Put Your Paws Up

Last night at 8:15 in Ellensburg, the Gillilands of Washington adopted a new family member.  He's a 3-month teddy-bear golden doodle.  (He is as sickeningly cute as the name implies.)  This morning, after much debating, he was christened "Posner" (POZE-nur) during his first bath.  Click any of the pictures to go to a web album of all of our puppy photos thus far.

Posner was born on a big farm in Eastern Washington, apparently miles away from cars, crows, and concrete.  All three are marvels to him.  His mother is a white standard Poodle; his father a blonde English Golden Retriever.  Posner has long, fluffy non-shedding hair and enjoys rolling in anything that will stick in it, especially woodchips, dried leaves, and dead grass.  This afternoon he had his first romp in the luscious green grass of a local park.  Fun as it was, Posner was baffled by his parents' persistence at rolling in the lawn when there was such delightful mulch to enjoy.

Posner is already quite the star of the neighborhood.  Obviously, he is irresistibly cute, and everyone that passes pets him and gushes over his adorableness.  He's remarkably calm and handles it with aplomb.  He's even making puppy friends.  These adventures will continue tomorrow morning when we take him to the farmers' market, which we have renamed the puppy parade.  Ballard owners bring their dogs to mingle while they peruse the wares.  We're hoping this helps to continue socializing him.

He is remarkably playful, and a very quick learner.  He's mastered "do your business" (thankfully) and "come."  He seems to also be catching on to his name pretty quickly as well.  Why Posner?  We wanted something connected to our lives and passions.  He doesn't quite look like a Bogart.  He's not scrappy enough to pull off Marlowe.  Hammett didn't really have a puppy ring to it.  We're saving honoring Justice William Brennan for our first born.  And Judge Posner is the perfect blend of brilliant, goofy, and awesome to fit our new four-legged friend.  (For further reading, I highly recommend his bed bugs case opinion.)

Posner isn't wild about baths.  He stops in his tracks at the sound of a crow.  (I don't blame him.  They terrify me too.)  And he's still at war with gravity in the ongoing battle of the stairs. This is unfortunate, because our house has three storeys.  Up isn't much of a problem.  But going down more than two stairs stops him cold.  He’s making progress, though, particularly when he can be lured into following the mischievous floppy moose, Bullwinkle, pictured in submission at the top of the post. 

This was just a brief introduction.  Look forward to an over-abundance of puppy updates in the coming weeks as he has his first trip to the market, the locks, the vet, and the beach.  Hopefully we'll work in some other life updates, perhaps even a recounting of two sea lions in Cabo San Lucas, as well.