Never E'Neuf Newfs!

This afternoon at lunch Sleyed mentioned something about how cute Landseer newfs are and before we knew it we were talking about getting another newf. Not seriously talking - just having fun imagining life with two newfs. If we had enough land and money, I'm sure we'd have nine newfies...

There are a bunch of cute stories about "You know your Newf is big when..." at Drulzelot, a Newf blog. I can relate to this one:

"... driving with my Mack, who was a very long slabby dog, and when I was in paying for my gas, the teller asked me how many dogs I had in the car. I answered "Just one..." and then followed her line of vision, to see Mack standing in the back seat of my car with his head out one side window, and part of his tail sticking out the window on the other side, wagging..."

Speaking of her Royal Newfssance, Katy has been the subject of a bit of concern ever since she wigged out when our neighbor had a new roof put on his house last week. Actually, I think her little panic attacks started a few months ago when she got spooked by kids lighting off fire crackers behind the science building. She hesitated to walk on campus and is just now coming around.

Then the roofers arrived, followed by balloon stampede weekend with the sound of hot air balloon firings over our house, and then more fireworks to close the fetsival. She was so freaked out the night of the fireworks that she slept in the bathtub one night and refused to eat one of her "munchy snacks." She cowered for a week and acted afraid of just about everything, including us at one point.

She's on the mend now. Today the Baroness von Roughenhausen worked up enough confidence to wander off to the alley and BOTH neighbor yards while I was outside with her weeding. We weeded together for a while but she got bored and wandered off a few times. She came back everytime I called her so I figured her freedom outside would be good for confidence building.

She loved it - tearing around the yard at high speed, juking imaginary dogs, play bowing, etc. I love to see her happy. It's also wonderful that she seems to like pulling weeds - it's the weirdest thing. She only pulls the weeds!

We aren't getting another newf, but it sure is tempting sometimes. She's a big sweetheart - very protective, emotionally sensitive, agreeable. And, when I've been working at my laptop too long, she's eager to make me take a break for the towel game.

Stupid Towel Game is her favorite. She holds one corner of a kitchen towel in her mouth while one of us holds another corner. Then we flip the towel around in the air like you would a jump rope very fast until it forms a long, tight spiral. She goes nuts when it hits her on the top of her giant head. I've played STG so long that my arm hurts... and still she asks for more.

The pictures capture what I was confronted with every few hours while writing my dissertation.