 
 
 March 28, 2010 - 20 weeks old (21 lbs.) - We took Shadow x-country skiing last Saturday and introduced her to snow shoeing yesterday. She's become quite the hiker. The golden retriever in the pictures is her best friend Ruby. Ruby will come right up to our front door - which has a full length window, and sit there until Shadow comes out to play. It's good for both of them. She loves tearing up newspaper, so before I cleaned the house this weekend we had a big paper tear fest. What fun! 
 
 May 5, 2010 - 6 months old - A few of Shadow's favorite things. . . Shadow is intrigued by birds and loves to watch them and will sit under the feeder entranced - actually, anything in the sky, including planes. She likes to dive under the coffee table, or one of our rocking chairs when playing - however, she doesn't quite fit like she used to. We play "pig in the middle" with the ball - throwing and rolling it back and forth. She loves it and gives up the ball to us easily. Shadow seems to know that the fun is in the chase. . . the stuffed toy in the picture is a fox - hard to tell, as her favorite thing to do with any new toy that has ears is to remove the ears! Of course, there is always sleeping on the sofa. . .she does know how to make herself comfortable!!!  August, 2010 - 9 months old - We have been on lots of hikes this summer and one four-day backpack. Shadow carried all her food, and other necessities for the hike. She did really well. She is no longer timid around streams and lakes, but rather, jumps right in to cool down and get a drink. We are taking a basic training puppy class in Aspen once a week with a service dog trainer. Shadow seems to learn the commands quickly and does all of the commands pretty well at home, but once she gets around the other puppies in the class she just wants to play. She is still very playful and thinks every dog will want to play with her. She’s met some grumpy older dogs who do not want to play with a rambuncious puppy so, she gets growled at often. 
 
 November 5, 2010 - 1 year old! - Shadow thanks Mom and Dad so much for the Birthday Cake. She had great fun, first of all tearing the candle off the top! Shadow had a fun b-day, first at the groomers (she actually LIKES going to the groomer, because there are other DOGS there) and then went for a long hike on a trail we had never hiked before. She spent the rest of the day conked out on her bed. December, 2010 - Merry Christmas from Shadow and her family!  "The Princess and the Pea" 
 Shadow says Thank You for a wonderful present! She was so good and didn’t destroy any ornaments, or open any presents early, although she found the fabric ornaments particularly interesting. She opened all her own presents, and enjoyed every bit of it.  We celebrated Christmas day snowshoeing up at McClure Pass – about a 10 minute drive, before consuming large amounts of food. We had to go up 1500’ to have snow – we had a brown Christmas for the first time in a long time – it’s finally snowing now. |