Stranger in a strange land

In around April 2007, I was feeling a bit better about losing Chloe. I don't think I'll ever stop missing her, but I started thinking about getting another mutt.

We fostered Tana while she got over her leg amputation, but I never really got that attached to her. It was the same with various dogs at the SPCA, so I decided to go further afield, and get a proper puppy. With all the aggravation that entails.

California Animal Shelter Friends had a litter of lab mix puppies, so Jim and I went over there in the Van to take a look, and ended up bringing one home with us. When I told the gal there that I was going to call her Tillamook, like the cheese, she laughed - as her dog's called Colby :o)

Here she is. She rarely stays still while she's awake, so this is a truly rare picture. She's 9 weeks old, 10" tall and 8lbs, so she's smaller than Chloe. She's rarely still long enough to take pictures, so I do what I can :o)

Here she is at 10 weeks old, 11" tall and 9lbs. She spends her days either asleep in my lap or destroying the house. She's big enough to get onto the sofa bed in the office with a running jump, and we're trying to move away from free feeding - both to help with house training, and to stop the house smelling like Marmite all the time.

Here she is at 11 weeks old, 12" tall and 10lbs. She's still having accidents in the house, and chewing everything in sight, but she's doing better at staying in her crate quietly for up to 2 hours at a time. She came hang gliding with us and met a couple of larger dogs without too much fuss.

Well, she's made it to 12 weeks old, 13" tall and 12lbs. We're still working on house - training, and not mouthing so much, but now the garden's barricaded so it's relatively safe. She's sleeping in her crate now, to stop her wandering around the bedroom looking for stuff to destroy all night, and sleeps about 5 hours at a time. Not bad for 3 months old, really. I keep reminding myself when she's really acting up :o)

She's now 13 weeks old, 14" tall and 14lbs. She's met, and gets on well with Daisy, possibly the most submissive dog I've ever come across. She's also managed to go a couple of days without an accident in the house. I thought that was down to her understanding that the whole house is our den, but a few accidents made it clear that we've just been more vigilant. She also regularly sleeps 6 or 7 hours at night, but then wants to get up and eat and play at 6am. More beatings should do the trick.

She's 14 weeks old, but still 14" tall. I'm putting this down to rounding errors and the fact that she just plan won't stand still to be measured. Her weight's up to 15lbs though. Still having the occasional accident in the house, so she still doesn't get that the house is my crate :o) She sleeps 7 hours a night, regularly, now I can take her for walks before bed time. She hates having her harness put on or taken off, but hopefully that's just a phase :o)

She's 15 weeks old, and 14.5" tall. Her weight's up to 16lbs now. She can get quite bossy at times, but she's possibly calmed down a bit. We play a variant of "fetch" a lot now to wear her out, and I've only got a few deep cuts while we struggle over the ball. She can get on the sofa in the family room most of the time now without a run up.

She's 16 weeks old, and 15" tall. Her weight's up to 17lbs now, despite eating as much as Chloe did when she was grown up. We've been getting up to go out at around 5am, then getting up to start the day around 6. She sits beautifully at home, but just doesn't listen to me when we're on a walk, so we often just stand there looking at each other. Bless her, she's not very bright :o)

She's 17 weeks old, and about 15.5" tall. Her weight's up to 18.5lbs now, even though I've cut her food back a little, per the puppy food bag instructions. Besides, 6 or 7 dookies a day seems like a lot to me. We're down to 4 (I know, I clear the garden every morning to get her to perform so she can settle down during my morning work session). We passed a big milestone in the housetraining, in that she's now peeing and pooping when we go out - she's peed in the Van before, as she seemed to think she can't pee away from her property. We were hang gliding, on Sunday, and she followed Tiger's lead and peed and pooped in the field. Excellent. We haven't had an accident in the house for a few weeks, so I think she's got the hang of that :o)

She has her Rocket Dog persona, when she's faster than a speeding owner and can leap onto tall furniture at a single bound. Well, Rocket Dog can now get on the bed. Luckily, Tilly still can't.

She's 18 weeks old, and 16" tall. Her weight's up to 19.5lbs. She's better at sitting on walks now, and despite the picture, she's actually started losing teeth - I think four of her incisors are new, and there's definitely one missing. Her gums look a bit bruised, so I think they're quite sore. She gets bits of frozen bagel as treats now, and gets excited when the freezer door opens :o)

She's 19 weeks old, and still around 16" tall. Her weight's up to 20lbs.

She's still teething, and this means we're going through more toys than usual. It also means the piles in the garden have different coloured speckles, depending on what she's been tearing apart :o)

Where it used to be that only Rocket Dog could get on the bed, Tilly can too, usually, if she scrambles. Oh well...

She's 20 weeks old, and still around 16.5" tall. Her weight's up to 21lbs.

She's still teething, and she's discovered that her favourite thing ever is playing in the bath with Victoria. We've also started playing a game where I swing her around by holding a little tennis ball that she hangs on to with her teeth - so the canines aren't loose yet. I'll swing her a few times, then drop her on her bed. She loves this, and won't leave me alone until I've given up and sat down. 21lbs of dog gets a bit heavy at arm's length after a while :o)

She's 21 weeks old, and still around 16.5" tall and 21lbs. Maybe this is as big as she'll get.

