Della Likes Donuts

This morning was the reprise of the puppy photo shoot that was done when the pups were just a week old. I loaded up Della and the 12 pups in my van. The first time we did this all the pups were all in one cardboard box. Today I had them divided up in three crates with Della in the narrow space that was left in the back of the van. It's a good thing that she's a long and slender dog. It's also a good thing that I replaced the old van with a newer van. As long as we have more than one dog, I think I'll be driving a minivan.

Amy Yang is a professional photographer in Charlottesville who has donated her time and talent to help Green Dogs. The first picture here is her work, taken from the first photo session, of Clay and me and Della, holding a box containing Della's puppies. Della looks very happy and proud. Clay posted this photo on Facebook today for our 23rd anniversary. Neighbors came to puppy sit this evening so Clay and I could have our first night out together since before the puppies were born.

We won't see the results of today's photo shoot for a while, but I think they will be even cuter than the first go around, because the puppies look like puppies now, rather than fat little sausages. 

Della and I mostly just waited in the outer room today while Amy and several volunteer assistants worked their magic with the puppy pictures. Erika had brought donuts and sandwiches from Dunkin Donuts. I ate and shared some with Della. We don't feed our dogs human food as a rule, because we have too many of them and it makes them obnoxious beggars. That makes it impossible to ever enjoy a meal at the table, especially when the dogs' heads are table height. But Della clearly has a past that included human food. 

We don't know much of anything about Della's past. The story we heard, turned into the shelter as a stray, doesn't really add up. She was obviously a house dog and well socialized with people, with a taste for human food. In the rescue world we've learned to accept that we can never know much about a dog's past. The present and future is our concern, and it's all the dogs are concerned with too.

Della took shared bites very carefully from my fingers, she was clearly experienced and practiced in the art. She's also been a quick study in manipulation. I know that Della knows "sit," I've seen her do it on command. She wouldn't do it for me today, however, even when I was offering bites of a very tasty bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. Instead, she just gave me the "look" with her big brown eyes that said: "I gave you 12 puppies, what more do you want?" Clearly she's been talking to Serena, who gets whatever she wants and has never learned to sit, and Maya, who can play me like a violin. 

Della has the puppy card and can play it whenever she wants anything. In fact she has two handfuls of puppy cards, more than enough to beat me at anything.