Scout

We got Scout in the fall of 2003. Wyatt named her after the little girl in "To Kill A Mockingbird"-one of his favorite books. Scout is a very percocious puppy. She fell in love with Cowboy right away, but it took her a little more time to warm up to us. She is more adventurous and mischievious than Cowboy, and would rather play fetch than be scratched behind the ears. Still, when Cowboy isn't around, Scout can be very affectionate. As she's gotten older, she's enjoyed belly rubs more often.

The funniest thing Scout would do until she was probably a little over a year old--she would sit on Cowboy. He was her personal pillow, and his head was her personal thrown. Cowboy seemed to endure it with all the patience of a resigned big brother.

One day when Scout was about a year old, she got out of the fence and went "on an adventure." Wyatt and I looked for her all day. We called Animal Services every 20 minutes to see if they had any reports of her. Her adventures (from what we gathered by the animal services report) took her about 5 miles across the city, from one large park to another. Needless to say, I was quite distressed when by the end of the day, we still hadn't found her. It was early fall, and the evenings were getting quite cool. I was really worried about her. But then about ten minutes after we came home, we heard a neighbor talking to our dogs. Cowboy was inside with us, so we wondered who they were talking to. We went outside, and there, waiting by the gate, was Scout! She was quite excited to be home, and ate a whole bowl full of dog food, then immeadiatly threw up by the door. We were so glad to have Scout-a-roo home.

Scout is a very happy puppy. She wags her tail with such enthusiasm, that she "jingles" everywhere she goes. Her collar shakes with each swoosh of the tail. In the morning, before I even open my eyes, I can know where Scout is in the house, by listening for the jingle.

When Scout was little puppy we made the mistake of giving her old socks to chew on. For months she would chew indescriminately on any socks she could find-new or old. She wouldn't bother any clothes though!

She is also a very curious puppy. One time we were up in the canyons, and a horseback rider came by. Scout had never seen a horse before (though I took Cowboy riding a couple times when he was little puppy). She had probably never seen anything bigger than her before! She was really curious, but also a bit timid. She would sneak up on the horse (luckily it was a very well trained horse that didn't seem to mind dogs) and when the horse turned to look, she would run back to us as fast as she could.

Scout was harder to train than Cowboy- I think because we got her at the begining of winter. We would have to come home during lunch breaks to "let her out" but since it was cold outside, she couldn't just stay outside all day. This led to several more problems than we had with Cowboy. But eventually she did catch on.