In a little over a month, Sophie will turn 3 years old. I still have to blog about Jinx’s 8th birthday from Feb 28, and my husband’s more-than-8th birthday from yesterday, but Sophie’s getting the spotlight right now because, well, that’s how I roll.
We have been blessed with well-behaved and easy to train Finnish Lapphunds in our life. Jinx went through his chewing phase while we lived in my in-laws’ basement for a year, so by the time we bought this house, he was easy to leave alone with Annie. We honestly thought Sophie wouldn’t be too much trouble after her 2nd birthday, but you all know how that turned out.
Table corners and shoes are SO MUCH FUN and DELICIOUS!
We’ve been crating Sophie since shortly after her 2nd birthday, once we realized that she just wasn’t to be trusted. Of course we always started out small – a 30 minute run to the store and then building up to a couple of hours and then the full work-day – but inevitably, this dog would remodel our coffee table and destroy my shoes.
Our dear, sweet Sophacleese Lappie has begun to mellow out considerably. I can leave the dogs free on the main floor while I take a nap upstairs and nothing happens. (I learned this while I was really sick in February and couldn’t call the dogs upstairs when I needed to lie down and then ended up giving up and just dying a slow death for an afternoon by myself.)
So this morning when we went out for breakfast and then to run a couple of errands, I removed any chewable item I could think of (computer, books, electrical wires, tissue box, SHOES) from the living room and we closed the door to the basement, blocked off the stairs to the second floor and*….
Nothing was destroyed!
It’s a small victory, but I know that Jinx and Sophie like to nap together and now that Old Man Jinx naps a lot more, it’s sort of nice to have Sophie on patrol.
I see you.
We are very proud of our little Sophie and I thought I’d keep track of our successes AND failures this time so we have something to refer to when things possibly go wrong.
So Day 1 of Operation Free-Range Sophie 2013 has gone well!
*Shawn even took a photo of the corner of the coffee table that was re-chewed after his father fixed it for us (so we’d have a reference point). We’re still not sure which dog did the nibbling, but it was only once and when we first got the table back. Table seems to be extra-nibbled-free!
Yesterday I got the urge to try and do that jogging thing again. It happens every year at this time. The weather just makes me want to get outside and MOVE. Thing is, I can’t run to save my life. Zombie Apocalypse? Yeah, I’m just going to sit there with a sign around my neck that says “Free Food!” Not running away. Nope.
So I took Sophie and Shawn took Jinx. Shawn wasn’t running, I was. I couldn’t jog with Annie because, well, she was ANNIE and she didn’t DO exercise. Or outside. Or many things. She was a big fan of FOOD! though.
Sophie, on the other hand will trot along happily as I attempt to jog. I don’t go fast AT ALL. In fact, Shawn walks because my jog is his slightly faster pace.
Shush.
Except as I started my first goal run (one end of the street to the other end… it’s about .5 of a kilometre) Sophie started to drag. And drag… and… finally I had the leash extended all the way and she was BEHIND me and kept jerking my arm BACKWARDS. She wasn’t having any of the running. Nope.
So I stopped. I half jogged, half walked back to Shawn. Handed him Sophie’s leash and said “Give me Jinx. Sophie sucks.”
I can’t normally run with Jinx. As soon as you even look like you might want to run, Jinx takes off like he’s singing BORN FREEEEEE!!! and galloomphs down the street. He’s not particularly good at keeping pace (read: SLOW) with me. But he didn’t do so bad this time around.
I walked the next corner-to-corner and then ran another stretch. Walked some more, pain in my foot that I have been dealing with was getting worse (I will eventually have to bite the bullet and call a physio office I think. It’s getting to the point that I can’t even stand on it.), and then started on my second-t0-last running gig. I told Shawn, “Jinx and I are going to run from that corner, around to the next street and stop by the park.”
Things went fairly well, except my stupid yoga pants kept falling down. Very uncomfortable and I don’t know what pants to wear while running now. Argh. Suddenly I hear Shawn running pretty fast, coming up behind me. As I slowed down to pull up my stupid pants, I thought, “Damn, Sophie! She’ll run for Shawn but not for me?!”
Then Shawn passed me….
… he was CARRYING Sophie!
He ran past me with Sophie lolling around all happy in his arms.
I had to stop running because I was laughing so much I couldn’t breathe.
When he put her down, she pranced around, wagging her tall. SO PROUD OF HERSELF!
Good lord. He said she had a moment of panic when he first picked her up, but then she just flopped into relaxed mode as he ran. She didn’t like that Jinx and I turned a corner and she couldn’t see us, so she ran a little but then stopped. So Shawn picked her up and ran to meet us.
I’m worried Sophie had set a precedent for our walks now. Like hell I’m carrying her around. I’m not in military training! I don’t need to run and carry 28lbs at the same time.
Though, now I’m wondering if the next time I want to go jogging I can get Shawn to do the running while carrying me.
