Thanksgiving this week. Sapphy and I drove home to Arizona. This was going to be interesting. My family hasn't met her yet and there are all those dogs there. But things went fantastic. Sapphire had such a blast.

The drive over went OK. She is fine in the car but each time acts like the car equals something bad. I don't know if she thinks she is going away or what. I have to confess I have resorted to some pretty cheap tricks trying to get her excited about the car. Once in a while we go through the drive thru and I'll get her a plain hamburger. She isn't a big treat dog tho' and this doesn't impress her much. The drive to AZ was uneventful. She couldn't focus long enough to take a potty break or eat or drink anything so I just pushed through to get there as quick as possible. It normally takes 5 hours door to door but I hit so much Thanksgiving traffic it took more like 8 hours.

She got along great with the other dogs and when she got out in that big backyard she just ran and ran top speed with the other dogs chasing her. They only fell for that a couple times after which they ran in smaller circles and then stopped and just watched her. She looked like it was heaven, running like that in the yard. She had the hugest grin on her face and was panting so hard but it was sheer joy for her.

It is fun impressing people with her speed. And of course, my brothers were properly wowed and were very curious about her huge hind legs (look like turkey drumsticks). She just cozyed up to everyone. All these people to love and pet her...she was in heaven. She charmed everyone and had them pretty much eating out of her paws by the end of the trip.

She carried a lot of stuff around looking as tickled as can be while she did it. First it was a throw pillow off the couch. She can't just carry it to one place. She has to prance back and forth from one room to another. I'm not sure if she is making sure we all see her or if she is looking for somewhere to bury it, but she was a busy girl. She got obsessed with some knitting my brother's girlfriend was doing. The yarn was soft and fuzzy and it must have been the texture she was attracted to. She kept pulling it out of the bag and finally when I told Gretchen she had to keep her bag closed, Sapphire carried the bag around! There we were in the family room and she comes trotting into the room with the bag! Funny girl. Of course I thought everything she did was charming, I hope the rest of the family did too.

Now one incident was quite interesting. This dog shows so little interest in treats. Most the time she sniffs them and turns away without taking them. Or if she takes them she takes them so gingerly you feel like you have offered her something nasty. But the day after Thanksgiving when we were putting out leftover casseroles on the table, we turned our back for a second and in that window of opportunity, Sapphire got up on the table and hoovered a corn and onion casserole! She was a stinky, gassy girl for a couple days after that! Not easy to live with...

I was sorry I had to take her home, there was so much stimulation at Mom's house, but the holiday was over and we had to get back to our regular routine.