Moxie Turns 4!

This post has been a while in coming...bear with us and please pretend it's January 25, 2012. 

Can it be that our precious little pup horse doggy has already been around for 4 years?!?  We've had her most of that time, too, for about 3 1/2 years.  She sure has grown.  And she still acts like a puppy most of the time, which is sometimes good, and sometimes...not so much....haha 


 We had a little party for her, including her own special birthday treat -- a meatloaf muffin. 

                                                   She liked it!

Happy Autumn!

           Moxie is just stopping by to say Happy Autumn Everybody

    As you can see, due to the cooler weather, she gets particularly happy at this time of year.  : )

Sweetest...Dog....Ever

I have to share an incident that happened just recently to show just how smart and caring our dog CAN be. haha

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Moxie is very good about recognizing patterns and routines. I usually go shopping and run errands during the day, and am at home by the time David comes home from work.

One day, I was delayed, and so I had to do my shopping at night. It is very unusual that David gets home before I do and that I stay out later at night. Moxie knows this, and she was disturbed. David said she continuously paced around and kept looking at the door and at him. As time went on, she got more concerned. Finally, in a last ditch effort to get him to come to his senses, she went over to the phone (sitting on the coffee table) and bonked it with her nose. This was an intentional move by her. I don't think she knows what the phone is, but I think she did recognize from the past that it is an instrument we can use to check on each other. And she further knows that she lets us know she wants things by bonking them with her nose.

David did go ahead and call me, and yes, I was ok. After he hung up the phone, and told her I was ok and was on my way home, she calmed right down. But I must say she managed to impress both of us! And I got quite the exuberant greeting when I got home.

Thanks for watching out for us Moxie!

Shedding Season

Every spring and into the summer, Moxie starts shedding, and shedding, and shedding, and....

It really is quite impressive the amount of hair she gets rid of each year. Just to give you an idea, I have included two pictures from last year. What makes these pictures more amazing is these were actually taken toward the end of Moxie's "shedding season" last August. And if this is what we get out of her toward the *end* of the shedding season, imagine what comes out at the height of it. haha The second picture is how much of her hair I get out from under the refrigerator at this time of year.

David is really quite fascinated by the fact that you can probably sit for hours and just pull tufts of hair out from her undercoat. Brushing is a never-ending job. After 20 minutes of brushing, hair is still coming out in bunches, but Moxie has lost her patience! We brush her outside for obvious reasons, and when we are done, it looks like a small animal could have been slaughtered. lol

If only we could learn how to spin it and sell it as a "new" exotic yarn -- it would be really soft and warm, that's for sure. Anyone interested in some "Alsatian wool?"

Moxie's Latest....

We haven't been here in a while because...well...to be honest....there just didn't seem that much new going on to report. Each day blends into each other, much like the one before. But here is an update anyway:

Moxie is now a 75 pound mature german shepherd. She is very strong and capable of dragging Jenni across the front yard (don't ask how we know this -- aargh!) She is very aggressive-sounding to our neighbors despite our best efforts to train her they are all right. She goes into a "zone" it seems like that is very hard to snap her out of. It is nice to have a dog that is so protective of me, David and our home, but we'd like her to chill when we tell her it's ok. One of our neighbors comes right up to her and she shies away from her then. Big tough dog. But we are still embarrassed by her actions....work still in progress.

She has mostly grown out of her puppy ways. She still loves to play and greets David very enthusiastically when he comes home from work. I have to wait in line. haha Her favorite games are laser (she has a bit of an obsession with it really) and fetch. She is very good at recognizing patterns in our behavior and habits and responding accordingly.

After many times of being surprised when Moxie met us at the door, even though we had shut and locked her kennel door, we have allowed her to stay free now when we go away and during the night. She has *mostly* behaved herself thus far. There was an incident when I came home to find one of my leather gloves wet, thankfully not damaged. And there was also the morning I came out to find one of my envelopes of coupons dangerously torn up. Fortunately for Moxie, the coupons were still in tact, even though the envelope wasn't. Hmmmm, I wonder if she saw her life flash in front of her eyes. hahaha We do still close the gate between the bedrooms and the living room to keep her and Kiko separated, when we leave the house.

Speaking of Kiko, we have made wonderful progress with the two of them. It's only taken two and a half years! They can now be content within feet of each other, which is a whole lot better than it used to be when they couldn't even tolerate each other at one end of the house to the other. Ok, mostly that was Kiko, but who can blame him. I'm sure from his vantage point, she looks huge and menacing. David still has dreams of them spooning together on a cold winters night, but ahem....we'll have to see about that one. Still, it is very nice to have Kiko feel like he can be a part of our evenings by stretching out on the couch like he used to do.

Moxie's Milestones

A thousand apologies for not updating this sooner! Moxie has celebrated many milestones since we last were here. Here are a few of them--

Moxie's first Christmas:
Moxie loved, loved, LOVED going to Grandma W's house for Christmas! She could run around the back yard and explore three levels of house, much more room than she ever has at home. She enjoyed opening her gifts, having a bit of the tasty Christmas rib roast, and getting to know Grandma a bit better.

Moxie's First Birthday:
We celebrated with David for his birthday on January 20th. Moxie's first birthday was January 25th.










Moxie Visits her Like Kind:
Earlier this month, we had the opportunity to visit my uncle Dave and Aunt Bonnie who live in the edge of the Shawnee National Forest in Southern IL.


They have lots of land, so once again, Moxie was in her glory. They have a german shepherd puppy a few months younger than Moxie, so she made a new friend in Kate. They had their moments of disagreement, but overall they enjoyed their adventures together.

Here's a video of them playing together:














We visited my cousin Brian and his family down there as well. He also has a lot of land, so they enjoyed exploring there too. Although when Moxie met their dog, Jack, she didn't know quite what to make of him -- he is huge!

So, as you can see Moxie has had a busy time of it lately.
She has grown up so much, but we'll save the "smaller" news for another day. Love, Moxie

Moxie says... "Somehow (or at least I'm not telling how) I broke off part of my dewclaw on my front left paw. (The dewclaw, you know, is that odd 5th claw we dogs have higher up on the side of the paw). It hurt because it got up into the quick of the claw (the living part inside).

"Although I was happy to keep licking at it, Dave and Jenni said it wouldn't heal that way, and really weren't too keen about blood on the carpet.

"So, Jenni cleaned it, treated it with something she called, some anti-something stuff, and then taped it up. They were worried that I'd just chew it off, but I'm pretty smart and I realized that it's for my own good. It felt weird at first and I wanted to chew at it, but I controlled myself and have gotten used to it being on and haven't bothered it.

"They said it looks better this morning when they changed it and it doesn't hurt as much now. And most importantly I didn't need to go to the vet!!!"