Puppy Nell

Newest family member and Thanksgiving cheer

I went home to beautiful Colorado for Thanksgiving last weekend. To me there is something magical about the barren landscape of a Colorado winter. No where else is the sky such a bright blue in late November. The grasses have lost their summer green and instead roll in muted desert colors of wheat gold, chestnut brown and yellow. Upon close inspection many of the shrub brushes are purple or burnt Sienna red. The little lakes and ponds out on the open space freeze over in places, leaving jagged lines of ice across the water. Everything is so still you can sometimes see the reflection of the ponds in the mountain snow and rocks- or maybe I imagined that one day...The leafless trees are perfect for revealing hawks and golden eagles sitting regally on wispy branches, looking over their vast domain.
Nell my baby sister is even more delighted with her surroundings than I am. Nell is my parents new Springer Spaniel puppy-four months old and quite the little rapscallion. She is from the same breeder as my last dog Casey and is something like his great great niece. My aunt's dog Tobie (also related) was visiting for the holidays as well. There were three especially funny puppy moments last weekend.
Springers get their name because of their very athletic ability to spring through bushes and fields. They are trained to spring into bushes and scare all the birds out so that the hunters like Victoria can shoot them. Tobie has had years of springing experience and was bounding through the tall grasses with his usual vigor. Baby Nell-always keen to learn from her elders, just started learning to spring. The grasses were tall enough on her tiny body that most of the time we just saw two ears flying into the air as she bounded through the fields like a little jackalope. But sometimes she didn't get the spring just right. The ground rolls in little hillocks and ditches so the dogs were bounding from one high point to another. Occasionally Nell would be in air mid-bound and would suddenly disappear entirely, only to come scrambling out of some little depression she'd fallen in to. She seemed unperturbed when we laughed hysterically at her depth perception problems and just kept on springing, hoping not to fall into another ditch mid spring.
On another day I was sitting innocently on the couch reading my book when Nell came in the back door. What happened next was so fast I didn't see a second of it, even out of the corner of my eye. My dad said she ran full speed into the living room on the side I was sitting. Instead of coming straight toward me she looped around to the other side of the room, did a one point turn and leapt onto the other end of the couch. From here-still at top speed she leapt toward me like a torpedo and smacker her nose right into my nose. This all happened in about five seconds. I guess she thought she'd get more momentum going at me if she circled the room and leapt at me from across the couch. Painful.
The third cute moment happened outside when Tobie and I were playing fetch. Tobie loves tennis balls, like any other self-respecting dog. He was running happily towards me with his in his mouth, when Nell leapt into the air and knocked the ball straight out of his mouth with her schnoz. She then ducked under Tobie and caught the ball in mid air before it had dropped from his mouth. Needless to say, Nell's love for Tobie is not well reciprocated.
Another great part about Nell besides the fact that we named her after our cousin so have to differentiate between puppy Nell and human Nell is that we think she is the reincarnation of our last dog. She does uncannily Casey-like things all the time. She even looks and smells like him! hehe. But really, Casey decided his life was so good he was going to come back as Nell, which is just delightful!