I promised to send you an update on how Molly is doing, and I couldn't be happier with her! She, Gunner and I walk every morning, and Molly is friendly with everyone, especially small children. She will actually seek them out if she hears them playing near by. People always want to know what kind of dog she is, and I talk up the rescue as much as I can. I want all your wonderful dogs to find homes so I won't be tempted to bring them all home with me! I don't know how you guys do it!

Molly and I are working on basic obedience, and she is so smart and eager to please! She is so big and so gentle that she is a big hit in our class. She and Gunner are getting along well, and I think they are becoming great buddies. They share toys and, though Gunner seemed to ignore her a lot in the beginning, they play a lot more now. She and the cat have not done so well. Molly is a bit like a bull in a china shop, and Raychl got pretty anxious and immediately hid, growling and hissing from under (insert random piece of furniture here). Of course that meant Molly had to find her, and Coonhounds are nothing if not persistent, right? The "game" seemed to be escalating, so I have kept them separated for the past several weeks. I hope to try introducing them again once we're further along in the obedience training and will probably get a friend to help. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

She is such a loving, funny, silly dog. She is convinced she is a lap dog, and if I ever kneel or squat down to do some boring thing like pulling weeds or putting on shoes, she climbs all over and wiggles her way in so I can't see or do a thing - kinda like when the cat lays on the newspaper you are trying to read. I swear she is made of silly putty because pushing her away never works. My arm extends, and though her body seems to fold around it, she never really moves an inch! I have no clue how she does it. Though it would be good to put shoes on without being wrapped in dog, I supposed laughing through the whole ordeal is not helping to get that across to her. :) Oh well... some day.

I took both dogs backpacking over the 4th of July weekend. Molly's not fond of the Gentle Leader, but it was a necessary thing on steep rocky trails with a heavy backpack and two 75lb dogs on leashes! Both dogs did great! They slept in the tent with me, and (speaking of the "thinks she's a lap dog" thing) when I laid down on the ground to "sleep," Molly had a good old time crawling, rolling, gnawing, stepping, and sitting on every conceivable part of me for about 30 minutes. I finally just balled up and covered my head. Eventually, the novelty of mom-on-the-floor wore off, and she settled down to sleep.

I wanted to send you a few pictures so you can see how she is doing, but it's tough to get a shot of her looking at the camera. As you probably know, she spends most of her time outside looking up, so maybe if I climbed a tree I could get some good shots from there! :) The last one is her by my side as I type this to you.

Thank you, Jayne and Angie, for this wonderful addition to my family! I can't imagine where she would be without you guys!

Jo