Hello everyone.
Today is Sallys' first Adoption Day, it's exactly 1 year since we first brought her home to live with us.  There have been ups and downs and destroyed furnishings and belongings but hey ho - its all in the life of a puppy - at least we did expect some damage but the joys that she has brought to our lives far outweigh the problems. This week I'll be taking her to the vets for her booster jabs and a weigh check after her op as she has not been weighed since her check up and Neil thinks she is getting a bit podgy, looks ok to me though.

So here are a couple of recent photos and some early ones.
Sally loves to be cuddled as she has an early evening nap, someone forgot to tell her that she's too big to be a lap dog now.
The cardboard was from a new dyson - Sally loves helping to unpack anything with cardboard in and then ripping it to pieces.

Awwww her first day here isn't she small.

She can't walk though this table anymore - let alone curl up and sleep in it. 

Well there you go - a year already, seems to have flown by. Will end there for now.

Bye.

Neil, Johanna and most of all Sally.

Hello everyone,

here are the photos that I promised to post last year - I've only just got them off Neil. 

We had such a lovely day that day.

I love this picture of Neil and Sally

This is a good one of Sally - complete with shoestring - hence her new nickname- 'Shoestring Sally' e looks like a proper Bull Mastiff now!

Sally is such a water baby, she just loves paddling.

For those of you who don't know, Neil and I are getting married on the 29th June 2010 at 1pm at Storrs Hall Hotel in Windermere and then in either July or August we will be moving to the Lakes. We have bought a house in High Newton but it needs a complete renovation and will take about 4 - 5 months, so it's a very busy time for us so forgive me if I don't keep up with the blog but I will try to keep it up to date with all our plans.

This is the house we have bought.

This is the view from the house looking across to the Conniston Mountains.

As you can imagine we are all looking forward very much to moving up there, so til next time take care...

Sally Neil and Johanna

Hello Everyone,

We hope that you all had a great Christmas and have a happy, healthy and prosperous NewYear.

Sally has really enjoyed us being on holiday over Christmas and the New Year.  We have both been taking her for her walks in the morning most mornings and here she is after walking down the canal bank and getting very muddy.

With us both being in the house more Sally had a bit more run of the house (after we had made sure she could not get anything, like tissues out of the bin or clothes - she especially likes underwear!) She likes to lie at the top of the stairs as hot water pipes run under the floor so its nice and warm.

Here she is lying on our bed. She had managed to get one pillow under her back and had snuggled under the top covers to lie on the bottom sheet, I'm surprised she didn't get under the covers as well.

Sally loved the snow, especially when it was fresh, here she is in the yard just after it snowed the first time.

A few days later we were down the lane with the '3 girls' Roxy, Skyzer and Bailey, the 3 Retrievers. They all loved running around this field in the snow.  Sally liked to put her nose into it and run from side to side getting covered in snow.

Sally enjoyed Christmas Day.

Uncle John and Aunty Thelma had bought her this huge bone and she spent most of the day chewing on it. It certainly kept her busy until grandad and grandma came for Christmas dinner - and what a spread that was - a 3 bird roast with pheasant inside a chicken inside a goose with all the trimmings. Sally got to taste it all later and loved it.

Well that's all for now, hope everyone is keeping safe in the snow and ice.

Lots of love and all the best

Sally, Johanna and Neil.

Hello Everyone

Happy Birthday to Sally - 1 today.

She has had a nice day, starting with a longer than usual walk down the lane, through puddles and mud and she seemed to love it.

When we got home there was food and treats including a fresh bone and playtimes and plenty of rest.  She is still asleep now at 8pm. I took the day off work today so that I could spend the day with her and it was lovely.

On the 11th November I took Sally to the vets to be spayed.  As usual she walked in with no problem to see the vet - I was more nervous than her.  When I handed her lead over to the vet she walked off with her without even a look back and a few minutes later after I had been to talk to the girls at reception I saw the vet and asked her if Sally was ok and she said she was licking the leg of the nurse that was getting her pre-med.

When we went to pick her up at 5pm she came walking out like she was drunk with her head held low and we brought her straight home where she took to her bed and stayed there for a few hours, sleeping mostly and every so often lifting her head deciding against it and putting it back down again.

 

Sally feeling sorry for herself aaawwwww

Sallys' wound

Getting lots of sympathy

First move and first food after operation.

This state did not last too long and by the next morning she was completely b ack to normal.  She has been really good and has never tried to lick or pull at her stitches, even Helen, the vet was impressed last Monday when we took her back to have her stitches out - there was no redness or inflamation and it has healed up very well.

This week with the colder weather we have discovered a way to keep Sally calm in the evening - by lighting the fire - she loves it and will lie in front of it for hours 

Sally with an empty whiskey bottle.

