Our Newest Addition

Meet Blue Bowlin! He is the newest member of our family, after we adopted him on February 28. We had been working with the Greater Richmond Lab Rescue for a few months to find our "right" dog. We had also adopted Dixie from them 5 years ago. Blue is 1 1/2 years old - truly a very large puppy.  At 83 lbs, he is larger than Dixie, but smaller than Duke was. He is a purebred chocolate lab, and his previous owners had him since he was a small puppy. He's a handsome boy and absolutely loves his furry sister - every day he wakes up excited to see her and play with her. 

Dixie made sure to establish her authority from the very beginning - it's her house and she's in charge. If Blue is playing with a toy that she wants, she just walks over, barks, and takes it from him. He looks a little forlorn but then shrugs and finds another toy. He is very smart to let her be in charge! He loves to chew on bones and toys (and shred them if given the opportunity), and he is thrilled to have someone throw a ball for him in the backyard. Ainsley has taken this on as one of her jobs, and he is very good about sitting and waiting for her to throw it before racing with Dixie to get to it. 

Dixie gets tired of him by the evening - she is long overdue for her third nap by then, and he's still ready to play. But she seems to really enjoy having the company of another dog in the house. She certainly gets a lot more exercise with him around, and she has figured out that it's fun to taunt him with the toys that she steals.  

Blue still has some things to work on. He's getting better at walking on the leash without getting tangled up with Dixie, just as I have learned the strategy it requires to walk two dogs at once. He has a hard time figuring out what is a dog toy and what is a kid toy (an easy mistake for a dog who has never been in a house full of kids before), but he is slowly figuring it out and we are getting better at not leaving stuffed animals and toys on the floor (or at least closing the playroom door so he can't get to them). Dixie is teaching him which neighbors to bark at, and the best strategies for chasing squirrels off the bird feeders. 

And just yesterday the kids were teaching him how to play "Monster", which used to require one of us to chase them around the yard. Now Blue knows that Ainsley screams and he is supposed to chase her. She will climb up into the playhouse where he can't reach her, and he'll run circles around it until she comes down again. Except he finally got fed up with that part and decided to just jump up into the playhouse with them! 

He was quite content once he got to be up there with the kids, but then he had to sit there for a few minutes to figure out how to get down. Luckily it's not a very long jump.  He is still figuring out how swings work - he gets kicked in the head daily - but he's very resilient. Dixie taught him about doggie daycare, which was quite a new adventure for him. By his second visit he had figured out that it's a really fun place to go, and now he runs out and jumps in the car as soon as I open the door.

Blue has been with us for two weeks and is settling in quite nicely. He and Dixie are both exhausted at the end of every day, which I take as a sign of very happy dogs. Except for wiping his mouth all over our pants, and giving the kids a few more kisses than they prefer, he is a handsome and lovable puppy. The kids are excited that our family is now equal - 3 boys and 3 girls - which in a child's mind is complete perfection.