I'm really proud of our Animal Shelter here in Newport. It may be a small town, but the shelter is on the "one". October 17th and 18th, they are having a free clinic for spay/neuter and rabies shots. Ricky and I have volunteered to help out. They also have a regular deal where they ship our unwanted dogs to cities that don't have enough! Instead of putting them to sleep, they are given another chance in another city! On average, 40 or so dogs and cats are put in a truck and taken to Cincinnati, and a couple of other places, where they are given homes. I don't know who thought of this, but they deserve an award! If you go to the Animal Rescue Site, and click to give free food to the shelters, they also have a shelter award program, where you can vote for your favorite shelter. Please go and vote for the Newport Animal Shelter in Newport, Tennessee. They deserve it!! After all, that's where we got our "baby" Jade!! If nothing else, she makes a great pillow!!

Well, our little girl is certainly grown up.
She has gone from the scared little puppy to this! She now frolics in the waves like it is nothing. She still hasn't tried swimming, but I haven't gone in with her yet. I am definitely going to do that next time. We had a little problem this time though. A man came up to me and said that I was not allowed to take the dog off the leash. I had to educate him. Yes, it is the rule of the hotel that all dogs must stay on a leash and so, whenever you are on their property, you must do as requested. However, it is the law of the land, no one can own the ocean. So, up to the high water mark is public property. As such, you may do whatever you want. I say that hoping that everyone is smart enough to know that it is never okay to take a vicious dog off the leash. It is never okay NOT to pick up after your dog. Other than that though, as long as your dog does not go beyond the high water mark, go ahead and let them have fun!! On Jekyll Island, the beach is seperated from the dunes by large boulders. The high water comes all the way up to them, so there is no problem. The dogs cannot go beyond the high water mark unless they climb the boulders. I have seen dogs capable of doing that, but that's the exception. Most dogs do not even want to try. Go Jade, GO!

Well, Jade has had quite a week! Unfortunately, my camera has a problem. If I leave the batteries in it, they go dead in a week or less. If I leave them out, I miss all the great photos! Any ideas, anyone?
She had some bad news to begin with. We had gone out of town for 5 days and when we got back, the dog food bowl was empty. That had never happened before. The "boys" haven't been back since. She misses them horribly. I'll have to see what I can do.
In the mean time, her week began with her going out her dog door to find a raccoon eating her food! She was so shocked that she backed back in!!! The food bowl is about 4 feet from her door. Now I know why the food ran out when we left town! Thats going to be a hard one to overcome. The raccoon left quickly as he was as surprised as she was. Then, we found a fox cub in the middle of the road. I think someone had hit it with a car or something. Even though there were no signs of injury to its body, just the fact that it was sitting in the road and didn't run at first when I approached it, let me know that it was confused and maybe even in shock. When it finally did try to run from me, Jade tried to catch it for me. Of course, she never got very close (chicken through and through) but she did try! It was very young, looked healthy and since there was no other signs of injury, I'm praying that it was found by its mother and has made a recovery. Although it didn't run very fast, it didn't take it long to disappear in the long grass. I wish I could have caught it and taken to the vets. I think maybe with rest, it would be okay though.
Then, Jade was surprised when she went out in the morning. There were two absolutely beautiful young deer in the front lawn. They seemed to instinctively know that she was no threat, so they didn't even run when she barked at them. They just stood looking at her and her at them for several minutes. Of course, I ran and got my camera which didn't have any batteries in it! By the time I got it set up, they were leaving! The funny part is that Jade has gone from a couch potatoe to a porch potatoe!! She doesn't want to miss anything!
I love my camera, but I don't ever want to miss another shot like I did today, so I guess it will have to go for repairs. In the mean time, Jade is on watch!

The picture that I added was an old one. Probably about a year. Jade, Ricky and my brother in law, Berle are standing in front of a caboose that is in our town park. Our town is small, but we have a really nice park! Newport can be proud!

Jade got to go to Washington DC on vacation. She wanted to see President Obama, but no such luck! She did get to see a lot of other wonderful sites. She particularly liked the blooming Cherry Trees! That's her in front of the Reflection Pool and the Washington Monument. She also got to see the Viet Nam Wall. It was too crowded to get a picture, but I'm glad that she is a "she" and I didn't have to worry about her lifting her leg on it. There weren't any other dogs around, but she did make a friend. A little girl fell in love with her and spent about a half hour petting and playing with her. Of course, Jade ate it up. Any attention is right up her alley. There were so many squirrels though! Jade would have loved the chase but I couldn't let her go and as a result, I almost had my arm pulled out of its socket several times. I know that when I'm a few years older, I won't be able to hold her back. Either that or I can plan on spending a lot of time on the ground.

Well, my daughter was here and fixed the problem I had with pictures. So, here are the latest in Jades life. She now had TWO boyfriends!! I wish I had been that popular! These guys actually belong to a neighbor, but come up here at least twice a day to eat and play with Jade. We have named the boxer, Jake and the lab, Bob. We don't know what their real names are. The boxer is as big a chicken and Jade is. He won't come here without Bob and last night, he barked at something, Jade ran into the house and hid behind me and Jake ran home! I went out to see what was happening, expecting a bear, bob cat or something ferocious, but nothing was there. Who knows, Jade will run from a turkey!

Bob always has dirt on his nose! I wonder what he does with it? I would like to see what he looks like without it. Both are just the sweetest boys in the world. Jade goes out every morning and stares up the road, looking to see if they are coming yet. She can't wait for them to get here. Ah, puppy love!