Getting to Know Each Other

I've been surprised/amused to find that Nikita:

- sleeps most of the time,
- snores like a drunk, and
- chews anything in sight those rare moments when awake
(furniture, ankles, cords of all kinds, edges of staircases...)

I've been less delighted with Nikita's:

- razor-sharp, if tiny, teeth; and
- propensity to worm her way into tight spaces
(then require delicate and potentially painful extraction).

Nikita appears to enjoy it most when I:

- rub her belly,
- play tug-of-war with her,
- run around in zig-zagging lines for her to follow, and
- tell her what a "good girl!" she is.

She seems less-than-thrilled however when I:
- try to keep her out of the mud in the garden, and
- take away the box of treats she keeps managing to both access and open.

Meeting the Family

This is one well-traveled (and well-adjusted) puppy.

Having picked Nikita up in Madison Thursday, I drove her back to Chicago and introduced her to some friends. Josh, Gene, Amir, Perry and Leigh were all suitably smitten =).

We hit the road again Friday morning and drove 13 hours -- including lots of stops at rest areas in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland -- to grandma's house in Fairfax, Virginia. Besides an alarming habit of crawling under the car seats and forcing me to drag her out, the ride went really well.


We spent Saturday meeting grandpa, the great grandparents, and some assorted other relations from his side of the family. Big hit all around. And today we're just relaxing back at grandma's, catching up on work/play and chewing, respectively.