problems when she's left alone indoors and at night. She still young enough and puppy enough to occasionally get into things that aren't hers. Her house manners aren't perfect but she's better behaved than several older dogs I've got. 

Basically Paige is a sweet and sensitive Dane, she responds well to positive reinforcement, loves treats, and seems to crave being touched. She likes to walk very closely next to me, often maintaining contact with her head and soft face. I like that.

Backwards day

Actually the day didn't go backwards, but my telling of it will. When I upload multiple pictures, the Microsoft/Google magic puts the pictures in the order in which they appeared on my camera. Except when it doesn't. Today was one of those "doesn't" days and it put the pictures in reverse order. I even tried selecting them in reverse order, thinking that reversing that would put them in the correct order, but no.  

Middle to late afternoon we went up to Patch to try their new beer. It was good but they still had my favorite on tap so I tasted Clay's "Untouched by Monks" tripel but drank a couple pints of the Cu Later copper ale. Bailey came along and accepted many treats from me and quite a few from other people as well. She's definitely easy to win over.

Gus was there as well and he was staring at me with starving eyes when he saw me freely passing out treats to Bailey.  It's a good thing that I had plenty because I was soon passing them out to Gus as well.

Bailey has the most adorable look, but she kicks it up another level when there are treats involved.

Earlier in the day, I had Norman out for a run in the pasture and then he hung around in the back of the van while I was airing up tires on both vehicles.

Norman had a good run in the pasture.

This is near the end of my walk with Elvis and Bailey Saturday morning.

Don't they look like characters from some live action canine adventure movie?

Bailey has grown. I need to find some Bailey/Elvis pictures from when she first arrived. I don't think she was much bigger than he was back then.

The start of our Saturday morning walk. 

Milestones

I was thinking about life's milestones today. Turning 16 and being able to drive is a big one, probably the first really big one. That's followed closely by age 18, voting, and 21, drinking. Graduation from your final level of education varies quite a bit, but most folks wrap that up within their first quarter century or soon thereafter. It's already apparent that many of life's milestones are front loaded and happen rather quickly, even though time seems to move slowly in those years. 

For many people the next ones are marriage, children, and then getting through all those milestones with their children. It's hard to pick out a lot of other significant, widely shared, life events in the ensuing adult years; maybe we are just supposed to make them up on our own so we have something to celebrate. In that spirit, I'd like to announce that we had one today when Clay went to the bank and paid off our mortgage!

This old house, home sweet home, be it ever so humble, is now all ours. It needs some work but I hope to start tackling some of those projects in this year. Prior to being able to legally marry, the most binding long term commitment we had in our lives was our joint mortgage. That's gone now, but I think our relationship (going on 28 years now) can stand on its own.

The pictures are nothing special, just a couple of recent walks with Della and Bailey.

Bailey, tracking birds or squirrels in the trees.

We do not get past this spot without stopping for a good sniff.

Kangaroo Dane

I took the three Danes, Della, Oakley, and Paige, plus Maya and Paisley out for a run in the pasture before the sun went down Monday afternoon. They all enjoyed it, but none more than Oakley. 

I can't decide if Oakley's gait is kangaroo-like, or more like a bunny. I've seen rabbits flat out run and they are fast. They only do the classic "bunny hop" when they are relaxed, safe, and moving short distances. I'm not sure I've ever actually seen kangaroos run, but Oakley's run brings kangaroos to mind because she hops as much as she runs. She is capable to doing a straight running gait, but she doesn't often do so. I guess what it reminds me of is a track star running hurdles. She doesn't do it in the yard where the grass is short, it seems to be reserved for the tall grass in the pasture. She's tall enough to see where she's going without jumping, maybe she doesn't like the tall grass touching her belly so she tries to jump over it. Maybe, probably, it's just for fun.

Oakley, going up

This is Oakley, on the down portion of her leap.

I don't think she ever stopped moving when we were out there today.

Paige and Oakley

The video below captures a little bit of her running/leaping gait.

I actually got two good pictures of the sweet and wonderful Paige today.

I'm still not letting Elvis out to resume his hunting, but Della, Maya, and Paisley came out for some sun, snow, and a roll in the grass.

Of course I can't have my camera anywhere near Della without getting a couple of gorgeous pictures of her.

I had to keep my eye on Oakley because more than once she came flying straight for me and could have easily taken me down.

A meeting of the three Dane girls.