Poor Sophie wasn’t very happy to be let out of her crate when we got home from work only to be put back in 20 minutes later when we had to go back out. (Side note – if she stopped eating our furniture and shoes when we were out, she’d not have to be crated all the time!)
Shawn was holding her up, ready to put her in her crate, I took the opportunity to kiss her snout because she was so cute. I also started to say, “Don’t worry, Sophie, we’ll be back soon.” but I only got to “we’ll” when she slowly moved her paw and placed it over my mouth, totally closing it.
She did this so slowly and gently it was almost as though she was saying “No. Don’t say another word. You’ll just make it worse. Shhhhh, Mummy. Shhhhh. Just go. Go and don’t look back.”
We just stood there for a minute laughing and she kept her paw on my mouth. If only we had a camera around and a photographer or something to have captured that. It was hilarious!
Oh, my dear, sweet, little Sophaclees, I wish I had a glamour shot of you to post on your second birthday, but alas, you are dreadfully difficult to photograph. I did snap this shot this afternoon when you didn’t realize I had the camera on you, but you STILL thwarted my attempt to capture your beauty by breaking out into a yawn as soon as the shutter clicked.
Grrrrowwllll! Snarrrrl! *yawn*
I can’t believe that almost a year has passed since we drove to the middle of nowhere, Michigan to adopt you from Linda. I can’t believe that you’re two years old now, even though I feel like you’re only just turning one. So tiny. So dainty looking (because you’re honestly not dainty in any way, Ms. Classless.)
This month, the home-made calendar hanging on the kitchen wall is dedicated to you and the many, many photos we have of you sitting side-saddle. This seems to be the only way you’ll sit and it’s earned you one of your many monikers: SideSaddle Sophie. (Although, NoSophie seems to be the most used of all our nicknames for you… and the photo below proves why)
Shoes and tables are the tastiest of treats! If only I had dog toys to entertain me while the humans were gone. Not ONE dog toy around, so of course I have to improvise. If only I had dog toys…
For all the destruction you tend to inflict upon our personal items (who really needs a coffee table with corners, anyhow?) you are one of the happiest and sweetest of dogs. You absolutely LOVE your daddy and even though you might be climbing on my lap for pets, I see your eyes starting straight at Shawn. I might be petting you, but your heart lies elsewhere. It’s not really polite to be cheating on one human with the other in quite so blatant a manner, but hey, you’re a dog and you’re cute. I’ll let this one pass.
You are a huge change from living with Annabelly and Jinx. You’re nothing like either one and sometimes it’s hard for us to remember that. You might actually be a dog that we need to crate for longer than we did with Jinx. You’re stubborn and not quite trustworthy yet. We both hope you will end up being just as trustworthy as Jinx Puppy is, but it’s s work in progress.
Sophie, you have been wonderful for Jinx. Poor Jinx who took a long time to get over the passing of his big sister, Annie. He was unsure of how attached to get to you when we first brought you home, but it wasn’t long before he was initiating play time and getting you back from all the jumping on his head you were doing. The two of you play often and engage in a wonderful sort of Finnish Lapphund Dance as you do. It’s so entertaining to watch you squirm all over the place, thinking you’re fighting back when all Jinx has to do is put his weight into the game and drag you all over the deck by your tail. Heh.
The Dance of the Finnish Lapphund
Your (stubborn & cheeky) personality has brought us so much happiness in the last year. The loss of Annie (who wouldn’t have put up with your sass, young lady) was a difficult grief to get through. Still, today, we’ll tear up in this house over her loss, but you’ve managed to worm your way into our hearts (both human and canine) and remind us that life goes on and each dog is a gift to be able to share our lives with.
February 23, 2012
The best thing about adopting you was how quickly you trusted us and adapted to your new life. Even that first night in the hotel in Michigan, you attached yourself immediately to Shawn when we were worried that you’d panic the entire weekend. It was difficult getting you into our room, from Linda’s van, but you were content to curl up on the bed and sleep away the weekend. You slept in the 13 hour car ride like you’d been part of our lives forever. You might have howled the first couple of nights (and you’re still not wonderful during the day when we crate you, but we’re working that out…) but you sleep on our bed and don’t even get off once (much to our chagrin on the rare time you’ve thrown up. You need to learn to jump OFF the bed to do that, m’dearie.). As long as your curled up between us, you’re happy.
You love kisses and snuggling. You love burying your head under our arms and hands and in the snow. You’re curious and way too smart for your own good. You love woodworking (though we’d prefer you didn’t practice on the furniture…) You try my patience and pull at my heart strings.
Happy birthday, Sophie. Thanks for being good for us (if not for our furniture…)
Hiiiiii! It’s my birthdaaaaaay!! Buy me things! Put a candle on my birthday coffee taaaable!
It’s been super crazy lately with medical emergencies (not mine) that have thrown everything into a tizzy, so I am very behind in blogging. I have so many photos and things to post, but I just have not had the energy or time. For reasons that are explained in the above video, I am testing out a new camcorder that I got today. Hence the vlog rather than a real blog post. Sorry. Enjoy?
