June 16, 2009 – One Year Old!  Kipu sends Birthday Greetings to siblings Akasa, Karma and Skyob!  Kipu hopes his sister and brothers are doing as well as he is. 

He loves going on his walks…in fact…if I even mention the word ‘walk’ he runs over to the front door and has an excited look of expectation on his face.  (And he has many wonderful expressions…you know exactly what he’s thinking.)  On his walks he loves everyone he meets so I’ve broadened the number of people I know.  He’ll wag his tail and continue to look over his shoulder till he can’t see them anymore.

He has turned into a bird dog, too.  That means he doesn’t like any birds in his yard.  That makes things a little difficult for me as I have several bird feeders.  He’ll be laying by the patio door looking out, a rabbit shows up and Kipu’s up growling and barking.  If he happens to be outside when the bunny appears, the bunny has to run for his life!  Talk about fast!  Kipu can catch the ball I throw before it goes downstairs.  Granted, it’s just his squeaky, stuffed soccer ball, but still it amazes me!

I love when he talks to me.  I can’t interrupt what he’s saying, but it’s a really cool sound he makes.  The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is a cooing dove.

And he’s definitely a helper with my gardening.  I’ve had to fence my veggie garden to try to keep him out after he walked down my row of poblano peppers and tipped them all over and then tried to go through the climbing pea fence I had made with twine.

He’s also my protector.  When a dog on TV barks, he stands up on alert and begins growling.  Or a doorbell on TV rings, he’s immediately standing and barking, glancing over his shoulder to check to see if I’m heeding his warning.

I woke in the wee small hours this morning to someone stroking my hair.  I discovered he gave a couple of licks to my hair while he decided to share my pillow.  His little butt was under the covers, too, so not sure how he managed all that.

I honestly couldn’t imagine what I’d do without him….

Sandy 

Hi Debby!

Kipu is just precious!  Everyone seems to fall in love with him at first sight!

Julie had said they only stopped once on the way back to Minnesota.  He’d cried for the first couple of hours…away from mom and siblings for the first time, I would imagine.  But some time later had let her know he wanted to go potty.

So we’re driving nonchalantly along, obeying the speed limit (one too many tickets for John!), we’re not too far from the North Dakota border when he lets out this squeaky whine-bark!  I think we both jumped!  It was a couple of miles before John could take an exit, found a road with an approach into a field.  I was going to take time to put on his collar and leash, but John said ‘put him down’.  He was practically underfoot…he didn’t want to lose us!  It was a stubble field which was actually taller than he was so John walked toward the ditch so the stubble wouldn’t irritate him.  He went potty and we went on our way.

Finally home and everything, of course, is new to him so he’s investigating and finding things he should leave alone.  I’m saying ‘no’…firmly, but not raising my voice and when he didn’t react he’d get a tap on his butt with another ‘no’.  He’d look at me and go sit by John’s feet like John was going to protect him from big, bad me. 

Today John was not home during the day so when he was told ‘no’, he’d look up at me, lay his head down and ignore what he’d been doing wrong.  He catches on fast.  Once he got a ‘no’, he ignored it from thence forward.

Last nite he sat by the patio door, I took him out and he pooped.  This morning, John got up early, as usual, and Kipu said he wanted to go out, so John took him out and he piddled right away.  Of course, being North Dakota with hot and dry summers, I mow my lawn as high as my mower goes which means Mr. Low-Rider comes in with wet feet and tummy from early morning dew and was plopped down beside me in bed!  Something on my dresser was upsetting him.  He kept growling and barking.  I finally just said the hell with it and got up.

I did absolutely nothing today except keep an eye on him and try to help him get acclimatized.    Oh, I did go to KT Animal Supply and picked up some Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance, mixed it with what you sent and he gobbled it up.  I came home and using the ‘How to grade your dog’s food’ from your site, figured this was a 105.  Prior to I had picked up some oven-baked peanut butter dog cookies for treats.  He likes them, they’re about the size of my thumb-nail, but he found them hard to chew and only ate about ½ of one.  John said to pick up something soft so found some beef flavored Nutro Natural Choice square thingys at KT easy to break and are quite soft.  He doesn’t like them!  Tried breaking the little square dealies you included in his dog food and he doesn’t like those!  I guess just the praise is going to have to work till I find a treat he likes!  The gal at KT gave me a cat tail for him to chew on.  Asked her what it was and she told me I didn’t want to know.  Don’t think I’ll even go there.  It’s lain around all day and he’s finally decided it’s something for him to gnaw on.

 I’d had our living/dining carpet cleaned Monday eve so he wouldn’t come into the house with a carpet that had smells to tempt him to be bad.  As a result, none of my end tables, etc., were down here when he arrived.  I decided, since we’d carried him up and down the stairs last nite, that I’d be safe running up to get the glass table tops, plants, etc., while he stayed downstairs.  He fooled me!  He goes up and down stairs just fine!  In fact, I had to be careful not to trip on him.  He doesn’t want me out of his sight, unless he decides he wants to be with John or Jason, both of which Kipu’s already wrapped around his paw.

Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you…for the work you’re doing continuing the Gompa Lhasas Apsos, for your work with the renal dysplasia and most of all for allowing me to have this wonderful little lad!  I have taken several pix and will try to get them on the computer tomorrow to send to you and my Arizona daughters.

Sandy