Unusual Toys For An Unusual Puppy

In my previous blog post, "The Fun of Flying Frisbees," I mentioned how quickly boxers can become bored with their surroundings. Lily Noelle has made toys out of completely random objects from around the house on many different occasions. For example, one morning while I was getting ready, I heard a "THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!" I peeked around the corner only to see Lily batting at a leash that was hanging from a hook! She was completely enthralled WITH. A. LEASH! :)
One afternoon a bored Lily Noelle discovered Andrew's metal slinky on a bookshelf in the living room. She proceeded to pull it off the bookshelf and drag it around the house for hours! She loves the sound it makes and the way it races across the floor after it's been stretched out. She actually found a way to stick one end of the slinky under the couch, pull the slinky across the living room, let it go, and bound after it! :) Here is a fun video of Lily Noelle playing with her slinky :)

After Lily Noelle discovered the slinky, Andrew's laser pointer made it into Lily's bag of toys. And oh. my. goodness. It was like Christmas morning! Lily chased the laser pointer like she was a cat! Across the kitchen floor and onto the cabinets, Lily tried her very hardest to capture that little red dot, to no avail.

Needless to say, we discovered that our Lily Noelle could be entertained by anything and everything!

Fourth of July Shenanigans

Fourth of July is a BIG deal to me. It has forever been my favorite holiday, and I have so many fun memories with my cousins and family at my grandparents’ lake house. This year’s Fourth of July was especially special for a couple reasons: 1) it was my first Fourth of July as a “Blanchard” and not a “Ness”, 2) my parents just bought their own lake lot, and 3) we now had Lily Noelle! Because the Fourth of July landed on a Friday this past year, we were able to travel to the lake on Wednesday night after we were done with work. Andrew and I were so excited for a long weekend away, and Lily Noelle was too! Lily was SO excited in fact, she fell asleep and slept the entire way to the lake.

Too much excitement and anticipation for LilyBear

Lily woke up and decided Dad needed some help driving! 

This was Lily’s second time being up at the lake, and she didn't waste any time re-exploring the woods and running all over kingdom come. J Fourth of July involves many family traditions including a Fourth of July boat parade (and competition for best dressed boat!), tubing, eating LOTS of food, playing games and of course, watching fireworks in the middle of the lake! I was so excited to share all of these traditions with Andrew and Lily! We dressed up in our red, white, and blue garb for the parade:

Lily and Daddy :)

Family Photo

Say cheese!

We played a little bean bag toss. Lily tried to help "retrieve" the thrown bean bags...  She was kind of confused on the purpose of the hole, but oh well, at least she’s cute!

"I can help!"

Peek-a-boo! 

"I didn't help...."

And finally, we went out on the boat and watched fireworks. However, Lily apparently had SO much fun during the day that she fell asleep again and slept through the entire show! (Andrew and I were actually happy that she was asleep. We thought the loud booms of the fireworks would scare Lily, but they didn’t even phase her!)

Slept through all of the fireworks

After five days of fun, family, and fireworks, it was time to head home. We were all exhausted, but Lily Noelle seemed ready to get a head start on recovering from all the fun:

Sleeping Beauty at it again :)

    

She can sleep anywhere, I swear.

Yep, she's still sleeping....

The Fun of Flying Frisbees

Lily Noelle is spoiled rotten when it comes to toys. She has a small duffel bag FULL of toys (affectionately named Lily's Diaper Bag courtesy of Andrew). Our reasoning behind the spoiling is sound, I promise! Boxers are known to get bored super easily. One way to avoid chewed shoes and destroyed furniture is active playtime and LOTS of toys. Lots of toys, however, can get expensive so one way to avoid a debt, is hiding old toys and reintroducing them later on as "new toys" (which seem to work wonders with Lily!). Whether it is tug-of-rope toys, bones, tennis balls, stuffed animals or squeaker toys, boxers (and Lily Noelle) love any and all type of toys. So about two weeks after we brought Lily Noelle home, we introduced her to a new toy: a Frisbee. She absolutely loved it! It took a couple throws for Lily to get the hang of it, but once she realized what to do, she bound after the Frisbee and brought it back, head held high and Frisbee in mouth. She was even sitting on command and dropping the Frisbee for Andrew at only two months old! Here is a video of Lily playing Frisbee with Andrew that I managed to capture. Enjoy!

She's Finally Here!!!!!

                Andrew (my husband) and I have grown up having family dogs, but somehow the perspective of having a dog of our own was exhilarating! We knew we wanted a medium sized dog, and a dog that would be good with kids. We did our research and finally found a boxer breeder that was in our budget. We began to communicate with the breeder. We were able to get on a puppy waiting list, and he said he’d get us pictures of the litter within the week. Let me tell you, that wait (closer to three weeks versus one week) was nerve-racking! I was constantly checking my email for pictures to no avail.

One of the first pictures of our Lily Noelle

          Finally, he sent us pictures of the females in the litter. We had to choose from three female puppies: a fawn (all brown), a partial flashy fawn (brown with some white), or a fully flashy fawn (brown with a full white collar around the neck). After looking and deliberating for an hour, we went with the partial flashy fawn, our future Lily Noelle. J After telling the breeder our choice, he gave us the date we could pick her up… June 18^th. It was only April 20^th at this point! Thus began another waiting game eased by the promise of more pictures. Slowly (very slowly) the weeks passed, a couple pictures were seen of our little one, and our excitement grew! We began purchasing the necessities: bed, bowls, and toys, which only fueled our growing excitement! J

                

          At last, that fateful day came, and I was bouncing off the walls! We made our way to the breeder’s home in Jasper, Minnesota. Once we arrived, the breeder went to get our little one from the barn. He brought her out, and I was in love. She was SO tiny and perfect! The breeder gave her a quick bath and cleaned her ears for us. While the breeder and Andrew talked business, I held a shaking little Lily, who weighed a miniscule 6.8 pounds! Slowly, Lily began to warm up to Andrew and I, giving kisses and wagging her little tail.

                

We began our trip home. Lily slept most of the way and didn’t make a sound the entire time. Once we were home, we played and snuggled some more. Thus began one of Andrew and I’s greatest adventures! J

Lily Noelle on her ride home, sitting on Mama's lap :)

Lily was a little nervous on the ride home.

Sleepy Lily Noelle

Lily checking out her new home!

Lily Noelle and her daddy :)