Miscellany

A couple things:

1 - The badass/dumbass voting is ongoing. You will be able to vote until the end of the week. So far dumbass is narrowly winning, 3 votes to 2. So if you haven't voted yet, do so! Sam's reputation is on the line.

2 - I like getting reader feedback, so I've decided to hold a contest! The deadline isn't for a few months, so you have time to prepare.

Here are the contest rules! You must guess what Sam's weight will be on his first birthday, January 9, 2011. Guesses are due no later than Thanksgiving day (I will remind you as we near the deadline). If you want to guess now, and later want to change your guess, you can do so as many times as you like up until Thanksgiving. The winner will be the person who guesses the closest to his weight--and it isn't Price Is Right style, so feel free to guess high. The winner will get a special prize that I have yet to decide--an autographed (autopawed) photo of Sam? A doggy gift basket? A visit from the nutcase himself? You'll have to see!

To vote, leave a comment with your guess. And if you're posting as anonymous, leave your initials or some sort of nickname so I can differentiate you in my guess records.

To help you with your guesses, I will be continuing the somewhat sporadic Thursday weigh-ins, and you will get a final weight at the start of Thanksgiving week. I will also continue posting pictures of him so you can get an idea of his size. Finally, I leave you this information: Sam's mother was 98 lbs and his father was 120 lbs. Happy guessing!

3 - Sam's rash is clearing up quite well. The medication he's on is really helping. He's still losing hair, but it's only noticeable based on the newly dog-hair-carpeted kitchen floor; he doesn't have any bald spots. He seems to be less itchy, too.

4 - Sam did his first solo dive today! I showed you before how he dunks his head underwater for his toys when he's on the pool step, but today he went underwater in the shallow end after his rope toy without any urging from me. He only stayed under five seconds or so, and he only swam down halfway, but he did great! He held his breath, found his toy, and although he didn't reach it, he continued diving underwater and swimming in circles until I got in and picked it up from the bottom for him. I was cheering so loud for him the neighbors were staring at me like I was nuts. They were probably just jealous.

5 - Sam has learned some new tricks! He's learned to take a bow and to play dead. As for the putting his toys away trick, I've decided to hold off on that one until he can differentiate between training time and play time a little better; the addition of toys to training time seems to be confusing for him. Sam's also learning to talk on cue; he talks naturally all the time, so I decided to mark the behavior and get him to talk when I wanted him to rather than when he wants to--usually when someone other than him is eating, or when he's locked in the kitchen and we're ignoring him in the living room. I will post a video of him performing his new tricks next week.

6 - This is a pretty long post with no pictures, huh? Usually I'm much better about pictures. Let's see what I can scrounge up to mollify you.... how about the many faces of Samwise?

Cute Sam


Happy Sam


Uncertain Sam


Sleepy Sam


Ferocious Sam


Crazy Sam


Smug Sam


Mildly Impressed Sam