Ellie loves Edgemar Park

Ellie and Bear

Brother and sister reunited for a fun romp in the snow at Christmas 2011.

Ellie and Tule on the Trail

They should be mush dogs -- MUSH!

Ellie is 11.5 Months Old

Ellie is almost a year old.  Her birthday is April 7.  Right now, she weighs a solid 35 lbs.  She's a strong, playful girl.  Her favorite activities are chasing balls, squirrels, bugs and anything else that moves.  Birds are particularly attractive.  She barks at black crows and will chase them at the beach.

We've been working on fetch, and she's a superstar.  She always brings her favorite red ball back to us.  Sometimes, she wants to play tug-o-war with it, but most of the time, she drops the ball at our feet and waits for us to throw it again.

Ellie loves her grain-free salmon Canidae dog food.  She's also fond of her organic chicken/veggie dog treats.  I haven't made her any dog biscuits lately, but I'd like to try out some new recipes.  Other than dog food, she still likes to chew on Paul's socks when she finds one on the floor.

She's still a puppy at heart and loves to play, play, play.  Some of my favorite recent photos of the last couple of months are below.

Ellie and her favorite red ball

Ellie at Sharp Park Beach

Naughty puppy

All fluffy after her bath

What's that you say?

Hey, what's up?

Sporting a snazzy sweater

After chewing on a throw rug, this makes a good hiding place

If I stand here a while, will you give me a cookie?

Ellie, Princess of Montara Mountain

Ellie Catches Balls Flying Through the Air

This is a new phenomenon.  Ellie has always been a ball chasing fanatic.  She loves playing ball relay; when I throw a ball, she retrieves it and drops it at my feet, and then I throw another ball.  Repeat, repeat, repeat, forever.  Now, she suddenly has begun catching the ball in the air.  This appears to be something she's been practicing in private.  I'm duly amazed by her special talent.

Ellie, Macy and Sadie on Montara Mountain

Ellie and Macy

Ellie loves her puppy pal Macy. They have fun every weekday, chasing each other up and down the trails on Montara Mountain. Ellie's become a real teenager, with selective hearing and stubbornness, but still a sweetie that keeps us entertained. She is getting a thick winter coat, especially around the neck and shoulders. Her waggy tail and wide grin makes us smile every day.  She weighs 31 pounds.



She's had a couple of trips to the vet in the last two weeks, once for a tick and once after eating a Bird of Paradise flower. These can be very toxic to dogs (news to us), and we've got them in our yard. Time to rethink landscaping and puppy proofing! We never had to worry about it before with Duke, our previous dog. He was older and never botherered with eating flowers and odd things. Ellie's eaten or torn up: shoes, a couple of area rugs, paper napkins, a cardboard box, a kitchen sponge, and assorted puppy toys and other things.

Paul says that squeaky toy manufacturers should hire Ellie as a product tester. She has killed every squeaker in every toy we've bought for her. Some do last longer than others, especially Kong toys and Ruffians. We feel this experience qualifies her as a master squeaky toy tester. I'm sure there must be a squeaky toy company who would pay for this service.

The Ruffian rubber chicken finally passed away, after at least a month of daily chomping.  This may have been a squeaky toy record in our house.

The Kong toy definitely lasts and lasts, but the squeaker died after only a week.

She maintains a fondness for bully stix, but we try to limit those to a couple per week.  After all, she's a young lady and some appearance of propriety is in order.