Oakes
Oakes is a German Shepherd that Anne is raising for the Seeing Eye.
October 5, 2004
Our time with Oakes flew by, and it was time for him to leave. It was a very sad day for us, although Oakes looks his usual happy self...
Here he is in the backyard enjoying the beautiful fall weather on his last afternoon with us. We hope he does very well in “school.” We miss him so much!
Monday, June 7, 2004
Oakes thanking Anne for letting him play with his favorite toy—the rainbow ball—which he would love to shred if she let him have it long enough.
Friday, June 4, 2004
We got a digital camera yesterday (our first) and couldn't resist pointing it at Oakes. He's getting used to modeling.
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
A number of people have commented on how large Oakes has gotten with guesstimates ranging from around 90 pounds all the way up to 1,000! (Wow, that's Clifford size.) He was weighed today at the vet, and we have an official weight of a decidedly svelte 84 pounds.
May 15, 2004
Oakes at ten months modeling his Gentle Leader.
January, 2004
Oakes at 6 months Here's Oakes in mid-January portraying two sides of his complex personality.
Oakes striking a noble pose. Perhaps he's beginning to realize how handsome he is...
...nah!!!
Friday, December 5, 2003
Oakes at 5 months Here's Oakes enjoying the first snow of the season. This was the first snow that Oakes had ever seen, and he made the most of it--he had a marvelous romp. If only he could go sledding...
Oakes seems determined to make his cold, wet nose even colder and wetter by burrowing into the snow.
Oakes at five months with Anne. Somehow she managed to keep him still for 1/125 of a second.
Oakes at 19 weeks: "Toys? Who needs toys with a yummy stick nearby?"
Oakes at 10 weeks. The first two pictures show Oakes demonstrating his gracious hospitality to Vinnie, a German Shepherd we were dog-sitting. Anne took these around September 22, 2003.
Who'd have thought our precious little Oakes could muster an expression like this? But the camera doesn't lie! It seems we caught him in the middle of an "I'm-the-alpha-dog-until-proven-otherwise" bark directed at Vinnie, whom we were dog sitting recently. But Vinnie isn't convinced.
We tried to tell Oakes it was hopeless, but he wouldn't give up. Vinnie ignored him when possible, but even the best of us have our limits.
At eleven weeks, Little Oakes is already losing his puppy shape! One previously floppy ear is now standing tall.
Our cat, Sidney, doesn't appreciate Oakes' friendly advances. Perhaps it has something to do with the bouncing and barking...? Sidney seems to know that a good swat across the puppy's nose should do the trick, and he doesn't understand why it hasn't worked. (He was front declawed by his previous owner, so what should be a painful slice is instead a soft tap. Poor guy!)
Oakes at ten weeks (September 14, 2003)
Wednesday, September 3, 2003
Anne decided a while ago that she wanted to raise a puppy for The Seeing Eye, the guide dog school in Morristown, New Jersey that trains dogs to help blind people. The Seeing Eye depends on volunteers to help raise the dogs by placing puppies in volunteers' homes to be raised until they are old enough to return to the school for training. Because Anne didn't have any specific requirements as to breed or sex of dog, it didn't take very long before a dog was found for her. Our new puppy arrived yesterday, and he's a charmer. He's an eight-week-old male German Shepherd named Oakes. He's been a handful at times, and, not being housebroken, has had a couple of accidents so far, but that was to be expected. In addition, Anne had to get up once in the middle of the night to take him out and then wake up very early this morning. This will be a regular routine until Oakes is able to make it through the night. Neither of us has ever housebroken a puppy, so it's quite a learning experience for both us. The trouble I dreaded most was that our cat, Sidney, who will not tolerate the presence of any other cats in the household, would rebel at sharing his house with the new puppy, but this wasn't the case at all. In fact, Sidney even seems a bit bemused at the antics of the often whining and somewhat helpless puppy. For Oakes part, he doesn't seem that interested in Sidney either. Whew.
Oakes at eight weeks (September 2, 2003)