Introducing Sandy, Our New Labrador Puppy
October 30, 2011
After much convincing by our daughter, Mr. Papa agreed to get an adorable female yellow Lab named Sandy. A local family had the litter of 8 boys and 1 girl, and Mr. Papa said we could get one if the girl wasn’t already taken. We were the first to ask specifically for the girl so we got her. It has a been quite a while since I have had a baby puppy since our other two dogs were rescues at 6 months and 4 months when we got them. Puppies are so much fun, and Labradors are especially friendly, sweet and over all good-natured.
We carefully introduced the puppy to our oldest dog who can be a little grumpy when it comes to other dogs. We had my daughter hold the puppy in her arms up the street from the house and then I walked the older dog up there on the leash to introduce them. My daughter held the puppy down for her to sniff, rear end first, so that she could check her out. We did this several times as we walked toward our house. She was actually surprisingly “low key but happy” about the pup. By time we were back to the house she had accepted her into the family. The other dog “took kindly” to the puppy right away.
The puppy is eating, and growing, and pooping a lot. I have rediscovered how to utilize the carpet shampooer. I even did some maintenance on it and have it working like new again. The carpets actually look cleaner than they have in years thanks to the improved performance of the carpet cleaner. We think that she is struggling a little bit with the house breaking because she is growing so fast. She’s gone from 9 lbs at 8 weeks old to 27 lbs at 14 weeks. Her Mom is 85 lbs and Dad is 98lbs, so we expect her to be big.
She and the two year old dog are now best friends!!! They run and play and chew on each other until they are exhausted. The older nine year dog doesn’t really join in, but does act like a grumpy old lady and fusses at them when they get to rambunctious. The black dog, Stormy, still has about 20 lbs on her, but is already some what submissive to her. She just has a submissive personality, but thankfully the puppy is sweet so she doesn’t take to much advantage of her.
She is off to a good start as a wonderful family pet. We’ve started a gallery of her pictures here.
Savannah Places 11th at State National Geographic Bee
April 5, 2011
On Friday, April 1, 2011, our daughter Savannah placed 11th at the Arizona state level National Geographic Bee competition. She qualified for the bee by winning the school bee, then score high enough on the written test to qualify for the 100 or so positions at he state bee. At the state bee, the competitors are divided into 5 groups of 20 to compete in preliminary rounds. The top 10 with the most correct answers regardless of which preliminary rooms in which they competed qualify for the final round. Of the 100+ competitors, 7 answered all 8 of the preliminary bee questions correctly. About 15 competitors, including Savannah had missed just one question and went to the tie breaking round. At the tie breaking round all students answered the same question by writing it on a paper. She was unfortunately eliminated when there were two positions left and just 5 competitors. That put her in a 3 way tie for 11ths with the other two competitors that were eliminated in that round. The remaining contestants made it to the final round.
For the final round the 10 competitors answer both individual oral questions and some written questions for all competitors. Competitors are eliminated when they miss two questions during this round. Where there are only two competitors left they start over in a head to head round with two misses allowed. The young man who came in 3rd placed first last year. The young man who eventually won was last year’s runner up.
He will go on to a free trip to Washington, DC to compete in the national bee with competitors from the 50 states plus US territories. After qualifying rounds the 10 finalist will compete in a televised competition hosted by Alex Tribek.
We are very proud of Savannah for doing so well. She plans to continue her geographic studies with the goal of making the finals next year.
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