It's very hard to believe that Ricky has only been with us for a month! He is SO much a part of our family and we really can't imagine what our family would be now without him!

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He is having many new adventures with us these last few weeks...a road trip to California to visit colleges for Amanda which included a trip to the beach. He got to "cruise" around the Stanford campus on leash and enjoy a dog-friendly lunch patio in Santa Cruz. Over the 4th of July he took his first trip to Pinetop to enjoy our cabin, lots of fresh air and hiking with us. We have a fence around our yard at our cabin, so he was able to have unlimited non-leash time in the yard, but always under our watchful eyes as we enjoy being outside on the porch there as much as he does! It was really nice to have him outside off-leash where he could be casual for hours on end.

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As we are adapting to him and he to us, there has been not a single problem, unless one considers the "getting on the bed" issue a problem! Admittedly, he's quite irresistible in that arena with his very cute antics and extremely cuddly ways. We are working with him on when it's okay and when it's not and he's very smart about the whole situation. He may have taken an interest in jumping the fence at the cabin to play with the local squirrels had we not been out there with him, but he quickly responded to our happy voices and lots of attention when we called him back from the fence if he got too interested in what was on the other side.

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Odds 'n ends: We got him microchipped, he's finding out that tooth brushing can be fun, drinking fresh water from a mountain stream is really tasty (!) and he is the BEST road trip dog EVER, enthusiastically jumping up into his travel crate in the car.

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Thanks again SO MUCH for matching us up with "Ricky-man"

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