Megan had called me a while back and asked me if Min Pins did a certain little "dance". She tried to describe it to me over the phone, and I finally decided what she was talking about was the kicking up of dirt, grass, paper or what have you after they potty. So I told her that was just a dog thing in general. It wasn't until I was over there this weekend that I actually SAW what she was talking about. Whenever Stevie is convinced she's going to be fed, she does a little dance: First, she'll spin around in circles (Newt does that, too), then she'll stop and "stamp" her front feet - left, right, left, right, left, right - as if to say, "Come on, hurry up, I'm hungry, what's the hold up, where's the food?!" It's really very comical and oh, so cute, something I'd love to capture on film.

Talking with Megan tonight, she elaborated further on Stevie's requests for play. Stevie will go and pick out what toy she wants to play with and now, instead of nudging her ankle, she will stand on her hind legs and put her front paws on Megan's knee, holding the toy of choice in her mouth. The child may be blind, but she's no less demanding than any sighted puppy I've ever known.

More to come...
G

Notes from others who look at Stevie's photos either here or at Megan's site: http://foreverwidget.photosite.com:

Re: [TXIMPS] More new Stevie photos...
"Thanks for the cheery photos and cute captions of Stevie and her fan club. On a chilly wet day, seeing a cute pup is just right.
Margaret"

Stevie saw the vet for another set of puppy shots yesterday and she weighed in at a WHOPPING 4.25 LBS! She's growing like most children do, seemingly daily. Her legs are so long and she can reach many more things than she used to be able to. She can almost jump up on the bed, if she could just figure out how... :)

I made my nearly weekly trek to south Austin this morning to visit Megan and Stevie. I kept Stevie entertained while Megan did some other things around the apartment. Quite by accident, we discovered that Stevie has a strong affinity for coffee... I had brought a mug of coffee from my house (of course, it had cocoa and tons of creamer in it -- I can't drink it "straight") and Stevie was dead set on getting some. I finally had to dump my coffee and rinse the mug out so she would focus on something else. Wow, can she be obsessed! My brother's dogs (Min Pin Elvis and Golden Retriever Zeus) sent Stevie a toy hedgehog for Christmas, so we gave that one a good work out instead.

Megan and I had lunch with my best friend Danielle, and afterward, we introduced her to Stevie back at Megan's apartment. Stevie was utterly and totally beside herself to have not one, not two, but THREE whole people to run back and forth between, with more pants legs, sweaters and shoestrings to play with. Danielle, was (huge surprise) completely enchanted by Stevie and her antics. We all had late Christmas gifts to open, and Stevie was more than happy to help remove gift wrap, ribbons, gift bags and tissue paper. What fun!

I'll be uploading new photos in the gallery here next, so be sure to check them out. Stevie was intent on destroying my camera's strap, so one of the photos is pretty blurry, but still funny, so I put it up, too. Enjoy!

G

You may recall me writing about Stevie's version of "fetch" with the ball that has a bell in it. Megan said they played fetch for over a half hour yesterday. She'd throw the ball, and Stevie would "follow" it and find it and bring it back. They did it over and over again. Megan commented that Stevie wore herself out playing it. That in and of itself is pretty funny...

...but today when Megan was working at her computer, she felt a bump up against her ankle. She looked down and there was Stevie with the ball. At first, Megan thought Stevie was just moving her toys around again and had run into her (we joke that her middle name is "Bonk" because she does sometimes run into stuff -- I know it's not PC, just true). Anyway, she thought, "Well, that's cute." And went back to working. A couple of minutes later, she felt another nudge. It was Stevie again, and she was NOT "bonking" into things, she was trying to get Megan to play fetch with her!

Megan is a smart human and recognized when she's being directed to do something. So she shut the computer down and got on the floor to play "fetch" with Stevie. That dog is already training her well!

G

YAY, the new pictures are up at http://foreverwidget.photosite.com! That little Stevie is just so funny and cute; I just can't seem get enough pix of her.

Megan had to head back to work today, after 11 days off between semesters. Classes don't start until next week, but she works in the Student Services office when she's not teaching, doing academic advising and stuff.

She said Stevie's den (the bathroom) was completely rearranged when she got back. Needless to say, Stevie was ecstatic when she got home. She was gone for years and years, ya know.

:)

G