East Coast → West Coast Puppy

Hello, people of the internet, and please forgive my lengthy absence! I write to you now from the wonderful city of San Francisco, where the weather is perfect and we're far, far away from [nearly] everyone we know. Nyxa is now, officially, a west coast ~~puppy~~ dog. She loves it here -- and so do we.

So many things have happened since last I wrote! Let's see, what has happened in the past year...

Nyxa started going to doggy day care once a week and LOVED it. We would drop her off around 8 am and pick her up around 5:30 pm, and every time she would come home happy and exhausted and would then sleep for at least 12-24 hours, grumbling at having to get up to go to the bathroom one last time before bed, or to eat, or anything really. She got along with everyone at doggy day care, and it really helped to socialize her with other dogs! After a couple of weeks there, she befriended a blind and deaf dog and would help the dog around the yard. Cue the heart melting:

Nyxa attended and graduated from beginning, intermediate, and advanced puppy training. She is now a certified good-mannered dog, or something or other.

During her time in puppy class, she made a best friend.

Nyxa experienced snow for the first time! (And how.)

Even Nyxa didn't want to go outside when it was snowing sideways.

Why deal with snowstorms when you could enjoy sunny, 70-degree days instead? Off to California we went! We drove across the country, east coast to west coast. "Cramped" would be an understatement, for all of us, but she was a good sport.

We kept going. And going.

We basically toured the southern US via dog parks in each city (in order to get out Nyxa's energy so she wouldn't be so miserable during the long car trips). It was a lot of fun -- and we saw some beautiful dog parks along the way and met some wonderfully friendly folks!

Little Rock, Arkansas

Birmingham, Alabama

There was a lot of driving in darkness so thick you could almost reach out and touch it, and there was a lot of sleeping in uncomfortable hotel rooms with impressively thin walls.