Well the birthday girl is well and truly awake now and wanting attention so I have to go as she keeps putting her slobbery chops on the laptop - not good.

Bye for now

Johanna, Neil and Sally

Hello everyone,
first apologies for not keeping blog up to date but we were away at the carvan for 2 weeks at the end of September after work on the new store at Garstang finished and there is no internet connection there - so we had a lovely quiet time just with walks down to the lake and through the woods. One day we went for a ride round Ullswater and walked up to Aira Force waterfall which was really nice - we had never been there before. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera but Neil had his and took some photos so I'm just waiting for him to download and e-mail them to me to put on here.

One day the week before last I had followed my ususal routine of walking Sally then having breakfast and settling her down before I go to work. However when I got back there was a scene of destruction greeting me - tissues all over the floor, her food bowl, magazines that she had got off the dresser and the shade of my favourite lamp which she had removed and chewed up. She had also chewed the corners off a photo album - this is the beginning of a bit of a saga with photo albums. I started the album last year with newspaper cuttings following the progress of the Booths store at Garstang that we were building, and had it in the meeting room at work but Sally found it and chewed the corners off it, so I bought another album and transferred all the cuttings into that and that is the one in the photo below, so I bought another new one and had it on the dresser but she got that one as well so when I get another one she is not going to go near it. Below are photos of the destruction she caused in one morning - as a result she has been to work with us lately so we can keep an eye on her except for a couple of days last week when I had a cold so didn't go to work. This lamp was found on the floor without its shade.

Note photo album on floor!!!!!!!

Sally was at the vets again last week to have her blood taken to see if she had developed antibodies against Rabies - she didn't like that at all - it took 3 of us to hold her still while the vet shaved her a bit of her leg and took her blood. We are hoping to go to Spain in March or April next year but we have to wait for the blood results yet - they should be ringing us soon.

Sally is completely out of her phantom pregnancy now and so she is eating more. When we weighed her at the vets she was 43.5 kgs so we will see what she is on the 11th November when she goes in for her operation.

Well that is all for now - I'll write again soon

Sally, Neil and Johanna

Hello everyone,
Had to take Sally to the vets again yesterday as she is having a #phantom pregnancy'. Her mammary glands have not gone down at all and she has started 'nesting' - scratching at her bedding so it is all over the place. Anyway Neil thought the vet could give her an injection to help her but she said they did not do that anymore. She examined her thoroughly and said she should be ok in a couple of weeks. When she had finished she gave Sally her rabies injection so she will need a blood test in 3 weeks time. Before leaving I put Sally on the scales again and she was about 42 kg again, it was difficult to be accuate as she would not sit still on the scales - so no gain this week but she has not been eating as much as usual and the vet said that is due to the phantom pregnancy. Poor thing - she does appear to be suffering - she has started whining a bit today so she must be feeling off as she has never done that since the first few days she was here.

Otherwise Sally has been doing great - she is fully housetrained now and can be left alone for about 5 hours while she has a sleep and I go to work. I take her to work occasionally but there are too many distractions for her to get enough rest, especially when Holly is there as Sally just wants to play. She will be going to work in the morning as Carolyn and Isobel are coming to clean and they wouldn't get anything done with Sally chasing the dusters and hoover. When they have finished the house they come to the office to clean there so when they get there I bring Sally home to catch up on sleep.

That's all the news for now - will add more after her her blood test and tell you how she went on with that.

Sally, Johanna and Neil.

Hello everyone, me again,
here are a couple of pics of Sally 'sat' on the chair - this has become a common occurance lately.

Sally will be 40 weeks old on Tuesday and now weighs 42 kg - just over 6 and a half stone. She does not seem to have grown much more but does appear to be filling out more in the chest area. She still has a scar where the tick was weeks ago - I don't know if it will go or she might always have it - hope not!

When I took her to the vets last week to be spayed the vet recommended not doing the operation yet as she was still in season, her mammary glands were still swollen so she said she still had some hormones circulating which would mean the tissues were still more delicate and may make the operation more risky and also she might be more prone to phantom pregnancies in the future and we definately did not want that as Katie suffered badly with them. So weare now waiting until the end of October or beginning of November to have it done - there is no rush as she will not be due another season for 6 months. Instead we are starting on the programme for applying for a pet passport; Sally is already microchipped so that is the first part; next she has to have a rabies injection followed by blood tests. We are hoping to take her to Spain next year and the passport taked about 8 months to be final. It is not a problem taking her out of the country but bringing her back she would have to be quarrantined for 6 months without the passport.

That's all for now, we have just come back from the caravan and Sally has had a couple of hours rest and is now playing with Neil.

Sally, Neil & Johanna.