You know how much I love a good tooth gap – so cute!

Jovie is 4 months old, we adopted her yesterday from a very nice breeder in Richmond, Virginia.  So far, she loves chasing the kids in the backyard, most of these photos were taken while she was running around with Zach and Alex yesterday.  We had old dogs for so long I forgot how great our yard is for puppies!  She loves being outside, when the kids went to school she played with the swings for an hour, chewing and swinging them back and forth – she also loves the tee ball bats – what a sport!  She is a lot more timid indoors, and doesn’t do stairs yet, so basically, when we carry her in, she stays put in that exact spot until carried somewhere else – my friend Rebecca said I should enjoy the stillness now, because she will come out of her shell soon and I will long for not having to chase her around the house!

And a big sorry to everyone out there waiting for me to edit your sessions – long story but my house was broken into and my desktop (among other things) was stolen a week ago.  I am trying to pick up the pieces, deal with insurance, and wait for my new desktop, making due with my old laptop in the meantime.  I will do my best to get everything done as soon as physically possible!

We had to put Tillie down today – her 14 years finally caught up with her.  She was a dog like no other I have ever met – I think anyone who has been close to the family has their own “Tillie story”.  We would love it if you could share your stories as comments below…

I wanted to share some highlights of Tillie’s 14 years:

Tillie was the only puppy in her litter – we all think this is because she ate the other puppies.

Michele (Steve’s mom) was the first to go visit Tillie at the breeder, before she was old enough to come home, probably a couple of weeks old.  When Michele picked her up, Tillie growled at her, as if to say “You’re not holding me right!”  To this day, Michele swears it is the only time she has heard a puppy this young growl.

When we adopted Sophie at 10 months (after Tillie), Tillie made Sophie sit on the floor of the Saab for the entire ride back from Baltimore to Durham, while she stretched out on the seat.

All three kids learned to stand by holding on to Tillie (or Sophie).

She never learned to swim, all of the other family dogs would swim at Steve’s parents’ lake house, while Tillie would stand knee deep in the water, playing with her plastic toy until it sank, then she would bark for someone to fish it out for her, then repeat this pattern about 500 times.

Strangely, she rarely opened her mouth.  She developed a way of panting out the side of her mouth.

Every time we sang Happy Birthday for anyone, Tillie would bark at the end of the song.  It was the strangest thing because it was so predictable.

She was masterful at stealing food and escaping from the yard, and the really amazing part was the complete lack of remorse.  I respected her for that.  Once, our neighbor’s daughters returned Tillie to us, and in the time I was thanking them at the door, Tillie snatched a whole hot dog off the table and walked right by me with it in her mouth to go eat it in the other room.

We once had a suspicious person enter our yard late at night.  We turned the lights on and put Tillie and Sophie out to scare them off.  They both sensed the person in the yard.  Sophie barked and took off into the darkness to protect us.  Tillie bolted back into the house through my legs.

She had a fondness for Melanie’s banana bread, and I am pretty sure she once engineered a pretty sophisticated means of getting a loaf we had placed “out of her reach”.

She also had a fondness for poop.

She and Sophie once ate two very large gingerbread houses, that they somehow got from one of the higher shelves in the bookcase.  I am certain that Tillie was the mastermind behind this.

Throughout all her years, it always felt as if we were all people working for Tillie.  She was a loving dog, who at the same time could shoot you a withering stare that clearly communicated her disdain for you.

But underneath the death stares and snack snatching, there was a reliably tolerant dog who was a loyal, loving and integral part of the family until her last moments.  No one will ever replace you, Tillie, we will miss you with all our hearts.