A few weeks ago, I eulogized Shelby, my father's beloved Great Dane, and even then, I noted that there was a good chance that Dad was going to start looking for a Dane puppy pretty soon. And sure enough, a week later, they went to a check out a litter of puppies and picked one out, and brought her home 2 weeks after Shelby's passing. The name they initially had in mind was Lucy, but after J.G. and I reminded them that that was already the name of one of our kittens, they ended up naming the new puppy Scarlett.

At the risk of coming off soft batch and getting all cute overload on you, that's Scarlett up there. The second time we went to see her on July 4th, we took a few pictures, including the one above of her on my lap, with my incredibly hairy hand in the corner of the shot. Her weight has already doubled since they first went to pick her out, but she's only 20 pounds, and incredibly awkward as she stumbles around on her oversized paws. Dad carries her up and down the stairs of their house, and she hasn't ventured very far from home yet. Usually on the 4th, we watch the fireworks over the harbor from the top of Dad's house, but this year we decided to walk right down to the water, and J.G. and I took turns carrying Scarlett. I think Scarlett felt really safe with J.G., it was good to see them bond. Scarlett is still easily startled by loud noises, but she was really well behaved during the fireworks. And we were right up underneath where they were going off, so close that you could smell the smoke as ashes rained down and fell into your hair. It was kind of fun to carry her all that way, since in probably a month or two, she'll be too big to carry at all. And in a few months we'll be able to take her to the park, and the real fun will begin.

Dad and his girlfriend Linda went out of town this weekend, and this morning I drove them to the airport. They've got someone else watching Scarlett for the weekend, but I went and spent some time with her this morning. We played for about an hour, most of which consisted of her constantly climbing on me and trying to bite me. Hopefully she'll lose the biting habit when she grows up, Shelby never did that. She's a really cute little dog, though, and after a while she wore herself out and had to take a nap. And she's going to be huge before we know it, so it's nice to spend time with her now and watch her grow up.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 1:43 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.