dogs

Currently: July 2020

How is it July already?! I kind of feel like it’s still March. Anyone else feel that way? Regardless, it’s July and I am loving summer! Here’s what’s currently going on in my life with a few affiliate links included!

Dogwood tree with sun shining through branches

Current books Just finished up Simple Pleasures and now I’m onto this memoir. Sadie has been loving the crafts from this book and learning about colors in this lift-a-flap book. Jimmy and I are still reading our Couple’s Devotional and The Purpose Driven Life together as well!

Current food Baked beans have been extra delicious lately. Something about summer makes me crave ’em.

Current toddler product Sadie has had this little trampoline for a while, but we brought it outside for the first time and it was like a whole new toy, haha. 

Little Tikes trampoline

Current drink Starbucks coffee. Jimmy bought me the Komodo dragon beans for my birthday and we have been loving our morning cup even more than usual. 

Current baked good Cowboy cookies! I had never made them until recently and now I’m hooked. I have to have one every day 🙂

Current pet product Niva is still blowing her coat like nobody’s business, and this brush has been helpful!

Black and white Siberian Husky with blue eyes sitting in grass

Current joy Sadie growing up and understanding more and more. It’s really neat to talk to her and she understands what we’re saying. 

Current blessing Spending time with family ❤

Current project Our back patio renovation is still trucking along thanks to Jimmy’s hard work! He added some plants and fresh mulch and rocks yesterday.

Back porch with landscaping, rocks, and mulch and steel mesh railing

Current fun Making a scrapbook from our camping trip pictures. I thought about making an album online and having it printed, but that takes all the fun out of it for me. I love figuring out layouts, picking stickers, and using colored paper. 

Current cuteness We had a cookout yesterday and my cousin from New York was visiting and brought her daughter. We took pictures of my niece, Sadie, and my cousin’s daughter and they are too sweet!

Toddlers and baby sitting on porch step in red white and blue outfits

Tell me something current from your life!

Niva, So Far

We’ve had Niva a little over a month now, so I thought it would be fun to put my thoughts into a post on how she’s doing.

Husky and girl laying in grass together

Niva is a really wonderful dog. I feel like I could just end the post there, ha! She has a great, friendly, and fairly submissive temperament. She’s not even slightly sassy. She’s all sweetness! 

Niva is amazing and very patient with Sadie, and it’s such a blessing and a relief to know they get along. 

Husky and toddler laying together

Sometimes I can’t believe she’s still a puppy at only nine-months-old because she’s pretty well behaved!

Yes, she sometimes jumps when she’s excited, pulls on the leash when we walk, does some hardcore begging/food smuggling, and occasionally knocks Sadie over in the yard, but she hasn’t chewed much, doesn’t need to be crated when we leave the house, and is relatively calm for a puppy. 

Husky and girl sitting in grass

We brought her home on a Monday and she went into her first heat on Thursday. So glad that’s done and very thankful for hardwood floors!

She also escaped our fence twice in less than 24 hours when we first brought her home. Since then, she hasn’t escaped anymore, though! She caught on quick with house training, which was surprising (in a wonderful way!) since she had never lived in a house until she came home with us. 

Black and white Siberian husky

While huskies are known to have a high prey drive with small animals like cats, she has been very good with Malcolm. She definitely likes to hunt, though. Last week she caught and killed a bird in our yard and was casually eating it. 

I’m not sure if I have any big plans with her as far as showing her/training her to be a therapy dog/etc. She’s pretty big for a husky, at a little over 50 pounds and less than a year old, so I don’t know if she fits the breed standard for showing. She is beautiful, though!

Black and white Siberian husky with blue eyes

As far as training, I definitely want to do some obedience classes with her once things are re-opened from COVID-19, but I’m not sure if we will pursue therapy dog work. She absolutely has the temperament to be a therapy dog, but huskies are a lot harder to train than other breeds. They definitely have a mind of their own! We will see.

In the meantime, she has become such a source of joy to our family and has healed my heart in so many ways since everything that happened in the past several months with Lola and Mavis. I’ll never be able to replace those two, and we didn’t adopt Niva as a replacement, but she has been absolutely amazing. I guess this post was just a longwinded way of saying that I’m really thankful to God for our sweet pup and that we all love her a whole bunch 🙂