Mud Puddles

Back in April and May, our province was in a severe drought. The yang mei's (Chinese fruit) that we look forward to at the beginning of summer were almost unaffordable, and the price of our veggies were also very high.

As you can see, the drought is over now thanks to all these afternoon thunderstorms and the farmers are breathing easy. Here we are on the flooded track... Adrian's curiosity and fearlessness know no bounds. I threw the Frisbee to her but it landed in the lake- it got suctioned down and she pawed at it for a while and then gave up. So I gladly slipped off my flip flops and waded in with her.

Playing with Daddy in all the mud puddles- does this dog love to have fun or what?









Adrian: part dog, part antelope.

You may also notice that our fluffy friend, Kimi, is not in these pictures- that's because she found a new home yesterday! Kimi is sweet and cute, but I have to say I'm glad she's gone. I love having two dogs in the house- it reminds me of when Rocky was still alive.... but to be painfully honest, she was a BRAT. She was soooo spoiled by her last owner, and wasn't even trained to come when her name was called. She was allowed anywhere and every where, ate food right off people's plate and jumped on everyone (which Chinese people are terrified of).

She couldn't be let off the leash- ever- because she would run away, and she was also the biggest prissy wuss dog I've ever laid eyes on. Even just pulling out the broom would send her scurrying to the other side of the room, wailing.

She was way past being trainable (believe me, I tried for several hours a day just to teach her to 'come'), and she had a trick to avoid spankings: if she was caught in the trashcan or doing something else she knew was wrong, as soon as you made your way across the room to her, she'd flop on her back and begin this terrible wail/ screech to make you think you were hurting her. I finally figured out she was faking it when I reached down to pick up her food bowl and she thought I was coming at her- I didn't even touch her and she began the wail. Spoiled!!

So, this has led me to realize what a jewel Adrian is... it's also made me realize that those long hours of training her were so worth it. She's not perfect at all- but considering she's only 1 year old and she's already obedient to "sit", "stay", "heel", "bring" "crate" and "come" 8 times out of 10, I'm pretty pleased.

I'll make a couple of posts on Adrian's training experience- what we did right or wrong etc. for any other dog lovers!