Niffy has been home for two months!

We've had our precious boy for 2 full months now and he gets more and more dear to both of us. I just can't tell you what a HUGE difference he has made in Tory. It is remarkable. I"m not sure any other dog could have done for her what he has, though the experts will tell me any dog would have made a difference, I'm sure. He is perfect for her and for us. He is QUITE a character! He IS so full of himself, as you described him, Dawn, that he draws attention from just about anyone who sees him! I just wanted to tell you about the beach. He was fearless of the water, the waves and the sand. LOVED IT!! He especially loved for me to run with him on the beach! Tory was very frightened the first day we took her down to the beach, but she watched Niffy and and seemed to gain confidence during our several trips to the beach on the first day. Niffy found a stick and teased Tory with it on our last walk of the evening and from that point on Tory was great at the beach AND in the water!! She bounced through the waves trying to catch them with her mouth!! Niffy didn't really 'like' the waves - might have reminded him of getting a bath which he still doesn't like very much. But, he was not afraid of them. In the end I had a struggle to keep him from drinking the salt water and licking the sea foam! He dug up shells and chased the many birds. He had a blast and so did Tory. Skip and I loved it even more because they had such fun!!

The deal is though, that we must have been stopped 50 times or had people come by our trailer to find out about him! Everyone wanted to touch him and pet him. They all thought he was just something!! An artist came up to us and asked if she could paint both dogs but that happened on our last day there just before we left so we couldnt' do it. Tory did so well with all the people coming around. If Niffy let them pet him, she would also. He was a hit. It has to be in the way he carries himself when he bounces around while we are walking. His head held high, looking at everything. He is really something. I know you must feel that way about all your 'babies' but he is SO different from Tory that he really stands out for us.

He is doing pretty well. We are calling those training people you found for us and making the inquires about getting him (and ME!) enrolled. We held off because we knew we were going away and didn't want to have any interruptions to the training. So, as soon as we can, we will get going on that part of his life. He does pretty well for me, though. He is still a wild man first thing in the morning!! His latest deal is that he seems to need to CHEW and managed to completely ruin HIS chair. Thankfully, it was HIS chair and one we were going to throw out anyway. He has tons of toys and he chews on all of those as well, but if we leave him in the house and go outside without him, you can bet he will be looking for something 'bad' to chew on. He does NOT like for me to call him 'bad boy'!! Ears go back and he races away from me only to return and walk behind me and stick like glue to my legs!! He still is completely and totally attached to me. I can't go anywhere, I mean anywhere, without him trotting along beside me or behind me. Every move I make he watches. I have to be careful not to step on him sometimes. Even now, as I type this, he is laying ON my feet!