12/1/12:

It's been too long since I've written, Just have been thinking about you and forget me not shelter and wondering how all of you are doing...
Tucker says hi, he is such a big love... still....
We went to the beach today it was a chilly 36 degrees and blowing and Tucker had a blast bouncing all over the grassy slope and just sitting with his face in the wind...
I have been meaning to ask you if he used to sit up and put his paws up like a poodle when you had him///
It is his most favorite position, sitting up with his paws in your hands and that great big bottom of his underneath him like a big old bear sitting pretty.
He must do this at least 10 times a day, and then he gets that sweet face with his eyes all half squinty and sweet...
He is doing well, getting a bit chunky and now blowing his coat out in huge chunks that we are amazed at...
He did it in May/June, too, lost all of his fur undercoat and was left with this nappy almost wiry overcoat... must be a once every six month thing.
We are a little concerned that he keeps licking and chewing on his feet, we think it may be skippy peanut butter or the heater too warm, he has been doing it a little less now that we cut out the peanut butter...  He is such a funny fellow.  He is so good and quiet, except when we get home and he tells us about how much he missed us. 
We love him to bits.  My favorite part of the day is when I get home and he makes me stand still and hold his paws while he sits up and then Cooper the cat runs underneath our arms like he is playing London Bridges///
Hugs to you and everyone at Forget Me Not Shelter...

7/15/12:

We have had a lot going on since I last wrote, I headed to Michigan mid May to spend a month with my Mom, had a great time together for five weeks, so precious, and when I returned to Kodiak she had a stroke and was gone to heaven, just like that. So thankful for the time she and I had together, cannot encourage you enough to grab the time while you can :)

Tucker is a huge love and so wonderful to hug and is very good at absorbing tears. 

Just thought I would send a couple of funny Tucker pictures your way. He is so sweet, he did so well with our housesitters- they too fell in love with him. The third picture is their daughter with him laying on the floor and they are both laughing!

He is such a good fit with our lifestyle, very laid back and happy. He is comfortable at home and in the car, happy to go with us or to stay home.  He and Cooper get along great.  He loves the beach, I think his favorite thing to do besides splash in the water is to gallup up and stop in the sand and slide to a halt and do a half turn and head off in the other direction. He loves to act like a big black jeep!  And he is so new to water he was standing in a big pond yesterday and started trying to shake off while he was still neck deep in the pond.  Too cute and funny. I think he laughs at himself a lot too.

Everyone who meets him falls in love with him, and I am pretty sure he has a soft spot for cute young girls. Hoping to go boating with Tucker soon- Brian had him out a few times and he loved the boat and his life preserver. Thank you again for choosing us to be is forever family!

5/9/12:

Just checking in to say hi and hugs from Tucker :)
We are still doing well and he is such a good boy.
He loves to sit out on the front porch every morning and evening (it is so light here till about 9:30PM)
And he is a perfect gentleman on the leash. Even on trails he is just a footstep ahead and never pulls.
He does love to romp with that funny leap run of his- sometimes his big back end gets ahead of him but he always has a huge
smile on his face and never jumps up on us or gets rough up close, just a lot of tearing it up back and forth and in big circles up and
down the river beach out front.  He really loves to whoop it up on the river beach.
The other sweet thing that he does literally every day, is to slow me down, make me pay attention to him, he sits up and gives me both of his
paws, looks me in the eyes and just tells me he loves me...  and i tell him i love him back and what a good boy he is and then he squints his eyes
in that "i love you" look of his, and i melt all over the place and the day is made much better.  I know you will remember that look of his....

