Apple, now Ali
	Gender: Female Age: Puppy Foster Home: Peggy

October, 2014: I tweeted a pic of Ali with snowflakes on her back this morning, and The Weather Channel (supposedly) tweeted me back asking to use the picture. I am a little skeptical as to whether it was really them or not, but the logo looked legit, and the "yes, you may" form was not full of small type and scary permissions, so I said yes.

Who knows? Maybe she'll finally be recognized for her mad forecasting skills.

9/15/04 Okay, I know Apple's only been in my house a little over 12 hours, but what a GOOD DOG! We are all hopelessly in love with her. She's so sweet & smart. I think we are going to call her Ali, short for Alison, rather than Apple. I hope no one's feelings are hurt; it seems to suit her (and us) better. Besides, I don't want anyone thinking I named my dog after Gwyneth Paltrow's baby : > I think she already knows she is ours and this is her home. Our black Lab neighbor and sometime houseguest, Maggie, wandered into the yard this morning. Ali barked at her, I put the leash on and we went out. She actually chased this 6 year old, 75-pound dog away! Then, of course, we went to Maggie's yard and made friends.

9/27/04 Ali learned her name in a matter of hours, and will 'come' and 'sit' pretty consistently for me. 'Stop jumping on your (human) sister and biting her ponytail' seems to be a little tougher concept to grasp, but we're trying redirection (let's chase the ball! or the rope toy! or the leaf you brought in from the back yard!) We go to the school bus stop together, morning and afternoon. The kids all adore her, and she seems to take the attention very calmly. In fact, when one of the exercise walkers passes without stopping to pet her, she is astonished, and will sit and stare after them. You can almost see her mouth hanging open, "huh?!?"

Ali had her first vet app't on Friday the 17th. He gave her a clean bill of health, and also said he'd known of other pups whose moms were heartworm positive, and has never heard of a case of them crossing the placenta. Hopefully that bodes well for all concerned. She had her 2nd preventative on Sept 20th, and we have Oct, Nov & Dec doses here waiting for her. She took her vaccines like a champ, and has her next app't this Thursday, the 30th.

She is also doing well with housetraining; the 1st two nights she slept in my bed, but the 2nd night she got me up three times-12:30, 2:30 & 4:30- and only needed to pee the first time. I put her in the crate after that. She cried an hour and a half the first night in the crate (broke my heart). Since then, though, she settles right down at night. I take her out about 11:00, and then around 5:30 a.m., and she does just fine. Over the weekend when I'm at work, she has more accidents than when I'm with her. I think they all need to learn how to communicate with each other.

She has made several doggie friends, and seems to have kept her puppy etiquette skills, although she is trying to push around Chloe, a 2 year old golden retriever. She loves to chase Maggie around the flower beds, although she cheats and cuts across, and Maggie knows she is not supposed to do that.

10/24/04 We actually went to our 3rd (?!?) vet check-up today. Ali weighed 24.7 pounds. Blackie looks significantly smaller to me- maybe 20 pounds now. It's amazing there's so much variation in the litter. Our vet says if you take the 16 week weight and multiply by 2 or two and a half, that'll give you an estimate of their adult weight. So, (1-2 weeks shy of 16 weeks) we're looking at 50 to 65 pounds. That sounds good to me... Overall he's very impressed with how happy & healthy she seems. I wish my kids were so nonchalant about getting shots ;- ).

Ali is sort of the rowdy girl of Puppy class. She always broke off playing and came when I called, but the instructors found it necessary to call her off other dogs a few times. They thought she was being too assertive. I don't know if I agree or not. They're supposed to be the experts, and of course they're responsible for keeping all the pups safe. She is very vocal certainly and 'talks' to the fuzzy bean and the ball while she's playing with them. We'll see how things go next time.

11/09/2005 Ali, and all of us, are doing great. She had her annual check-up at the end of October and the vet is very happy with her. Her adult weight has topped out at 57 pounds; the vet had predicted 50-65, so apparently his formula of multiplying the 16-week-old weight by two to 2 & 1/2 is quite accurate. She has grown from a wonderful puppy to a wonderful dog. Training classes helped that along immensely. We look forward to an 'off-leash' class in the spring (when training moves back outside again). I also had the light bulb moment of realizing that my actions and behaviors are ALWAYS training her, whether I am conscious of it or not. I try to remember that.

She has the opportunity to interact with quite a few dogs in the 'hood, and seems to be doing pretty well at reading their signals of who wants to play and how energetically. She does rather pester Murphy the Bernese Mountain dog, rather like a pesky youngster with a big brother. On the other hand, there is Zeke, a 6-month-old Australian cattle dog that Ali has taken, figuratively & literally, under her paw. I think she's done a good job of being Auntie Ali to him. She was rather startled when he walked underneath her as a 3-month-old and seemed to be looking for a spot to nurse!

One of the things I love most about having her in our family is how she responds when someone (usually a preadolescent girl, but sometimes an overcommitted mom) is upset. She MUST lick our tears off, and it's very hard to take yourself or your problems too seriously when there's 57 pounds of wet nose and wagging tail nudging at you. Thank you again for giving her such a great start in life; we can't imagine our home without her!

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