German Shepherds in the News

Joe Biden has always seemed to us like the type of guy you wouldn't mind running into at the hardware store. We agreed during the presidential campaign that if we had to sit down and have a cup of coffee with someone on either ticket, Joe Biden would be our guy.

Turns out that old nice guy Joe Biden is a German shepherd man. Now we know we like him. Cute kids in the White House, German shepherd at the Navel Observatory. Things are looking up already.

German shepherds are wonderful dogs. We would be happy to answer any questions on the breed based on our experience with Ruby.

Dog-gone cute!

Our dog, Ruby, is just so cute and sweet. Many people use their blogs to keep friends and family up to date on their growing children. As we have no children, we will take an opportunity to share our 5 month old's development! You can see by the before and after pics that Tom still enjoys cuddling with Ruby on the floor. Now there's just more of her for Tom (and me too) to love!

Ruby in October

Ruby this weekend

Ruby participated in her first dog party up at the river this weekend. She went swimming with her mom, Porsche (pictured below), her best dog-friend, Fischer, and of course her favorite people friends. After her first venture down some rapids, Ruby was a bit more cautious in her swimming for the rest of the day. I escaped with only minor scratches all over my body. (Despite Ruby's thinking, I was not an island oasis in the middle of the river). Her mom (the dog kind) was very protective and helped her out a few different times. She's looking forward to her next outing!

Ruby also spent some time relaxing out on the back porch this weekend. Here, she's trying out the new hammock I picked up in Copan.
Finally, I wanted to share a video of how obedient Ruby can be. Most of the time, she listens when we call her to come, sit, lay down, and stay. We're working on the barking at people on bikes, but she's really pretty good. She's also got an addiction to toilet paper, tissues, and napkins that we're having a hard time breaking. It's tough this week because Tom is sick, so there are hundreds of Kleenexes around the house. She just loves that wet papery feel!

We've got an ear!

So, German Shepherds are known for their large pointy ears. I think that's how they hear crime happening and help the police. As puppies, they still have cute little floppy ears. Ruby is now on her way to being a big dog. Last night, her left ear popped up and has been pretty much up ever since (unless she knows she's in trouble for any number of naughty things she's doing these days). We think it's cute.


And the whole new pool thing- supposed to be only for humans. Even though we spent the weekend training her to stay out of it, by Monday morning, she had claimed it for her own and drained half the water out the sides. Trouble- but pretty cute. Her favorite thing to do after swimming is to go play in Tom's new off-limits garden. (And her tail is enormous- isn't it!)

Ruby!!!!

We are very excited to announce the newest member of the family. Her name is Ruby and she is an angel. She is a beautiful nine-week old German Shepherd. She's very cute and very affectionate. And smart as can be.
We took her to a really fun little dinner party. Where some of us played music.
Then some people got tired. And they cuddled with Ruby on the floor. What could possibly be cuter??!!

Friday Fun

Friday was packed full of exciting activities! We started out the school day with some peace day activities. Here is a picture of all the students at our school gathered in the mango field in the shape of a peace sign. This was the culminating activity and our students did a great job!

After school, we were thrilled to get some free bananas and pineapples as Dole celebrated 108 years in Honduras. There was a gathering for all employees in the school gym after school. We got some free samples and dinner. There were displays showing the tools used in the banana harvesting process. Also, we got to try one of Dole’s newest hybrids- the apple banana. It tastes like a cross between a banana and a green apple. Yummy!

Perhaps the most difficult thing for us to see was that pineapples can be displayed a lot more creatively than we did for our wedding centerpieces. I guess a bride needs to contact professionals at Dole to get pineapple artistry like this.

We finished off the evening with a visit with the puppies. They’re growing so much every week. We’ll be able to take our little pup home in about 3 weeks. We’re going to try to go back some day this week around 4pm. This is their active playtime, so we’ll be able to see personalities come out. Once we decide on which pup we want, we will put a little collar on her and visit often!

Puppies and Football

Last night, we were lucky to meet our future puppy! In about 5-6 weeks, we'll be the proud owners of a little German Shepherd pup. She will be very happy in our home. We're not sure which of the girls we'll end up with, but it was so fun to hold them last night.


Today was exciting because we got the keys to our new house. Once we have a fresh coat of paint and some plants out front, and some furniture inside, we'll be set! Our stuff is expected to arrive sometime this week. Maybe? Possibly? HOPEFULLY? Here is Tom standing on a large rock in our backyard. The grass was recently cut by a man with a machete. He'll be back tomorrow to bag up all the clippings.

Another exciting thing about today is that we're watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers take on Nevada today. When we lived in Minneapolis, we'd be lucky to find a game televised, and even luckier if we found a friend with cable! Here, thanks to Karen's alert, we turned on our tv at 1:30 and the Denver ABC station came through for us. (We get ABC, CBS, and NBC out of Denver for some reason.)

We're going to have dinner tonight at La Ceiba's best restaurant, Ricardo's thanks to cousin Mark, who gave us a "gift certificate" as a wedding present. Gracias Mark! Tomorrow we're going to a small island off the coast of La Ceiba for some snorkeling and sun. Should be a blast!