An antler and summer highlights

On a happier note regarding Ash, he made a new friend last weekend (the weekend after his escape) and was introduced to an antler. My friend Meredith was visiting last weekend, and we thankfully (considering his previous nerve-wracking adventure) were able to introduce Ashy to her. Meredith and I were friends both at Cornell and Illinois, and she was in town a couple of days ahead of her husband for a wedding. Meredith suggested I bring him home an antler that we found while out shopping at a pet store (her dog likes them), and I was excited that Ash finds it interesting! I say interesting because I'm not really sure he knows what to do with it yet; it doesn't soften the way that his raw hide chews do. However, he has gnawed on it on several occasions and likes to lick the inside if you hold it for him.

Ash and Meredith - especially in his state of exhaustion, he really liked snuggling with her

Ash and the antler

Also, I realize that we have neglected to share several videos and pictures that we have taken of Ash over the course of the summer, so I thought I would do that here!

Ash at woodchuck: While at Woodchuck (David's family's camp in the Adirondacks) we practiced a lot with Ash of leash and, despite is recent escape, he did very well. He stuck right by the house, would follow us when we left to go to the dock or back to the house, and mostly listened to our "come" and "stay" commands. Come could use some work for sure though. Stay he does pretty well. He LOVED playing with the ball at the beach/dock area, and while it took him a bit to work up the courage he finally swam out to us at the end of the dock when we were in swimming. I wish I had a picture of him doing this because he'd let us hold his legs while he just floated in the water, and he balanced all four of his legs on one of the foam noodles!!

Ash, Coal, and haircuts: We've had Coal here with us a few times this summer, and he and Ash are so cute together! Their latest "game" is wrestling while walking on the leash. As you can imagine, this leads to very tangled leashes - often wrapped around me. Everyone walking by laughs at the situation. I think I would two! Imagine a me at my impressive 5 ft with two little black dogs zipping in circles around me and rolling around, with all three of us getting entwined in a tangle of leashes. I managed to capture one short video clip:

Given the heat and humidity of the summer, we have tried to find nice short haircuts for both Ash and Coal. They were barely recognizable after their trims!

Ash with his "new 'do

Coal: Caroline, what did you do with all of my hair? 

Ash's favorite neighbor dog: On a walk several months ago we met Oscar, who lives a couple of blocks away and is often out in his yard. From the start, Ash LOVED this dog. He ran up to the fence and whined and tried to get in. Then he and Oscar proceeded to mark various areas of the fence one after the other. One day while we were letting them interact through the fence Oscar's owner came out and said Ash was welcome to come in and play. After the first play session, he extended the invitation and said anytime Oscar was out we could let Ash in to play, even if he (the owner) wasn't outside at the time. Now, each time we walk by Oscar, Ash starts pulling on the leash and whining to get closer - then waits eagerly while I let him in. Here is a video of Ash and Oscar from yesterday's walk:

Daily life: Here are a couple of random pictures and videos of Ash that are representative of a typical "day in the life of Ash". We go on walks, we run in the yard, he watches the world go by from the back of a chair in the living room, he plays with some toys, chews some raw hides and treats, does his tricks for me, sleeps at my feet, etc. Hard life he has! We'd like to start taking him to more dog parks, but we haven't found one in Somerville we are thrilled with yet. Luckily, while we walk on the bike path in the evenings and mornings he gets to meet and play with many dogs, so he still gets a decent amount of socialization.

This is his favorite perch. He spent the first several days after his escape sleeping, so I was happy when a day or so ago he decided to resume his monitoring of the outdoor world.

I love it when he sleeps like this! He looks like such a goof ball.

Ash chewing on a rawhide while David and I watched a TV show

This is a great picture, it's currently my phone background. This was taken after a bit of running in the yard - he got tired so instead just lay there and watched me.

As I write this post, Ash is flopped half in, half out of his snoopy bed under the table I'm working at. He'll perk up when its time for our afternoon walk :)