Double digits

The Rock star turned 10 months old today!!! The past 8 months have flown by; seems like just yesterday Rocky was 18.2 lbs and a chubby little thing! Rocky spent his 10 month birthday in class with me. Granted, not the most exciting day ever - playing with his friends would have been a lot better, but now that he is almost a year old, he gets to behave during class for his month day. I got to school a little early, so I walked him around in the beautiful weather that we are having. Traffic does not bother him one bit. Since we are uptown, there are sirens, trucks, buses, cars honking and just a loud commotion of cars. Rocky walks down the sidewalk with not a care in the world. He also gets exposed to talking crosswalks since there are quite a few visually impaired individuals who are on campus.

[Close up of Rocky’s head, he is looking to the left. In the background is a gray sidewalk]

After our walk, Rocky found the elevator for me and we headed up to our math class. Since there is a class before us, we waited in the hall; Rocky decided it was a great place to take a nap. I then had to wake him up so that he could go sleep under my desk. My math class got out a little early so we took the long way to get to my next class so we could enjoy some more sun. Sign language is pretty quiet, so Rocky took a very good nap. After 2 hours of lab, we headed back across campus to our car and then the lovely drive home in all the rush hour traffic. Then we were off for a walk and some play time. Now I have a snoring Rocky lying at my feet. So it was not the most fun day, but not all days can be fun.

[Rocky and I outside in front of a fence. Rocky is sitting with his head tilted towards the camera, I am kneeling beside him wearing jeans and a blue and white striped shirt]

In honor of Rocky’s 10 month birthday 10 things I love about Rocky 1) His personality- He has a great, easy going personality which makes him extremely easy to take places and know that he is going to be on his best behavior. He is really calm and has never met a stranger. 2) His ears- he has the most expressive ears; when he gets happy he lays them back and wags his tail. He also has the cleanest ears I have seen on a lab, I don’t think he has ever had a dirty ear (though he still gets his ears cleaned every week) I guess it is because he always has his happy ears on so they air out. 3) The way he eats- Rocky is the messiest, slowest eater when it comes to mealtime that I have met. It takes him 2-3 minutes to finish a bowl of food; he takes a mouth full of food and then drops it all over the floor. It is like he is saving some for dessert. With treats he makes a big mess and loses part of the treat because Ely snarfs down his and goes over to check out what Rocky dropped (Ely is working on his manners some more) 4) His noise- He snores pretty much every night, thankfully I can sleep through most anything since Ely and Rocky alternate between snoring. He is also really cute when he yawns really big and dreams, other than that he is a quiet dog ( I think he has only barked around 5 times in his life) 5) His 'focusness'- He enjoys watching birds, cats or other dogs, but when you tell him to leave it he looks away. He would make a horrible hunting dog, since he looks at the rabbits and squirrels in our yard and walks the other way (he picked that up from Ely) he is very focused on his job, he knows that he has to pay attention to where he is going or he is going to run into something (he has never run into anything)

[Rocky standing on gray sidewalk looking up at the camera, he is wearing his blue puppy in training coat]

6) His coloring- when I went to pick Rocky up when he was 9 weeks old he was almost a white coloring with very light tan freckles. As he has gotten older, he has gotten darker, but he still has freckles of coloring. 7)His name- I have always loved the name Rocky, it was actually on my list of names when I sponsored Ely. Rocky’s name fits him perfectly! When he was a baby he was a Rock on the end of the leash, since he enjoyed sleeping. He is now eager to go (kind of like Rocky in the Rocky movies)- to go on adventures and of course he is a Rock Star wherever he goes! I think he also likes that he has a theme song! 8) The way he plays- I could watch Rocky run after a toy a million times! He prances when he runs, kind of like a deer, but he also has the charging fast speed of a tiger. It is also fun to watch him play with all of his friends! 9) He is a mama’s boy- I think that explains some of his watchfulness, but he also loves for everyone to be together. On walks if I go with my mom he will occasionally look back to make sure they are ok. I have asked him several times if he was sure he didn’t have some golden in him, since labs are supposed to be independent! 10) Because he is himself- there is not another dog in the world with the personality, looks, and willingness to work as Rocky. He is a great combination to have- a smart, confident, loving dog named Rocky. He makes it extremely easy to love and spoil him!

[Rocky sitting watching the vending machine]

Happy 10 month birthday to Rocky along with his siblings, Spike, Duchess, Toby and Cassidy! [Rocky sitting wearing his puppy coat looking off to the right. In the background is grass and a sidewalk and road] Rocky is now asleep on his back, dreaming and snoring while airing out his ears!