Sophie's Howl-oween

Dear Sophie,
I was getting rather annoyed with you tonight with your rather enthusiastic greetings to all the little trick-or-treaters around here, but 'Daddy' and I were a little concerned when you ran to the door and, totally out of character, began barking and barking and barking, deep and threatening! There was definitely something out there you didn't like. It only took us a minute or two to figure out what it was and, when we did, I thought I'd fall on the floor laughing! Many of these trick-or-treaters were using plastic grocery bags for their treat bags! You were hearing these plastic bags rustling! Funny, you're not afraid of them when we go to grocery stores, and they don't bother you at all in normal household use, but let one blow down the alley and you bark like there's no tomorrow. I'm sorry I made you feel bad by laughing at you, but if you could only see how silly you looked, you'd be howling too.

Pet Expo, 10-21-06

Dear Sophie,
It has finally started cooling down a bit, if you can call 90 degrees cooling down, so we can start attending special dog events again with our class. Yesterday was a Pet Expo in Avondale and you were such a good girl after you settled down among the hundred or so dogs who showed up. There was even a police dog demo with hollering and gunfire and everything, and you didn't seem interested in the least. Our teacher said you were doing fine, even though you broke a stay at the worst possible time, but I'm still way too much of a basket case to suit her. She said if there was any way she could give you your certification test without me around, she would! haha Still, in all, you've come so far in the past year and I'm so proud of you. After the Expo, you and I and CJ and Emma and Meg and Kovu hung out at Panda Express for two hours of chatting and visiting. It's going to be so much fun to be classmates when we go back to school in two weeks. Yep, I'm putting you back in school for some 'fine tuning' and, with any luck, you'll be ready for your test before too much longer. We're going to see this through, Sophie ... you and me.