Little Puppy Sam

Sam was born on the 25th of October 2004 to chocolate coloured parents. The litter was expected to turn out chocolate as well, but instead there were four yellow coloured pups! And Sam and his yellow littermates retained their parents' brown colouring in their noses and eyelining.

Around that time, I was looking for a puppy to join my wife and I at our new home. While browsing the Internet for breeders within the state I found an ad for labrador pups available for delivery just before Christmas. The timing was ideal for Noon and I because we were due to leave the country for our wedding in Thailand in early November, getting back into Australia the week before Christmas. As it turned out, we picked Sam up at the airport two days after we arrived back in the country.

It's a good thing too, that we got Sam just before Christmas. That meant that we could spend time at home helping him settle in into his new home. We actually had far fewer problems than we expected with this, he never once cried at night when we put him out to sleep in his new kennel. He'd spend the evening inside with us after dinner, woke up for the occasional romp and cuddle, and when we put him outside before we went to bed, he'd just settle in and fall asleep without any fuss.


Little Sammy had the most gorgeous green eyes when he was little, and he was little more than a ball of soft fur!


And he loved his toys too!


The next photos are of him when he was a
little bit older, sitting with me and getting
his first taste of bananas from Noon.


And finally, just for the sake of comparison, here's recent a pic of Sam, taken in July when he was just 9 months old :)

It's all about the food

Vivan asked, "Goodness, what do you feed them? They are growing exponentially in size!"

Andrew said, "Man they're huge! What do they eat?"

Nathan emailed, "Good old labradors.... how much do you feed them?"

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In response to all these questions I'd received about Sam and Rosie's diet, I thought I might post a photo entry of what they get to eat.

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Breakfast kicks off at 8am

On the menu are: 2 1/2 cups of puppy kibble, 1 tablespoon of chunky canned dog food, carrot pieces, diced apple, 2 pieces of wheatbix (broken up), and a piece of crusty bread with a bit of marmalade (sometimes vegemite).

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Next Up, Fruits

Fruits are next, can be anything - in this case whole oranges - other times apples or pears (whole or chopped for variety). Noon likes to scatter grapes around the yard too, to keep the two of them occupied with scavenging from time to time.

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Dinnertime at around 7pm

Dinner's a pretty flexible affair. Depending on what we have on hand, Sam and Rosie might get sardines, raw mince, chicken frames or chunky canned dog food (of various flavours), along with either broccoli, string beans, caulifower, carrots or frozen mixed vegies. In this case, it's puppy kibble, lamb mince, rice, steamed broccoli, a whole carrot, and a dash of olive oil.

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And sometimes the little buggers get lucky on the weekends...

Krispy Kreme anyone?

Sam finishing off our leftover pasta carbonara. Was too lazy to even get up.
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They're both still growing pups at this stage, hard to tell, I know :) But we'd heard that large breeds such as labradors only reach adulthood close to 2 years of age. At that point we'll reduce their diet to one main meal per day.

Everything said and done, while Sam and Rosie aren't exactly lean, they're both still trim and most importantly NOT overweight.
Trust me!

Just like kids!

Being puppies still (both less than a year old), Sam and Rosie sleep for the better part of the day. What normally happens is they both come into the house after their dinner and nap on their futon mats while Noon and I watch tv.

Then, at about 10.30pm or so we'd have to wake them up to put them out while Noon and I get ready for bed ourselves. Being winter in Australia at the moment, they get to wear their doggy coats to bed :)

The past couple of nights, however, have been different.

See, Noon and I had bought large marrowbones for Sam and Rosie to munch on and to keep them occupied while we were away at work. The marrow and meat on the bones would be gone by the time we get back in the evening but the leftover pieces would then serve as munch toys! Sam and Rosie have been enjoying these so much that they've opted to stay outdoors while we watch telly inside, chasing and teasing each other around the yard and on the deck. Every so often we hear a loud THUNK! as the bones are dropped on the planks.

We'd tried coaxing them into the house while leaving the bones outside but they'd just look forlornly at us over their shoulders and stand frowning at the door wanting to be let out. *Sigh* What else could we do but let them out? Then they'd be happy again and resume chasing each other around each with a bone in the mouth!

10.30pm last night - bed time and they were still munching loudly on their bones. Noon and I went outside to put them to bed. They didn't want to sleep, refused to drop their bones when we told them. Finally had to take it away from them and put the bones away where they couldn't reach. Again the forlorn look, again the frowning and 'please let me have my bone back.... please....' look.

Noon and I stood firm, "Sam, Rosie, BED!!"

One final look over their shoulders and they both slunked sulkily off towards their hammock beds. As we've been doing every night since the winter chill set in, we put their coats on and covered them both in their blankets and tucked them in to sleep.



I'd barely finished tucking Sam in before the boofhead started snoring! I mean the guy was fast asleep! Less than 5 minutes ago both he and Rosie were still maniacally chasing each other around the yard refusing to go to bed!

Seriously!

Out like a light!

I swear, the both of them are just like little kids!!

Introductions

Hello and welcome to the inaugural post of the Sam&Rosie blog!

This site was started with the intention of sharing the experiences and joy my wife and I have with our two dogs - Sam and Rosie - both of whom are labrador retrievers. I'd written a few emails in the past to close family and friends interested in following their development and daily antics, and a blog seemed to be the next logical step towards making these updates more widely available and accessible.

Just a quick warning though... this blog is intentionally strongly photo-oriented. So for those with slow 'net connections, my apologies.

And now, on to the introductions!

First and foremost, my leading lady and the love of my life - my wife Noon!

I met - and promptly fell in love with - Noon in college about 6 years ago and we were married in July of last year. She's from Thailand but had completed her high school education in New Zealand prior to commencing University in Australia. Noon's currently in the process of completing her PhD in Chemistry. In addition to being brainy, she's also friendly, has a great personality, and is a fantastic cook!

Next up we have Sam!

Little Sammy (well, not so little anymore) was born in October '04 to chocolate coloured parents. Both he and some of his littermates turned out yellow but retained the brown colouring on his nose and eyes. Sam always did have a 'frowny' sort of face... leading to comments that he needed botox injections and a facelift! Despite looking sad a lot of the time, Sam's a happy and well-adjusted lab.

And finally we have Rosie!

Rosie's 3 months younger than Sam, born in January '05. Noon and I had wanted little Sammy to have a companion growing up seeing as we would be away at work during the day. Plus the fact that the only thing better (or worse, depending on how you look at it!) than one labrador puppy is TWO labrador puppies!

That's the introductions done for my part... What about me, you might ask? Well, I'll leave that to my wife to write about! (...hopefully...)

Stay tuned for further posts on Sam and Rosie, I plan to revisit my photo and email archives and tell the pups' stories from when we first brought them home right up till the present. After that, we'll just take it from there and hopefully keep this blog interesting with fresh stories as and when they occur.

Plus there may be some interesting, non-Sam-and-Rosie-related entries as well :)

Cheerio for now!