Indy Neuter Update!

Indy's neuter surgery went just fine. Theresa brought him home at about 3pm yesterday and when I got home he was still pretty groggy from the surgery. He wasn't interested in eating at all--which as a guy I can COMPLETELY understand! He slept on his bed all evening and then decided he wanted to be up and moving around when we went to bed. Theresa was very concerned about him tearing out his stitches so she brought him into the guest bedroom and slept on the floor with him just to make sure he would behave. She is such a good mom!

When Theresa brought him in the day before for the required checkup (we got everything else taken care of...heartworm and the like) he was weighed and he tipped the scales at 43 pounds. I was very happy to hear that because he was a skinny boy when we got him. I think Cheryl told us he weighed somewhere in the 30's. I am going to email her to find out for sure.

Theresa has Friday's off and I worked from home today so he had lots of attention and it was a beautiful day here. Sunny and 63 degrees! In Minneapolis in March?! We'll take it! Indy and I went into the back yard and walked around a bit and then we sat on the deck for a couple of hours in the sun. Indy had a great time on the deck just taking it all in and relaxing while Theresa and I read our books and I did email and took some phone calls.

I went to the Obedience training class on Wednesday night and learned what I need to do to get Indy ready for the next class. I started working with him today and he was happy to oblige. He was so good and tried really hard! More training tomorrow!

Well, that's all for now...I am sure I will have some interesting stories from the obedience training on Wednesday. The instructors say it's pandemonium on the first night with the dogs.

Indy-pendence

In the last week or so Indy has started to have the desire to be alone. Two evenings last week he went into his kennel with the door open and went to sleep while we were still in the living room. Before that he wouldn't leave our side. There were a couple of times he would sit up after sleeping in front of the couch and then start to fall asleep again...he was literally nodding off. He would then assume the position and go back to sleep. It was pretty funny.

We decided that since he is feeling more independent that we would let him use the other bed in the house like his sister used to. So we pulled out the old comforter that we would put on the bed when Keisha would sleep on it and then we let him go up there. He was MORE than happy to take over that bed. He sleeps in there when he is tired and now when the house is quiet we don't have to wonder what he is getting into...as long as he is in the bedroom!

He is doing much better on walks. Doesn't pull as much, and is a bit easier to deal with around other dogs. He is learning so much! He will now calmly sit down before he comes out of his kennel. He is working on down and come and is getting better every day! However, he still doesn't like people coming to his house. We gotta figure out how to deal with that but I will deal with that AFTER he goes through obedience training. I figure there will be more people coming around in the spring and I can get some "strangers" to help me with that.

It is hard to believe that we have had Indy for a month on the 22nd. I am so happy we were able to adopt him. It's great to come home to find Indy overjoyed that you are there and to be able to go on a walk and have him prance down the road with you like he is king of the world! We both just love having him around.

His berries (sorry...Austin Powers reference) will be removed on Thursday and I am going to our first obedience class on Wednesday to learn what we have to do. I am going to talk to the obedience instructor so they know that he is having the surgery and if they recommend we miss a week, then we will miss a week...I will still go and learn all I can and work with him as much as possible to get him ready for the next week.

More next week!

Linux

Recently I have been messing around with Linux. I was looking for an operating system that would be easy to get up and running for a server I set up at the house. I wasn't sure what to use so I started talking to a couple of people that I know and asked them what I should use. Of course most of them said "Windoze!" but that sounded really expensive. I talked to another friend who told me to load Linux. It turned out to be a great idea. The server is running Ubuntu 6.06 and it works great! I am overjoyed at how easy it was to get up and running and how much documentation there is for Linux!

I liked it so much I set up one of my laptops with Ubuntu 6.10 with the GUI interface and was again impressed how easy it was to get running. The only thing I had to change to make the laptop work was to turn off WPA on my access point and turn on WEP. That's fine by me--for now. I am impressed with the ease of installation and how well it runs and works. That laptop is going to be replaced soon and once that is completed I will work on some customization of that laptop to gain more experience with Linux and to make it work better for me.

Now that I know I like Linux I am going to work on remote access to my fileserver. That way I can get to all of my files wherever I am. That will be really nice. I might even set up a media server to stream music and video over the internet. We will see how that goes...

Wheee!!!! LINUX!

-Paul

Snow, Indiana and a new family

Snow
The Minneapolis area is "recovering" from another snow storm. Here in the Chanhassen area we received about 18 inches of snow over the last 2 days. From my last post you know that Theresa and I went to get our new pup Indy in Chicago last weekend and beat the storm from last week home by hours! That means we have gotten about 30 inches of snow in the last week. That is almost double what the Minneapolis area received ALL WINTER!!! But I am happy to be able to use my snowblower and play in the snow!

Indiana
Indiana is adjusting nicely to his new home. You should see him in the snow! He loves it! He jumps through the snow and wants to run as fast as he can through it but it is taller than he is in places!! We had him outside with us as I was blowing the snow off the driveway and he was playing with the other dogs in the neighborhood and meeting more of the neighbors. When we were done with the snow we took him for a walk and we met a couple of folks we hadn't met before. As puppies will be-he is very curious and very friendly. He takes to people and other dogs very quickly. He is eating like crazy! When we first got Indy he wasn't eating his food when we put it out--but now he eats every bit of his food as soon as we put it out. It is good to see him eating. We are likely going to increase the amount we give him because we are walking him between 4 and 6 miles a day.

He is starting to test us more and more but he is learning his new pack and learning the rules! Theresa and I resting on our couch right now and Indy is sleeping peacefully on his blanket right next to the sofa. He is such a good boy and we are so lucky to have him!

We have Indy scheduled to be neutered on March 22nd. We start training class on March 21st, but the first class is for humans only. I expect that he will be healed enough from the neutering to jump right into class the following week--this first class should be very easy for him.

New Family
When we thought of getting a new companion dal we knew that having a puppy would mean having a new loving companion in the house, would be trying at times and that he would need a great deal of direction, training and exercise. What we didn't expect were the friends we were going to gain. When Cheryl was leaving the hotel room she welcomed us to the family. It is clear that Cheryl is genuinely interested in how we are doing and how Indy is taking to his new home. She is even telling others about how Indy is doing. I told Cheryl about this blog and she has shared that information with her friends. I think that is great! Having a community of people looking out for Indy's best interests and for ours is wonderful. It's nice to know that Indy has a following!!!

So to all of you in our new extended family: Thank you for inviting us into your lives. We are honored to be a part of such a great group of people!

-Paul