Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Sweet & Silly...Celia

Meet Celia!  We swapped puppies with fellow raiser Tracy this weekend and so we've had this little for the past couple of days.  Here we're going for a walk...you can tell she's very eager to please (not to mention food-motivated -- she knows I've got kibble in my pocket!)

black, glossy-coated lab puppy in blue jacket, looking intently up at me

She did well, although smells were a distraction. 

I'm walking on the sidewalk; Celia's pulling to the side to sniff the grass
OK, we're walking, not sniffing!

Celia's pulling to the side again, this time to sniff some leaves
...NOT sniffing...

At home, she's very mellow and easy.  I've never seen a puppy sleep this much!  She'll play with a toy for a couple of minutes, then you look over and she's out cold.  She doesn't get into any puppy mischief...she's too busy snoozing.  I think she must be in a growth spurt or something!

Sometimes her reactions to new things take us by surprise.  Her first night here, she was sitting in the living room when Tim walked into the kitchen.  From her puppy's-eye-view, Celia looked up and all she could see behind the bar separating the rooms was his head.  All of a sudden she let loose with the deepest, most ferocious barking.  "Attack of the floating head!  Red alert!!"  Tim walked out from behind the bar and she was all surprised like, "Wait -- was that you all the time?!"  Funny !  We had a good laugh over that one...

Then when I didn't feed her on time one evening, she came and sat in front of me and let out this high-pitched, shrill BARK -- I know it doesn't sound like much but I'm telling you, this has sonic warfare down pat!  One bark was all it took!  My ears started ringing...I couldn't even hear out of the right one for a minute...I just looked at her in shock and said NO BARK!!  Well, that devastated her.  She melted into this adorable little apologetic heap, as if to say she was so very very very sorry and could I please just find it in my heart to forgive her?  (lick, lick, wag)...pleaaase?  How could I stay mad?  (Although I did NOT feed her right away...didn't want her repeating the performance!)


closeup of Celia's face while she sleeps
Sweet dreams, Celia!

closeup of Celia's black paw
 Puppy paws...they'll go far one day!

6 comments:

Infrequent Flyers said...

I'd bark if I saw a disembodied head myself! Celia is a smart dog. Sounds like when she's on, she's on and alert. When she's off, she's sleeping. That's pretty darn cute!

Erin said...

LOL sounds like Pompei has been influencing her from afar! He loves to let me know stuff vocally! :)

Beth and Alfie said...

Yeah, she's a smart little girl. And really she doesn't bark much, but when she does, she MEANS it!

Clive said...

Loved the story of the barking and Celia!

Lisa and pups said...

She's adorable!

Anonymous said...

Awww I love the stories!