Maija & friends

It's been a busy few weeks since all Maija's siblings left home. With the puppies in residence, we tended to put off all the other urgent business of life. And now it's flooding back demanding to be taken care of with no further delay. Most days I don't know if I'm coming or going. Not much change there, then, you might say. There's the garden re-design which has been zooming ahead (on which, more later). On top of all that, there's the business waiting for me to catch up (2 hours a day isn't getting me very far) and, of course, we too have a new puppy needing to be trained and generally fussed 23.9 hours a day.

Maija has started to attend puppy socialisation where she is the smallest and most clever (obviously). Mind you, the tiny Jack Russell probably won't grow very much more and Maija is likely to be bigger than he is by the next class. She's had her injections but has been out and about on her lead since 8 weeks. In my book, I'd rather take the chance on nasty rare diseases than miss out on valuable socialisation weeks. As a result, she's quite brave and not much bothers her. At the moment we're working on after-dark walks as I suddenly discovered that she's a bit nervous of meeting other dogs when she can't see clearly. So each night & morning before daylight we're out going up and down the park with my pocketful of liver sizzlers.

Great treats, these. The dogs love them, they make a nice attention-getting snap as you break them & they're very clean in your pocket. They're also very useful when I'm out in the park with Maija off her lead as even her most nosey of noseying is interrupted when I call an enthusiastic "Come!" to the tune of the sizzler snap.

We did have a weekend away last week to visit Jay's parents, and here is Keskiyo lounging resplendently in his favorite fragrant evergreen.















While in the neighbourhood, we invited ourselves around to visit Liz and her pack while Paula & Adam were also there with Inko. The weather was truly unbelievably good for mid-October and we sat out on the terrace in the late afternoon sun which left Jay & I both glowing the next day. Maija and Inko had a fantastic time playing in Liz's spacious garden and by the time we finally left, the formerly bright white paws were all the sludgy shade of Surrey mud.

Here is one photo I tried to take of them playing followed by a short video. Check out the artistic, slanting sun rays. Ok, ok, I know that it's just poor photography really. For the best photo of the day, go see Adam's result on Inko's blog.

















Pups gone bonkers:



In addition to travelling the length and breadth of the south of England, Maija has also been quite busy at home and work with me. She's a little sweetie, happy just to amuse herself so long as she gets plenty of attention from Jay & me, but particularly her canine family. Here she is playing with Keskiyo. At last I managed to capture them in action to get a picture that is more than simply a blur of fur and teeth.

















And, finally, a couple of shots of Maija indulging in her new favorite pastime - chewing.

Under the stairs in Annie's den, hiding her bone from Keskiyo:














Finding all the sticks in Surrey:













Over the next few days I'll try to post an update on some of the other puppies with new photos. Also, for those of you who are partial to building sites, there'll be some news on the state of my garden.