Smokey a Pure Bred?

It's relatively recent news that the big ol' fur love of our lives has limited time left with us.  Without going into all of the sad details lets just say that we've been battling canine cognitive dysfunction (doggie Alzheimer's) as well as degenerative myelopathy (a progressive degenerative disease of the spinal cord) and a general loss of control in the poop department (probably brought on by a combo of his old age and the dementia).  Our pup is simply wearing out.  While this will be a difficult few months for us, I thought it would be a great idea to do one of those dog DNA tests so that after these 11 years we could finally find out what breeds make up our best friend.  I originally thought I'd do this for Ryan's Father's Day gift, but when the results came in I couldn't keep the surprise and I had to share.  I know, me not being able to keep a surprise - shocker.

Basically the company uses an algorithm that performs over 7 million calculations to analyze and predict the breeds in Smokey's last 3 ancestral generations that best fit the markers of his DNA pattern.  His chart looks something like this:  8 great grandparents = Labrador Retriever, 4 grandparents = Labrador Retriever, 2 parents = Labrador Retriever, Smokey = Labrador Retriever.  The report told us that the test is not designed as a pure bred test, but they only detected Labrador Retriever in his recent ancestral history.

How can this be?  The report also mentioned that non-AKC registries sometimes recognize a silver variant in Labs.  OBVIOUSLY if you've ever seen Smokey then you can tell he is not a pure bred Lab.  All we know for sure is that those silly rumors of his daddy being a blue heeler were completely false.  Some dog somewhere waaay back in his history most likely wasn't a Lab.  We'll never solve this mystery, but that's OK.  He's the sweetest, funniest, fartiest, most awesome pure bred mutt I've ever met.

Smokey is enjoying spring, so Matthew and I try to take him out in the mornings so that he can roll around in the grass.

The Day of 1,000 Kisses

Today is one of those days when I wish I could crawl inside of my little snuggle buggy's head to see first hand what he's thinking.  If I could bottle the amount of baby slobber that was deposited onto my cheeks today then I would be a billionaire.  All day long, beginning the moment I picked him up from his crib and ending the moment he drifted off to nite-nite sleep with his hand on my cheek, he gifted me with an onslaught of affection that will rival all others.  Burping after meals, walking down the hallway, looking at ourselves in the mirror, Skyping with Grammie, and playing with toys were just a few of the activities that merited frequent stops in action so that he could reach up and plant a big old slobbery one onto my cheek.  LOVE!  I want to bottle this day so that I can remember it whenever he's "too old" or "too cool" to kiss his mama.  Ryan was only slightly jealous.

6 Months

Look who is 6 months old!

I'm opting for this picture taken in the exam room instead of the adorable shot of Matthew on the scale.  But let me tell you that the scale shot was priceless in that we have one naked Matthew stretched out on the scale as straight as he could make himself and in the corner of the shot we have daddy's hand.  Daddy's had was an accidental capture that we discovered later while downloading the pictures.  Daddy's hand is funny because it is holding one adorable little baby turd that was deposited there by our sweetie pie as daddy removed his diaper for weighing purposes.  Stinker. 

I can't believe it's been 6 months since we first saw this sweet little face!  At 6 months Matthew is great at standing and holding his own weight while you hold his hands.  He even tries to stand up from a sitting position when sitting on laps or a boppy.  He does all of the typical 6 month old stuff like sticking his feet in his mouth and making noises that run the gamut in octaves (especially in public when mommy has him in a shopping cart).  He's been working on a tooth for about a full month now but it still hasn't made an appearance.  He has had his first food allergy - mango, I think.  After a few spoonfuls he broke out in a rash all over his tummy, chest, shoulders, and neck.  He still gets freaked out if strangers gather around to stare at him, but he's much more comfortable making new friends if they approach a bit slowly.  He still only rolls from back to front, but Dr. checked him out and said that it's only because he's choosing not to roll from tummy to back.  She thinks he's physically quite capable of the maneuver.  Seriously, why bother flipping yourself over when you're perfectly capable of spinning yourself around on your tummy 360 degrees.  When on his tummy he pushes himself up so tall!  We can put him into a crawling position and he laughs, but he hasn't been able to get both his head and his bottom up at the same time by himself.  His favorite activity is the jump-a-roo.  Who needs a TV when we can just watch him giggle and bounce himself silly?!?

Weight: 17 lbs 13 oz (54th percentile)

Height: 26 3/4" (50th percentile)

Head: 42.3 cm (22nd percentile)

I almost forgot to add what a lovey dovey this little man is!  Not only has he mastered kisses - I get them and a big hug every morning - he has also mastered the behind the head reach up and twist to kiss you move.  He first tried it out on Great Grammie and it's been added to his repertoire ever since.

Family Faces

Matthew and I decided to take a little road trip to visit friends and family, so off we went leaving Ryan and Smokey for 5 days.  Don't worry - Ryan wasn't lonely.  Steve came to visit Ryan (and Duke came to visit Smokey). 

Matthew was amazing on the road.  He snoozed almost the entire trip, babbled at me for a small portion, and ate his midday meal in the car with no problems what-so-ever.  He's a dream.  He also LOVED all of the new faces that he got to play with.  He warmed up to everyone and gave out a ton of kisses.  Overall, we had a blast and we can't wait for a repeat performance in a few weeks for his baptism.

This is my fave pic of Great Grammie and Matty.

We loved our new toy!

Visiting for our birthday lunch celebration!

We liked cousin Ziggy, too.

Playing with Dodo.

Breakfast with the cuz.

Hoppy Easter

We love our little bunny butt.

What are we thinking?

OK, if you were our neighbors how much would you hate us?  I mean, I would hate us!  Well, I would hate us if I were them.  I actually LOVE our new door.  But seriously, what are we doing?  Running a clown college out of our basement or something?

But you can see how the new red door is an improvement from the 1980's era rotten wood blue door (that allowed snow to blow into the house).

I keep reassuring the neighbors that we will indeed change the color of the siding and shutters (and ridiculous blue railings), but who knows when that will happen.  Lucky for us the house next door has been only half painted for the last year.  Hopefully our two households will stop bringing down the property values soon!