Abbie Lynn Update
Abbie Lynn is adjusting and thriving, and so am I. I’ll have to admit, it has been a bit of a rough go, mostly because of me.
You think that getting a new dog will help you get over the old dog. But as Kizz told me, the new dog makes you miss the old dog even more, because you’re doing doggy things again every day.
There were, and are, many many times that I look at Abbie Lynn and wonder if I will ever love her as much as Goldie. The only answer I can come up with is that I will love her, but love her differently, in our own way.
It’s weird. Even though she has completely taken over my life, as dogs and children do, she still doesn’t feel quite like MY dog. I question whether I’m the right person for her. She loves other dogs and people and especially children so much…and I live by myself.
I’m being patient with myself and her. I’m taking her to as many places with other people and dogs as I can. That’s all I can think to do.
In the mean time, her life is pretty awesome.
Digging.
She sleeps on the couch or bed. She visits Grandma. She digs huge trenches in the yard, chasing the elusive gopher (she does hunt!). It’s a good thing my yard is just a grassy field, not lovingly landscaped.
She goes for walks, and to the dog park, and once a week, because of her need for huge amounts of dog-on-dog playtime, goes to all-day doggie day care.
When we get to dog day care, she slams through the door and dashes over to whichever employee is manning the gate, wagging madly. Then she pees with happiness, every single time. It’s adorable and messy.
Yesterday I watched her for a while before I took her home. She had been there 9 hours and she was still playing with other dogs and flirting with the staff. She was disappointed to have to come home. When she gets home, she is calm and glassy-eyed with tiredness, spent.
Her limpy little leg is getting better. The vet said it was just an old injury, not a bone or joint problem. Yay. Long hikes are in our future.
That’s the dog report. Stand by for more.
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Suebob's Red Stapler 
Dealing with the same new dog/old dog thing myself. Just imagine if they were human children! Who could talk….!
There’s therapy for human kids.
Hi Sue, Nice ‘hearing’ from you! Glad you and A.L. are getting along so admirably with each other. Neat facial shot of gopher-chasing cutey-pie doggie. Go get them nasty gophers, Abbie Lynn. Are you available for early morning speech contest? Just thot I’d ask – starts tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. at Govt Ctr Pacific Conf Rm. C.C. will be coming to watch/listen to Bamboozlers (Tall Tales) and Serious Speakers (Intern’l).orate, (or go down in flames!). Had dinner with C.C. after pre-contest mtg last night. Tomorrow I’ll attempt to bamboozle the audience with my speech on “bennies” of moving from Calif to Maine. No fires there! Much love, your huggable friend Bruce.
CC said you were great at the contest, Bruce! Glad to hear it went well.
I just don’t understand the people who say the new dog helps them get over the old one. Maybe it’s distracting. Then I catch myself thinking stupid things, too. A friend’s dog has been gravely ill. He’s her newbie after her old dog, Emily’s best friend, died but he’s been with her since 2011. I had this thought cross my mind, “Well, I don’t want him to die but at least it won’t be as bad as losing Teddy.” YES! Yes it will! It will suck differently but it will still suck. And, for the record, it looks like he’s going to make a recovery after much expensive care.
Abbie Lynne is a dirty treasure. I love her crazy little face.
Aw, dogs. They break our hearts.
Yes, she is a nut. Yesterday at the dog park, I called her “nutball” and a kid asked if that was her name.
Funny that you would mention Goldie as a couple of nights ago, she popped into my head and I thought, “I miss her.” Which is weird because I’d never met her. Then I thought about Abbie and was glad you have her now and also glad that’s so different from Goldie so that she can work her way into your heart in her own way, which she will. I’m pretty sure if I were around Abbie, I’d be telling her what a naughty dog she is all the time, but then I would snorgle her and give her a treat because seriously, LOOK AT THAT FACE.
It’s always funny to me that my dog was so famous. A modern day Rin Tin Tin, without even having to have any real talents.
Abbie is the cutest, wiggliest thing. I let her get away with murder, like today when I was sitting on a park bench and she climbed up on my shoulders. I gotta get better trained.
Omg that face, that nose! Her feeties!! She is a doll!! When my Sadie died very suddenly in 2010 (she was 12 but in freakishly good health), it just about did me in. We equally suddenly found ourselves with two new (to us) dogs (One an 8 yr old Lab and soon after a year-ish old Malinois). The lab will likely never feel like mine b/c a) he is cranky and if he were a person, he would be an old man shaking his fist at the world and given that he was 8 when we got him, we weren’t ”his people” but he still has fit in nicely. The Malinois though, oh that dog. She adores the kids and is in love with my husband but finally after about a year, she really started to feel like my dog or rather my buddy. Not like Sadie (b/c that would be impossible) but that particular closeness, that famiy-ness that, ”come on, ride with me silly, you’re nice to have around, pal” feeling. It takes a bit of time and adjustment but keep being patient with yourself and it will happen before you know it. And oh man, that face. She looks like she is making herself at home in a great way. Good job.
Thank you for that, Shannon. Abbie is working her way into my heart further and further, but the story about it taking a year gives me even more hope.