Okay, I know that you won't believe this, but I swear its true!! Jade has had Ricky under her paw since the day I brought her home. We have had more arguments about how many treats she should have and when. I have a strict rule. NO TREATS until she eats all of her dinner!! Of course, that rule has been broken too many times.! She will eat a little bit of it and then come and whine or bark at me, trying to get a treat. I will look at her bowl and then tell her no, she has to eat it all. Then she will eat a little bit more and try again. It is a drag that goes on every night until its finally gone and she gets her treats. Last night though, she did something she has never done before and it was so deliberate that I was shocked. Her buddy, Bob, was here. (The black lab from up the street). He came in the dog door right after I had given her dinner. She was eating and so I told him that he would have to wait outside until she was done. He went. She had eaten about 1/3 of her dinner when she came and got me. I looked at her bowl and told her no, she had to eat it all. I went in the living room and sat down. I saw her looking at me and then I saw her go out. The next thing I saw was her coming back in with Bob in tow. She took him to her bowl and stood there watching him eat her dinner. When he was done, she escorted him back out and then came to me again. This time, of course, her bowl was empty and she was so proud of herself! I was flabbergasted! I knew that she was smarter than the average bear, but I never thought that she could do problem solving like this!! She blew me away. Now, I have to watch her the whole time until her food is gone so I will know who ate it!!

Yes, that's her laying on the couch. BUT not only on the couch, but on the pillow too! Nothing is too soft or too good for Jade! Without a doubt, she is Queen of the house! A while back, my daughter bought me a case of the most wonderful dog shampoo in the world. It was Oster's Black Pearl for black dogs. (If you look back at her puppy pictures, she was almost all black). Not only does she smell wonderful for two full weeks or more, the black parts actually sparkle like diamonds!! It is so wonderful and I loved it!! Guess what? They discontinued it!! Claim that it didn't sell! Seems people with black dogs don't wash them? At any rate, I noticed that Walmart is now carrying Oster dog shampoo. So, what I am asking everyone to do is, go to your favorite Walmart and ask the manager if he can get Oster Black Pearl Shampoo! I figure that if enough Walmarts ask for it, Oster will start making it again! What do you think? AND everyone with a black dog should buy this product!! Its amazing. I promise you will LOVE it!! Look, even the brown parts on her shine!

For those of you that have been following this blog, (Probably one or two of you), you will remember Jade has had some memorable moments in her short life. She has saved her Daddy's life, jumped into a trunk to make sure she wouldn't be left behind, eaten paper towel tubes, just to name a few. One thing that I have never mentioned though is her uncanny ability to know where she is while traveling in the car! Every dog I have ever had, has been content to hang out the window or sleep if the trip was long. NOT JADE!! She is alert to every turn. The only time she sleeps is on the interstate and then, only if you maintain the same speed! The second that you take your foot off the gas to slow down, she is up and on the console, checking out where we are going. AND she remembers!! A good example is Jekyll Island. As soon as we get on the off ramp of 95, she knows! She gets excited immediately. The closer we get to the Island, the more excited and she will start to whine as we cross the bridge. Another example is the park here in Newport, or any of her favorite spots. She will get excited when she recognizes the route we are taking and then, if we turn and go a different direction after she has decided that we are headed to the park, she will have a fit! She will whine and pout! I could list about 15 different places that she recognizes long before we actually get there. If she jumps on the console and starts looking around and you say to her, "Jade, do you know where you
are?" Her ears will go up and she will look all around . You can tell
the minute she realizes whereshe is. Its amazing. If she could
talk, I wouldn't need the Garmin!

I just have to tell you all about "THE BIG FIX". Newport, Tennessee, is a little town surrounded by a bunch of even littler towns. We would be lucky to have one of everything, but we don't. Its a wonderful place to raise children though. Little or no crime. Absolutely beautiful scenery. And, more than anything else, a community that cares. Our local shelter put on a two day event where anyone who could not afford it, got their cat, dog or both, neutered/spayed and a rabies shot for free. Puppies also got a Parvo virus shot. Over Saturday and Sunday, 7 or 8 Vets; innumerable volunteers put through 140 animals a day for a total of 280 pets. It was amazing. Ricky and I volunteered on Sunday. Never again!!! From now on we will be there BOTH days!! It was the most fulfilling and wonderful thing I have ever done. We were blessed with recovery. We got the dogs after the operation. Our job was to make sure that they woke up in a reasonable amount of time and that they were breathing okay and everything was fine. I got to take care of Chihuahua's and great Danes and everything in between. I got more kisses in one day than I had in my whole life! If you have ever worked for someone and been taken for granted or not appreciated, you have to do this! You will leave with no doubt that you had performed a service that you were genuinely LOVED for! We were given breakfast and lunch of some of the best food ever! A man who didn't even have a pet brought in a quiche that was fantastic! I thought I had done something wonderful by being there for 8 hours until I saw a man that had put in 14 the day before!! I am so proud to be a part of this community. Please! Please, go to www.animalrescuesite.com , click like crazy and then go to the Shelter Challenge and vote for the Newport Animal Shelter!! They sure do deserve it!! If you are ever out our way, please stop in and see the best little town there is! We are nestled in the middle of the Smoky Mountains. Ya all come! Hear? :-)

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!