Today was uncharacteristically cold and windy in most of Central Texas. But it was still nice enough for Megan and Stevie to take a walk over to the mailboxes and back. Stevie has been doing very well with small sets of solid concrete stairs around the apartment complex, but Megan still encourages her to work on "the big stairs" that go down to the ground (or up to her apartment, depending on where you are). These are those that don't have anything under them, they're not solid. Yesterday, Megan said that Stevie made it over half way up "the big stairs" before she stopped. She thinks Stevie got scared because "they don't ever end". Stevie's used to sets of two and three steps around the complex, and "the big stairs" are many times that. Hadn't thought about it, but to a blind person (or dog) that is a scary uncertainty. But Megan will continue to encourage Stevie on it and I have no doubt she will continue to improve.

Megan also got her new couch on Saturday, and she said Stevie's not too sure what to think of it. Now they will have more room to spread out in the front room.

Today, the weather is simply gorgeous: clear blue skies, not a breath of wind and sunny. They are going to visit The Stevie Tree this afternoon, and no doubt, will have a report on that.

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Well, either Stevie gets too bored while Megan is gone or she just loves to make papier mache balls. Lately when Megan comes home from work, she finds that Stevie has torn little shreds of newspaper and played with them so much, they turn into hard little pieces. When Megan arrives home, and once they've done their welcome home ritual (usually involving much running around, lots of puppy kisses and a little snack), Megan has to empty out Stevie's crate ("den"), take out the little pillow and all the toys and shake them out to get all the pieces and balls of paper out of it.

Megan is concerned that Stevie may actually ingest some of the paper, so she's going to try spraying bitter apple on the corners to [hopefully] discourage Stevie from chewing on it. We'll see...

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Couch shopping day. I stopped by to play with Stevie and discuss shopping locations with Megan before we set out in earnest. That pup is ALWAYS ready to play.

We were successful at the first [huge] furniture store we went to. Megan found a "daybed" type of couch that will a) fit in her living room, b) match her new rug, c) not be tall enough for Stevie to get under, and d) be conducive to naps and snuggles while watching tv. What more could ya ask for?

Then it was back to Megan's apartment for another round of puppy mania. We had stopped at PetsMart to procure another set of hard rubber keys because Stevie had figured out how to demolish the first set.

It was about then that Stevie discovered my cell phone. Suddenly the new keys, Lucy, and all the other toys ceased to exist. She grabbed the cell phone and ran with it into her crate (safe haven and cache for all important dog stuff, like toys and blankies). She dragged it around by the antenna, tried to chew on it, pushed the buttons so it would make noise (Megan said she was calling Mozambique...), and generally went nuts with it. When I'd take it away from her, she went crazy looking for it. She dug into my purse, my pocket and my briefcase to find it. And found it every time. It has a whole new set of scratches and puppy teethmarks to prove it.

Life is so simple when you're a blind dog and everything -- I mean absolutely everything -- is a toy. Check out the Gallery for new pix...

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Megan special ordered a custom bandana for Stevie. She's been telling me about it for a couple of weeks; it finally came the other day. I asked Megan to send me a photo of Stevie wearing it. Unfortunately, Stevie has other ideas, and they do not involve being still enough long enough to have her picture taken, especially when the new bandana has STRINGS attached to it. Megan says we'll have to cut the strings and put Velcro (TM) on it instead.

Check out the gallery for a picture of the bandana only... no Stevie, yet. I'll visit tomorrow and see if I can distract her enough so that Megan can snap a pic.

Ciao!
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I know Megan told me some funny Stevie stuff yesterday, but honestly, I'm so tired, I can only remember this:

Megan has been wanting to buy a new couch for a long time. She has a functional love seat, but as she puts it, she needs something she can stretch out on and fall asleep if she wants. Can't say as I blame her.

She told me she has been restricting Stevie's movement in the living room. Not because of the housebreaking, which is pretty much under control, but because she is going to buy a new couch. She said, "I don't want her to get used to everything the way it is now and then get the new couch and move all the furniture around. By keeping Stevie mainly out of the living room area, I can buy the new couch, rearrange all the furnishings and Stevie can get used to it all at the same time... without running around in the living room going, "Oh, boy, oh boy, oh boy, BONK. Oh boy, BONK. Oh boy, oh boy, oh BONK. Oh boy, BONK, oh boy!" "

When she said that, I busted out laughing. It just made such a funny picture in my head because Stevie remains undaunted by, well, pretty much everything!

I'm going to help Megan pick out a couch this coming weekend, with Stevie in mind, of course. Stay tuned for more Adventures of Stevie, the Blind Wonder Dog!

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