I wanted to give you an update on Hope. First of all, we are keeping her name - after waiting so long to be ready for another dog, and then losing one of our cats, Roo, in December and another, Schmoof, in March, her name has just come to symbolize so much to us - no other name feels right!

She is eating a full breakfast and dinner, and going to the bathroom with wonderful regularity!

We got her a very fluffy LL Bean dog bed that she wants nothing to do with - she really prefers sleeping on top of my sweater chest with her head resting on the window sill - it is too cute for words! Now if we can just wrestle the bed out from under Tigger (our 15 year old cat) and return it, we'll be all set!

Hope continues to respect/ignore Tigger and M and all cats she meets on the street. Squirrels, however, remain quite another story. If she sees one in a tree, she goes up to the tree, stands on her back legs and just....waits and waits and waits. I try to explain that the squirrel has no intention of coming down and becoming a snack for her, but she just won't listen!

Great news - she is starting to relax enough to start to play!! She has met O'Ryan (our neighbor's pit bull) and Sahara (a rescued dog from the Bahamas) and enjoyed them both, but not to the run-around-the-yard-like-a-mad-fool extent I was hoping for. She won't play chase too much - she starts to run, go a little crazy, then stops herself and runs right back to me. She is getting better, though, loosening up. And I caught her playing with the tug rope - she had it in her mouth, stood up, shook it and flung it - then she caught me looking at her (and crying with happiness, I must admit) and she stopped - she looked deeply embarrassed, like an older proper woman caught disco dancing in front of a mirror!

And she barks! Only twice in the last week and a half, and both times at van-like trucks, but she can bark - and its a great bark, too, nice and deep!

She is still great on the leash, still insists on saying hi to (and licking) all children, and still gets very disappointed when strangers on the street won't stop and say hi. She is a joy and we love her so much! She has her first vet visit this Thursday - I'm sure she'll do very well. I should have pictures soon, I'll send you some. Thanks again, so much - we are very, very lucky to have this wonderful little girl in our lives!

Julie