Jack

Before I decided to enter the world of blogging, I was a little hesitant because we don't have kids. Most of the blogs I saw were of young families showing off their cute babies. Why would anyone want to see boring pictures of Spencer and me? Anyway, I am glad I got over that, and today I thought I should do a post about our dog Jack, since he's as close to a child as we have right now!

We got Jack for my birthday in 2005, right after buying our house in Idaho. We picked him up at the animal shelter in Idaho Falls, where he had been for 3 weeks prior. When we took him out of his kennel to look at him, he pressed himself right up against my legs and stayed there, even when we took him outside the shelter to walk him around. All the other dogs we looked at would immediately run to the edges of the fence when we took them out, but Jack stayed right with us.

He was super skinny, dull fur coat, and he had to be neutered before we could take him home. The surgery involved stitches, so we couldn't bathe him for a couple weeks. And the anesthetic they gave him made him pee about every 15 minutes. This was before we finished our fence in the backyard, so he stayed in the house a lot of the time. Which meant I spent all my time following him around with carpet cleaner. Not a great start! Luckily, he completely changed after the first couple weeks. He is great with kids, never gets on the furniture, learns tricks quickly, is obedient MOST of the time, and of course is very loyal.

The one thing we struggle with is his interactions with other dogs. For the most part he's fine, but he has attacked a couple of dogs on different occasions. We are still working with him on this.

Anyway, here are some photos of Jack. They are not in any certain order.

Jack came with us to Fillmore to help my parents put sheetrock up in the garage. He spent most of his time hunting for cats and laying around in the dust.

Jack kept me company in the Uintas this summer while Spencer spent the day fishing.

What a great sky!

Spencer and I sometimes force Jack to do "people" things, like play on the playground at the local elementary school. He doesn't really like it, and we had to push him to get him to go down the slide. But it makes for cute pictures!

Here's Jack with his cousin Sarah. We kept her at our house in Idaho for a couple months while her family was transitioning to their new house.

We took Jack to Lake Powell in 2006. He liked riding in the ski boat and house boat. He liked being on the beach. He liked all the food given out by nieces and nephews. One thing he did NOT like was the water! We threw him in a couple times and even gave him a life vest, but he never could appreciate the joys of swimming. Oh well!

Here's Jack in our backyard in Idaho. Since moving to Utah, he has had to adjust to much less backyard space. Especially now, while we're living in a condo! Luckily he is a very mellow dog and doesn't mind staying inside for most of the day.

I've always liked this picture of Spencer and Jack along the Snake River, one of our favorite places to take him for walks in Idaho Falls.

Jack is such a cuddler! He almost always sleeps all curled up with his nose tucked under his paws. Awwww! Cute puppy!