Sophie's Big Adventure

Sophie is our beautiful Lab mix puppy (and at close to 2 years, yes she is still a puppy, she never grew into her legs so she still frolics like a leaping deer everywhere!). She likes many things: me, treats, her squeakers toy, bananas, mango, flour, going outside, going for walks, random people, and small children. However there is one big thing she does not like, at all: riding in the car. It's our own fault, she didn't like it as a little puppy, it made her anxious, so we didn't try and get her used to it. Now that in about 5 months she will be taking a 2 hour drive to the airport where she will be loaded and flying internationally, we thought we should probably start with it. So this weekend we decided to take her with us to the market. At one point, the clip of the leash (due to all her wiggling) worked itself out of the loops of her harness while we were eating, and she sauntered off down the hill. I didn't get a pic, but it was hilarious. Most dogs would run off, she just walked casually and stopped when we said her name.

She wasn't really pleased to be in the car, and kept getting up and walking along the back seat.

A very interesting squirrel who tried to hide on the tree. Another squirrel caught Sophie's attention mere seconds after Garret noticed it as they walked around the abbey (I sat on a bench and people watched). She took off after it, because quite frankly, she had never seen one....there really aren't any on our base!

I wanted a pic of her and Garret at the market. The smells distracted her.

Here I was, calm, drinking my wine. Garret had a hold of our princess, so I could breathe....

Until she decided it was odd that I wasn't focused on her and came to visit my lap under the table!

We got comments all day about how nicely she behaved, how sweet she was. Once during lunch Garret didn't catch the end of a conversation, but here is how the first part went "Isn't it so nice to see...." as an older couple watched up as they walked by. Even without the end it was a lovely compliment!

The yumminess....Garret had field mushrooms with creamed spinach and cheese and a fried egg on top. I had a wonderful salad with goats cheese, black olive puree, sun blushed tomatoes, and the house vinaigrette, and we shared a small dish of escargot, a basket of bread, and a carafe of the house red. It was divine, and Sophie was excited.....she takes after her parents and loves French food! I think her favorite was the goats cheese and the bread that I dipped in Garret's cheese.

A quick smooch for a successful meal (I was mildly terrified Sophie would cause too many disruptions....we found success by wearing her out at the abbey first and then going to lunch).

After eating we went back to the abbey and grabbed some ice cream. Garret had English Strawberry and I had Caramel and Hazelnut. Sophie had a little of both.

The sweet eagerness as she sees us eating our ice cream...

She attacked the container when I offered it to her.

It began to get near sunset, and it got pretty chilly.

One last smooch in the abbey, it will be a bit before we get back.

There were a lot of random flowers growing around the abbey (in addition to their beautiful landscaping they do). My favorite was the snowdrops that I wanted to take and put into G's lapel......Stardust anyone?

This was Sophie after I tricked her into getting into the car by tossing a treat in. Otherwise she was having none of it. Her reproachfulness is apparant.

We had a wonderful time, and will definately be doing it again as soon as we can. Maybe on a Wednesday market day when it's much less crowded. Overall I was so proud of how she interacted with other people. She kissed other dogs, little kids would come up and pet her. And at one point I got nervous when a woman and her helper came over while we were eating because Sophie seemed a bit scared of wheels (bikes, strollers, wheelchairs, everything with wheels she stayed clear of all day at the abbey) and the woman was in a wheelchair, but she licked the woman's hands and sat there while she got petted. I know everyone thinks they have the best dog, but Sophie's reputation in the neighborhood (we got told this by our neighbors) is that she is the sweetest dog. And she is.....she very rarely barks (and even then it's generally from excitement, although she does not like Bruno, a dog who lives on our block), she has never snapped at anyone, and once she even had Bruno hanging off of her lips (he was a new puppy and jumped and bit down but she barely noticed!). She loves to give kisses and is just overall a happy go lucky puppy. Sometimes when she is driving me crazy I remind myself that she's the best dog anyone we know has ever met, and she does love her mama!