Sophie and Makoa Sitting in a Tree

Sophie had her first official date with Makoa, the bad boy from next door. They play really rough, with Makoa demon-growling all the while, and Sophie loves it.

Makoa is a full grown Rottweiler/Labrador mix.
Sophie is only 6 months old, but you can see that she's almost his size.

This is what I mean by "playing rough".

 


Totally making out  -- right in front of her mother!



Aloha y'all!

Sophie the Escape Artist

After all that fuss to build a new fence to keep my puppy safe and secure, Sophie has been finding a way out! She's only recently been allowed to play alone in the backyard, and three separate times she has magically appeared outside the fence. I checked all the obvious things - gates not fully latched, gaps under the fence... it was none of these things. I was starting to think that she was squeezing herself through the fence bars and I would have to fatten her up to solve the problem... when I caught her walking on top of the lava rock wall.

 

The wall is lower at the north end and slopes up at the south end - where there's a gap between the wall and the new gate. The gap never seemed to be a cause for concern because there was no way she could jump the 5 ft rock wall at that end. ((The wall is about 4.5 feet where she's standing in the picture.)) Apparently she figured out that she could get up on the wall at the low end, walk on the narrow ledge for about 60 feet as it sloped up to the south end, and escape through the gap! The access at the low end is now blocked with large flower pots. Yesterday, I saw her sniffing and whining at the flower pots. Curses! Foiled again!

 

My IQ is 147. Hers appears to be 146 - giving me just a slight edge! Humans are in the lead, but not by much!

Sophie Goes to the Beach

Most Hawaii beaches are for tourists, not dogs, so it took a while for me to find the dog-friendly beaches. On Memorial Day, Sophie and I checked out one close to home. It's an adrenaline-pumping hike across lava rubble to get there (keeping the tourists away) and Sophie managed it like a mountain goat.

 

She made a few new friends and behaved herself just fine. Eventually, I'll let her off leash (as many of the dogs were) but not just yet. She's a big girl, but she's still a baby.

 

 

Aloha y'all!

Adorable Sophie

Sophie gets more adorable each day.

Her long, soft ears sometimes forget where they belong, so I've been trying to teach her this:
"When you feel the wind whistling through your brain, shake your head."



Aloha y'all!

Backyard Remodeling

Sophie and I have been working hard to plant Podocarpus along the new fence to replace the toxic Oleander that we ripped out, and we've almost finished. These will encircle the backyard to give us privacy - about 30 plants in all. We've been getting daily rain, and these new plants are loving it.



And just yesterday, the trucks from Soils-R-Us delivered the materials for the next phase of the backyard remodel. It's hard to get perspective from this aerial view, but the larger of these piles is the entire width of my driveway. That's drain rock on the left and a special Hawaiian soil mix on the right. They call it CTH - Cinder, Topsoil, and macadamia nut Husks.



Aloha y'all!

Happy Mother's Day

Sophie gave me this for Mother's Day:



It's a Dyson cordless vacuum. Works great picking puppy crumbs off the bamboo floors. I can't blame Sophie for all the hair it picks up - most of it seems to be mine.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

More Gardening

I planted these seeds one week ago. As you can see, the cukes are ready to go into the ground. At least I have a little more time before the tomatoes demand to get out of those cups!




I pinched the tops from several coleus and stuck them in water. Two days later, they had roots. I stuck them in dirt. A week later, I had this basket of coleus. Coleus are notorious for being easy to grow, but not this fast!




And here's my plumeria tree all in bloom.




Aloha y'all!