It is newfoundland shedding season and we are flooded with black fluff.
At least a grocery sized bag for every 15 minutes of brushing- LOL

4/9/12:

Lots of new adventures this week, he came to work with me on Friday afternoon and loved the dental office.  He also seems to be crazy about the car (my Honda Pilot).  Whenever we let him out the frront door, he hops up and sits on the dog step on the back of my car and hopes that we are going for a ride.  And when we are on a ride he sits right up and watches everything out the window just like he is a passenger on a bus or something. He really enjoys going for rides.  This weekend, he decided he didn't want to get out of the car, and we had to just leave the back door open until he realized we were not going anywhere.  He REALLY loves the car.  We installed the guardrail thing that keeps him from coming forward, threw in a few toys and rawhide rolls and now it is his favorite place in the world. He really loves his car spot even when we are not going for a ride :)

He has been a perfect gentleman, staying off the furniture, sleeping in the breezeway (we would prefer that he sleep up stairs with us but he seems to not like going upstairs.)  We have an open loft stairway and he will come up and say hi and hang out for a bit but always goes back downstairs and sleeps in the breezeway where we have him stay during the day.  Today he came upstairs when we were getting ready to go to church and flopped down on our floor pillows.  I got one picture of him and then of course he was up and nosing at the camera.  He also has been crazy about this funny pig toy that makes a hilarious grunt grunt when you squeeze it.  He seems to think of it as his baby and he carries it everywhere and gently chews on it to get it to snort. 

We did have a new dog over to visit this weekend too, and did he have a blast racing all over the river beach chasing my friend's young malamute.  She managed to stay out of reach and just wore him out.  He has been smiling ever since so we are planning as many new visitors as we can so he can get used to meeting new dogs and people.  He has really been good with everyone, kids, dogs, and grownups.  And he really loves being in communication and touch with both Brian and I. He is now being really good and staying around the yard with us and having more and more time off leash around the house (outside).  And when I have been walking him on leash he is soooo good and does not pull at all.  He is such a good boy.  Very attentive and gentle.

 And tonight he is enjoying Frozen Planet with us, especially the part where the wolves are talking.  He is totally into figuring out where these "dogs" are and what they are saying.  Too cool.  I remember that you wondered if he would pick up on animals on TV and the wolves certainly caught his attention. We get such a kick out of hm.

4/1/12:

Just a quick note on my birthday to again thank you for the best birthday present ever.... 

We have decided that Pepper's new name is Tucker.  It is the first name that we could both agree on and we laugh because we do keep thinking up funny new ones (like Little Musk Ox and Quivet - musk ox fur that is the softest on earth) we are sticking with Tucker for now.  I may add Quivet as his middle name.  Tucker Quivet Hansz.  I like that.  We also affectionately call him Mr. Moose, as he is so funny and huggable. 

He had his first trip to the groomer this week, which took all day, as they kept pulling out mats and then giving him a break then pulling out more, repeat repeat repeat...  Three baths and a blowout later he sure looked funny- all fluff instead of curly and his tail was pretty much shredded.   He does have a handsome zebra bandanna though and his curls have come back with the humidity now.  And I am learning how to get out the undercoat that is so thick and lush and not as necessary now that he is an inside doggie.  He is soooooo soft now and everyone loves petting him.  He continues to be so friendly and curious and has a voice, he kind of moantalks to us when we get home and he has been alone for a few hours- too cute. 

He is also doing well with being at home during the day while we are at work, one of my concerns originally.  We "hired" our 12 year old neighbor boy to come over and take him out in the yard (hip deep snow- Tucker's fave) and play with him and get him to go potty mid day.  They have been getting along fabulously and on Friday, Troy left us this cute little poop ticket- he made up on his computer to let us know that they did all four things: pooped peed played outside and had treats for pooping and peeing.  Nice, eh?

And yesterday on my birthday we took our first trip to the beach and Tucker had a blast.  He did not really like the water's edge but he totally enjoyed romping around on the beach and smelling everything. The Coast Guard base has a nice long beach with a large grassy knoll all along the shore, so lots of room to wander and of course a really long black sand beach with all kinds of kelp, shells, and misc interesting objects.  I think he smelled each and every one of them, and thankfully did not roll in anything!

 He is right at home in both of our cars now and is always jumping up and sitting on the dog step on the back of my Honda Pilot.  He just sits up there like, "when are we leaving?" whether we are going anywhere or not. He is just too cute for words. 