We took her up to the snow for the New Year, and she had almost as much fun there as she does in the bath. Of course, the bath's warmer, and not so far to go to bed.

She's made it to 22 weeks old. She's still around 16.5" tall but has tubbed right up to 22lbs.

Her bottom canines are starting to come through, and she's chewing anything she can get her teeth onto right now, poor little monster.

She's 23 weeks old. She's now around 17" tall and 23lbs.

She's spent this week losing teeth. At the time of typing, she's down to 1 canine, and she's lost several molars. Her front incisors have been in place for weeks. She's still chewing a lot, and bleeding on toys when she's recently lost a tooth, but I think the end is in sight :o)

She's 24 weeks old. She's just a squidge over 17" tall and 24lbs.

She lost the last of her puppy canines, thankfully. I think it'll be another week of teething as the new teeth finish coming through, then she'll stop chewing on stuff so much. I hope.

Here's a thing... she's just over 5 calendar months old, but if there are 4 weeks in a month, she's 6 lunar months old. I'm going to say 6 months is 26 weeks :o)

She's 25 weeks old. She's about 17.5" tall and still around 24lbs.

She's had an exciting week, with several visitors (she peed on the floor with excitement a few times, as she really should have gone out before greeting people coming into the house - I'm going to let that one slide). She's slept on the bed a couple of times, and I'm feeding her outside her crate. I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to put the crate away, and let her just hang out in the house when we're out.

It worked for Chloe :o)

She's 26 weeks old - 6 months. She's not grown or tubbed up measurably, so she's still about 17.5" tall and still around 24lbs.

She's had a couple of trips to the Bear dog park this week, and had a lot of fun. We're working on her jumping up on everybody all the time, but I like to think we're making progress.

She's 27 weeks old now, and starting to calm down a little and listen occasionally. I've measured her at 18" tall, but she's still 24lbs, so we could be back to rounding errors :o)

In addition to going to the Bear dog park, she's been to the hang gliding field, and splashed around in the flooded areas. She's also had a proper bath, which she wasn't too sure about.

She's now fully grown, at around 35lbs and about 19" tall. She's got a lot of personality, and is a bit of a clown.

She loves to be swung around by her toys - she'll put something in your hand, drop her weight and start to pull you in circles. The first few times I did this at the dog park, people seemed to think I was abusing her :o) She'll quickly come running back for more - she'll do this all day.

She loves mountaineering around the furniture, and now has to be shut out of the office when we're out, as she gets up on the desk and plays with whatever she finds. I had to wait a week for my new glasses to come in :o(

We visited Mike, and she got to play with a large beachball type thing, and she loved it. So we got her one for home. It floated when you kicked it, and she couldn't bite it. She clambered on top of it to stop it rolling, but then couldn't move it. If she moved it with her nose, she had no control over where it went, so ended up crashing around the garden. It was quite entertaining until she burst it, either against the fence or with her dew claws.

We took her camping at Emerald Bay in Tahoe in the van. She had a great time, and got to meet her grandparents. She also crashed out before we did on the second day, as she was so very, very tired.

For her 1st birthday, I got her another large beachball, and she spent the morning chasing it around the garden.

Here she is tearing another otherwise perfectly good toy to pieces. She's also doing one of her signature head rolls - I get the blame for this because I used to roll her over a lot when she was a puppy.

She's been fascinated by Guinea Pigs for the longest time, and while Vic's fostering one who's used to dogs, she got to meet one.

She helped me paint the hallway, and ended up with green paint on her side and tail. And then started painting things herself by stealing some of Vic's supplies... she has red and purple paint on her feet. Hmmm.

We got to the 1750' hill hang gliding. She loves going to Ed Levin park, as there's a dog park that we play in first thing, then lots of people make a fuss of her while we watch the gliders.

Once again, she had her picture taken with Santa. She was a lot more wriggly this year.

We got to McClure. There weren't many people there, so she got to run and chase the ball for a while, then sit in the truck for the second run up the hill and back down again with just me. She had a ball, but was completely knackered on the way home.

She's taken to lying in the sun on top of the hot tub. I thought she was hopping up from the steps, but no, she hops up from the front, at ground level.

Like most dogs, she likes putting her head out of the window of the car - as long as we're not going too fast, of course.

After running around like a lunatic when we were hang gliding, she was very sleepy on the way home. I'd hate to miss an opportunity like this to poke fun at her :o)

We went camping again, and Tilly had a ball. She got to sleep in her sleeping bag - don't worry, we don't turn the heater on when she's in front of it.

She hurt her foot - we know not how. Eventually, she had to have it cut into to look for whatever's in there. They found nothing, but she had to have her foot soaked in an antibiotic solution with epsom salts twice a day, which she hated. She also had to take it easy for a while.

She's taken to lying around like her back's been broken. She does this from choice, so I have to imagine that it's comfortable.

She got to clamber around in the Jeep - she had been frightened of it for a while, we know not why. As it takes her to the Bear dog park she absolutely loves it now.

She's getting old now - she was 13 in 2020 - and is going white, especially around her face. She limps a little, especially when she's just got up, from arthritis, and spends most of her day asleep :o)

Tillamook passed away on January 8th, 2024 at nearly 16 and a half years old. She was a very good girl and we miss her very much.