Gypsy!

it's been such a while since i've posted - if i were on top of life, i'd post all the things we've done with our new home.  however, we got a puppy (!!!!!!) in december, and life has been fuller than ever!  so, i'll post about her.

please meet gypsy raine decarlo.  she's a purebred akita, and we received her 12/20/13.  she's now 4 1/2 months old, and has completely captured our hearts.

below is a picture of gypsy while still with her breeder.  knowing her as we do now, mike and i are sure she was grumbling when this shot was taking - our gypsy always has an opinion!

gypsy and mike, the first afternoon we had her - she was so scared, poor little love!!  that night, she cried almost the full 8 hours....i was texting my mom almost in tears, because her cries were so very sad.  it took over a week to get her accustomed to the crate, and almost a month to get her to sleep through the night.  two months later, we are SO glad for all that training - we say, "place" to gypsy, and she trots right over to her crate (place) and sits down to wait for her treat.  now, if only i could train her to help scrub potatoes for dinner....

mike thought of the shot below - very artistic!  we were preparing for an informal house-warming party, and i'd asked mike to fill our bucket with ice for the white wine and beer.  a few moments later, i popped my head out to see mike alternatively coaxing and forcing gypsy to stay in the bucket - and she looked so darn cute, i had to take a picture myself!

here we are holding our sweetie in our very own backyard - a year ago, i never thought by january we'd have already bought a house and own a dog!!!  

gypsy actually looks way bigger in the picture below than she actually was at the time (3 1/2 months) - but what a big puppy to be as long as my torso!!  now (at 47 lbs), she no longer likes for me to pick her up - she senses that i'm not quite strong enough to hold her well, and wraps her paws around my arm to hold on for dear life.  it's ok, gypsy - i gotcha!

 and lastly, a picture from earlier this week - 4 1/2 months, 47 lbs.  we are happy every day to have our powder-puff, and excited in this stage to see the pay-off of months of training.  we are currently taking her out to a new place each weekend (downtown alexandria, national harbor, etc.), to work on her responding to us even through distraction....and i am always so proud to be the girl walking with my hottie husband, next to the most gorgeous dog i've ever seen.  once gypsy's trained, maybe we'll work on cutting through my thick biases?  ;-)

that's our puppy!  we just love her to pieces.  you are such fun to have, gypsy raine!