Ready for the New Year!

We had a great time in Manitowoc for Christmas but are glad to be home to ring in the New Year! We have lots of snow in Boulder Junction and our little Mika is sure enjoying it as much as we are. Jay is out skate-skiing at Razorback trails in Sayner this afternoon. We went together on Thursday night and 30 minutes was enough of a workout for me. Jay, however, could have done "10 times that". So he will, but just not with me :).

Mika and I are at home hanging out. We went and visited our neighbors, Brandt and the Iltis' and got to play with their chocolate lab, Caramel. I am about to make a fire and settle down with a good book. This is the first weekend we have been home in a long time and I aim to make the best of it and actually relax a bit.

Please enjoy the pictures of our Mika from the last couple of days...

Mika gets a bath!

Mika got her first bath and loved every minute of it. Before her bath we wouldn't let her in the bathroom because we didn't want her drinking out of the toilet...now we can't keep her out of there. This morning when Jay was brushing his teeth Mika snuck past me and ran into the bathroom and jumped in the tub. We couldn't stop laughing. She might have liked it because Jay fed her 3 treats while she was in the tub with me.

Playing outside with Brooke and Jay

Jay demonstrating cross-country skiing for Mika. She is a very attentive student but was a little nervous about actually going with him around the yard. So, we went for a long walk on the frozen lake and through the snow drifts. After our walk we went over to Coon's to play with Ebb, their golden retriever. Mika was exhausted by 1:00 and took naps for the rest of the day. Having Brooke and Jay home for the weekend is really tiring on her. We had a lot of fun tiring her out and even more fun watching her dreaming on the rug in the early evening. Here are a few highlights of our walk:

Mika smells something good...

Dig, dig, dig...


Mika bounding through the deep stuff.

This is one happy puppy :)

Pictures of the day

Mika the moviestar

I thought it would be cool to just start taping Mika to see if she would do anything funny. She licked the camera and stared at me for awhile. Then I captured this...



She rarely sits when we say "sit", but she will sit every time we say "wait". Not bad for only 8 weeks old. :) She rings her bells that are hanging on the door every time she wants to go outside. If we don't move fast enough she really goes crazy. We are working on getting that on tape too.

Little Things

Mika and I wanted to say hello to all. We wish we could be at the Christmas party this evening.

All the books that I have read say that puppies shouldn't start obedience training until at least 12 weeks. I can't tell whether she is bored or just often tired. She understands wait(sitting) before going through doors and before coming out of her crate, she fetches and most of the time brings it back, and last night started to understand that if she rings the bell that we ring each time we take her outside, we'll open the door. As she is sleeping with her head on my leg, I think I'll just let her be a puppy.

After a few days of trying, she figured out how to get under the futon. I don't know what she was after, but she was pretty happy when she was under there. After this Giardia clears, she will be ready to tackle the world.

Giardia, not just for backpackers...

Dr. Kurt called this morning and informed us that Mika has giardia and that it is contagious to humans. Hopefully we will not develop giardia in the next couple of weeks.

We took her to the vet in town and got some pills. She should be okay in about a week, but that does mean that we can't bring her to Manitowoc to meet the extended family this weekend as planned. Everyone will just have to wait until Christmas...

Welcome Mika!

We picked up our new puppy this weekend. Isn't she cute! Ha ha.

After a great night in Madison visiting Rick, Andrea, Joe, Chris and Ben, we woke up early and drove down south of Chicago to meet Mika (pronounced mee-kuh). We didn't know which one would be Mika so we spent some time playing with the last two pups in the pouring sleet and freezing temps before we made our choice. Both puppies were equally adorable one being just a little larger than the other. We picked the bigger one because she seemed better suited to enjoy the snow and ice that prevail in the Northwoods. We have about 10 inches of powder at our house and she loves it!

Because she was the biggest in the litter she was the most dominant and really ran the show. Unfortunately for her, we will now be running the show. We drove up to the Miller's house in Winnetka and had a great time learning about our little charger. She is extremely confident and went right up to their black lab and started nibbling on her (Lucy's) paw. Lucy is a rescued dog and was actually afraid of Mika, who then proceeded to chase her around the room barking. What a great game :) Dr. Kurt checked her out at his new clinic and she got another couple vaccinations. We had a long drive home and she was excellent the whole way.


She is going to be a handful but we are both up for the challenge. The first two nights have been wonderful, no accidents in the crate and no crying. She is a good girl...I hope it lasts. Jay is excited to take her to puppy training to she if she will try to dominate the bull mastiffs.