Molly and the Moves

     Molly and I moved in July back to my hometown of Memphis.  Gordon wanted me out of his house, even though the deal was that I would stay there during the summer and work at his wife's silk screening shop for room and board.  He told me to get out without even asking his wife, thus, firing me from my job because I wasn't going to stick around with no compensation. (His wife and her business partner were not too thrilled with this as I was the only one that knew how to work the computer.)  I had a friend come pick me up and we took the long 11 hour drive to Memphis.  Of course, Molly did try to eat him when she first saw him, but I put her in the car while we packed it and once she realized we were going on a ride, she calmed down.
     Molly had her first hotel stay during this.  We went as far as Oklahoma City and stayed in a nice hotel.  I was a little worried about how she would behave, but we got in around two in the morning, so we met no one in the halls. She sniffed around and went to sleep once we got settled in our room.  She did enjoy looking out the window.  She got a little loud once morning hit, barking at people through the window and barking at the maid when she knocked.
     Molly did settle in fine with my family in Memphis.  The only one that did not like her was MacTavish, my old family dog.  Otherwise, Molly got along great with everyone and loved sitting in my mom's lap and begging my mom and grandmother for food.
     We weren't there too long before we got the opportunity to move back to Kansas.  S was done with his PTSD treatment and had a job.  He came and got us in September.  Molly was good on the ride to our new home, sleeping most of the way, letting us know when she needed to potty.  Now we live in a duplex and the lady next door has three dogs, but she doesn't live in the apartment...Molly barks when she hears the woman go in and out.  Of course, I had Molly outside training today when the woman let her dogs out and her dogs started barking.  Molly went to the fence to greet them and they weren't going for it.  The woman made her's go in and then thought she'd talk to me, but Molly was having none of it.  She kept barking her head off until the woman went in.  Now I am trying to figure out how to go about training all these new things to Molly.  I am in a bigger city, and there is proper training available.  I just need to find a job so I can have money to pay for it. 

Molly's Lifef

     Living with Molly has been an adventure from day one.  She may have been the calmest pup in the shelter, just sitting there, watching the world go by. (She never once stood up when we walked past her kennel.) But her personality shinned after a few weeks.  As soon as she was released from her confines of the kennel, she zoomed around S and I.  She was licking us and wagging her tail and generally happy.  We clipped the leash on her and of course she pulled.  She tried getting in the trash in the office at Woodward while we were filling out the paperwork.  When we got outside, he headed right for the truck (even though we tried to get her to potty.  Her gas was something awful!)  As soon as S opened the truck door she jumped right in like she belonged.  She stayed in the back seat of the truck and fussed a little when we had to run into Walmart to buy a few supplies for her.  Then we went to Atwoods to get some things that we had seen there earlier, like a dog bed, treats, and toys.  S gave her a treat when he got out and she buried it in the back of the truck.
  She laid down and slept for the hour and a half car ride home.  We stopped once to let her out when she started to whine.  As soon as we got to the house she perked up and jumped out of the truck with us and ran straight for the front door.  We let her in and off she went exploring.  We didn't realize she wasn't house trained until a day or so later.
     Our second day of having her, I had to go work at the t-shirt shop, so she stayed home with S.  When it came time for me to get off work, he asked Molly, "Do you want to go get Momma?" and he said that she ran straight to the front door when he said that so she got to ride to the shop with him.
     Over time, we started taking Molly out to pastures and Coldwater Lake on Sundays.  She had so much energy and I quickly found out that there was no walking her around town. She tried to chase cars, went berserk at dogs, and even went ballistic over people that were walking too.  I tried various times to walk her and found a few times of the day that I could get her walked going down a dirt road that didn't put her over threshold as often.  She loved going and seeing the goats along the path., though she wasn't allowed to bark at them or hassle them.  When she went out to the pasture, she got to run as fast as she wanted and dig and explore.  One hot day we tried to get her in the horsetank to cool off.  She was thinking about it, but couldn't figure out how to get herself in there.  We picked her up and put her in.  She came out.  Then she went and played in the mud and cow pies near the tanks and got dirty, so back into the tank we threw her.  After about the third time, she decided she liked being in the tank and begged us to put her in.  She still couldn't figure out how to get in there herself though.  Thus started her love of swimming.
     That summer we had enough rain that a pond developed in one of th pastures so we took her to it to see what she would do.  She explored the new pasture then went running to the edge of the pond.  She got her feet wet then started playing around the edge.  We had brought her ball so we threw it and into the water she went to get it.  We took her out to that  pond for weeks before it dried up.  She would get so excited that she was shake as soon as she saw the water.
     By then it was fall and we still wanted to take her out on Sundays to do stuff.  We started taking her to Coldwater lake.  She about had a fit when she saw how big that lake was.  We let her out and she did zoomies all around us and ran out into the lake and swam and ran back to us and zoomed some more and swam more.  We also started taking her Geocaching with us she she helped us find the first cache in the woods at Coldwater Lake.  We took her to Clark County Lake once too but she didn't like it as much.  She like roaming the cliffs and was vertical at one point climbing on them, but she didn't want to get into the water because the land didn't slope into it.
     For now, while S is out of town, Molly and I play ball and frisbee.  I also let her play with the dogs in the neighborhood.  Of course we do training too and I play hide and seek with her.  What are some of the things you and your dog do?  Do you go hiking, play ball, compete in agility or other events?  Let us know in the comments!