3/27/12:

Just wanted to get a quick note off to you and let you know that Mr Pepper made it to Kodiak safe and sound and made several friends along the way! And also to thank you for everything you have done to welcome me to Republic and to provide a safe haven for Pepper with an abundance of love and attention- it was sooooo fun to meet you ALL! 

We had a total blast on our ride to "town" (Spokane), with lots of treats and breaks for walks and fresh air.  Pepper ended up sitting on my big duffle bag in the back looking out the windows for most of the way.  He smiled almost the entire way, was very polite about staying in the back area even though he REALLY wanted to sit up front, and had not a lick of car sickness!  He was such a good boy and only had to be told twice to stay out of the front seats and learned really quickly how fun it is to get treats and wait while I ran in and out of a couple stores.  He is such a good boy!!!  He also charmed the park rangers at the Kettle Falls Depot station- he was a total gentleman and they said he could come back any time!

We had an interesting time during our two motel stays, it kind of seems like he is afraid or anxious at night in the dark!  He had a couple of anxiety attacks which were a surprise but it turned out to be a good bonding experience for us so that was kind of special.  We got to share how much we both need to love each other, me- how much I missed having a big black fluffy dog to hug since Deacon died, and him- how much he loved being loved by someone for keeps!  A few tears were had by both of us and we decided that there was no looking back, only forward and that everything was going to be OK! 
I will say it again, he is such a love...

The morning of our flight out we had quite a scare. At the airport they told us our huge comfy crate would not fit on the plane (despite my giving the dimensions to the lady who made our reservation) and we found this out just a half hour before our departure!  We had an exciting time running from one end to the other of the airport together (neither of us is much of a morning jogger, LOL) and then the Alaska Air ticket manager saved the day by breaking into the cargo department and finding an unassembled (but much smaller) crate and putting it together in record time! Pepper was such a good sport and climbed into the cramped space and was whisked away to the plane, while they had me cut the line in security and run to the gate.  They held the plane for us and we were off!  Which was a good thing, because there were no other connections that had all three jets scheduled that would be able to take dog passengers for several days.  Whew!  We are so thankful to the sharp lady who figured out all of the options and even went out and measured the cargo door to see if it would fit :) 

We had a great time in the Anchorage airport during our four and a half hour layover.  Several potty walks and airport tours with lots of petting and greetings from people of all ages, from the very small to the very senior :)  Pepper was a perfect gentleman, sitting and smiling at everyone, thanks to you ladies who spent time teaching him to sit so perfectly! He was such a good Newfie ambassador.  The only time we had a bit of trouble was when it was time to get back into that little airline crate- he was not interested at all!  But we eventually worked it out and everyone had a great show, with me on my knees, trying to beg, shove, cajole him in and him on his back with all four feet in the air refusing to cooperate.  The funny part was he was just sitting there smiling out the door of the crate after all of the fuss.  Too funny.  He does have a sense of humor. :)

We landed in Kodiak and Brian got to meet him and they had a nice time together bonding since I passed out about an hour after arriving home (three nights without sleep- ugh!)  Today we had a nice slow day together and worked on grooming and learning about the house and yard and oh boy did he have a blast playing in the snow. Many snow angels were made and the yard was pretty much covered in dog prints playing fetch and chase.  Our other new favorite thing is doing the Doggy 500 in the driveway after our walk.  He just loves to run really really fast down the driveway off leash and then come running back at us and tumble in the snowy drive trying to stop. We all had a good laugh and he got to wear himself right out.

We still haven't settled on a new name yet, one that we liked yesterday was "Camai", which in Aleutic means "hello" or "welcome" which is so fitting to his personality, but it is just kind of hard to say or use as a name.  We also really like Benny Benson, which is the name of the guy who created the alaska state flag and is a very well known name here.  Brian likes the Benson, I like the Benny, but we still are not set yet.  It is our favorite topic of conversation still. 
To be continued.

Well, this was supposed to be a short note but as usual running long, so I will upload a couple of pictures and head to bed.

Thanks again for all that you do!!!!

And thanks to Dani and all of the coffee shop / shelter volunteers- you guys rock!!!