One Year With Nova- February and March

The dogs motto for these two months is "Thank you dear friends."

I spent a good chunk of that time (looking back at the calendar it was 22 days) away from home with my Grandmother.  She fell ill while visiting us during Thanksgiving of 2012 and passed away on March 21st, the first day of spring.  She was one of my biggest supporters in life and she was a woman who I looked up to very much.  She loved her family and spent a lot of her life raising us.  I say "us" because my family has an "it takes a village" view on child rearing and Grandma had a hand in at least four generations of that village.

As far as the dogs go over that time Ben would probably be better suited to write this.  After one stint away from home when my wonderful husband reported every day things were going "great!"  I came home to a husband with a bloody hand and a makeshift dog catcher pole in the corner.  I suspect that "great" might not adequately describe the state of affairs at the house over that time.

One Nova highlight I DO remember is that near the beginning of March we had a bit of a breakthrough.  Nova came over while I was petting Kerri and let me scratch her under the chin.  It was like a lightbulb went off in her head and she realized petting was great!  Literally overnight she went from a dog who I could not touch to a dog that was becoming pushy and possessive of my lap.  I started scratching her back, and her chin and her butt and literally every moment she could Nova would come to me for attention.  We quickly nipped the possession problem with Nova by immediately removing myself any time she was possessive.  I did the same thing with Kerri- who not as overt with her jealousy about sharing my lap- still had a little bump here or there.

I am actually surprised that Nova did as well as she did with me out of the house so much.  Speaking of "it takes a village" though- we had a LOT of help during that time and I could not be more grateful.  Nova's favorite person and his girlfriend helped Ben while I was out of town and stopped by the house to feed Nova while we both were away for 3 days for Grandma's service.   Mosby's parents took Copley and Kerri at their house with less than 24 hours notice but Nova was not in a state to take a doggie vacation.  I am just so glad we have friends who are willing to help us out.

Not much of a Nova update eh?  Well I will have much more to tell you in the April and May post.