Adoption Day and the Start of My New Life

Hello all!  My name is Molly and I'm an Australian Cattle Dog, also known as a Red Heeler.  I was adopted from an animal shelter in Oklahoma this past weekend.  My new parents had come in hoping to find them a Golden Retriever.  Them and another couple had shown up at the same time to look at all of us at the shelter.  The other couple ended up taking the Boxer.  (Boy did he bark loud and get happy at being let out of his cage!) My mom and dad kept looking at this Greyhound that was trying to choose them as her new family.  They were going to adopt her, but the shelter was in the process of tracking down her family, and they figured it would be best if she went back to the people she knew. They saw two others that they liked, but they weren't up for adoption yet.  They had seen me and liked me, but my tag said "hold", so they debated asking about me.  They finally decided to ask and found out that I was being released from the hold that day.  They let me out of my cage, played with me, then decided to take me.  We went into the office to fill out a card and off we went.  I was happy to be out of there!  Dad said that I was released from jail.  I will give kudos to the staff though for keeping our kennels clean and caring about us.  My parents were very impressed with the lady working there.  Mom said it must be a rewarding job when you get an animal adopted out, but a hard one when one has to be euthinized.  My parents tried to get me to potty before we left, but I ran straight for the truck and jumped right in when dad opened the door.  My parents had to stop at Walmart real quick to pick up some supplies becore heading home.  I was not haapy at first at being left in the truck.  They did let me out to potty, gave me some water, and left the windows down some for me though.  I cried for a few minutes then just sat and waited patiently for them to get back. While we were at Walmart, we did run into the family that took the Boxer.  He was still all smiles!  My parents came out 15 minutes later, loaded down with stuff.  They then had to run to Atwoods.  Mom stayed in the car with me this time and we watched some man wreck his truck into a lightpost in the parkinglot.  Dad came out with a few more things and gave me a toy duck and showed me a bed he got me.  He also brought me more water.  After that, we had one more stop at Carl's Jr. to grab a meal before we headed back to Kansas.  My new parents were so surprised at how well I behaved in the truck.  I laid down between them and slept for most of the ride.  My first full day in my new home was Monday and dad stayed home because he wasn't feeling good.  He did take me with him to feed his calf, then we played in a pasture, at home I chased this thing named Roomba, and I rode with him to get mom from work.  Tuesday was one of mom's days off, so she started training me.  She said I needed a few manners.  Yesterday was the first day I had been left by myself for a few hours.  Mom was very impressed when she got home.  I didn't potty in the house and had only moved a box.  I will admit, I figured out by Tuesday that I only potty outside.  I'm not dumb you know!   I also figured out sit by Wednesday.  My parents are impressed at how smart I am.  Now if only they would stop being so stubborn about me not sleeping on the bed with them.  And they have the gall to call me stubborn?!  Well, that's it for my first entry.  I'll try to keep you updated at least once a week about my new life "out of jail".