Sweet Georgia X Nigel Bear
Born:June 20, 2008 |
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Hank R's
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Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011
Subject: Re: XenobiaJune 20,08,
Lucy,
Here is an update on Xenobia. It's been quite some time
since I sent you anything. We had her in for shots on Jan. 22nd,
and at that point she was 35.5" tall, and weighed 188lbs.She
may not be as tall, but she is definetely built along the lines
of her daddy Nigel Bear. Over this last year her recall has been
getting better and better, plus she never goes too far away when
we are at a dog park. Like Hank she turns lots of heads when we
are out walking, and when we are walking both we tend to get a
lot of comments on how beautiful and well behaved our dogs are
yelled to us out of passing car windows.
I have over the last few months been working on some
reactivity with Xenobia (most of which I am beginning to
understand is stemming from me being uncomfortable around some
neighborhood dogs) but despite that she has like Hank about a
dozen doggy pals in the neighborhood that tend to meet at the
schoolyard each evening. Unlike Hank though she is a favorite of
4 puppies. A Springer spaniel, a Portugese Water Dog, a French
Bulldog, and a Cairn Terrier. They all delight in running
circles around her, and jumping up and licking her lips, and
when they have tired her out and she lays down, she will still
let them caper around her. It is really very sweet to watch.
They are all about 7 or 8 months old and she has known all of
them since they were about 3 months old.
She had lots of fun in the snow yesterday, I'm just sorry that
it was already melting today. Like me she tends to like to go
stand out in the snow as its coming down, but we've had so
little of it the last 2 years she hasn't really been able to
enjoy it.
Hope you enjoy the pics and hope to see them on her webpage
soon.
Maria and Rick O.
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Xenobia March 2010 |
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Sent: Tuesday, January 26,
2010
Subject:
Xenobia ( Sweet Georgia X Nigel Bear)
Dear
Fredericka and Lucy,
How
was your Christmas? It's been about 6 months and I thought it was
time I gave you an update on Xenobia who just turned 19 months old
on Jan 20th.
All is
going well. At her vet check for her 1 yr booster shots she weighed
175 lbs and she stands 35 inches at the shoulder. She is indeed an
impressive sight walking down the street. She has lots of doggie
friends in the neighborhood including an 11 months old Beagle named
Bingo that was adopted by neighbors just down the hall from us.
In the
summer Xenobia discovered that she liked the water, and whenever we
went to Trout Lake she would spend most of her time standing neck
deep in it instead of playing with the other dogs. In August we went
on a camping trip to Lake Selmac in Oregan with a number of other
American Mastiff owners from the West Coast including Izzy (Elizabell
V) and Xenobia learned to swim.
The
fall unfortunately was very wet this year and we had only one
afternoon of snow so she didn't have the same winter fun she did
last year chasing snowflakes.
As she
has gotten older she is slowly losing her puppy silliness, although
she still has a bout of "zoomies" at some point during the day and
she still looks gangly when she runs around. People on the street
(especially guys) are always so surprised to see how easy it is to
walk with her even though she is so big and she has made a number of
people friends in the neighborhood, including one or two people who
were afraid of dogs.
As you
will be able to see from one of the pics sooner or later we are
going to have to invest in a king size bed, as neither one of us has
the heart to push her off at night unless she's really in the way
(and she always tries so hard to be tiny as a mouse when she climbs
in)
Thank
you again for such a wonderful dog!!!
Maria
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Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Subject: Xenobia
Lucy and Fredericka,
Thought I'd send you a few more pics of
Xenobia.
On June 20, '09 she was 1 yr old, weighed
150.6 lbs, and was 33 1/2 inches at the shoulder.
On Canada Day we took her to the Dog Park
at one of the local beaches, and she had a blast. It was a
beautiful sunny and windy day, so it wasn't too hot, and there
was a pretty good surf to play in. She didn't know what to do
with the water at first, but finally decided that foam was fun
to try to catch. She also found some fun dogs to play with,
and had some rough and tumble time. We managed to coax her up
to her ankles into the water, but, she was still a little
unsure about it even though there were lots of other dogs
rushing right in.
A week later we were back at Trout Lake,
and lo and behold she decided it was too hot to stand on the
shore, when all the other dogs were in and out looking mighty
cool, and she went all the way in to her elbows. She spent
most of the 2 hours we were there running back and forth along
the shore, and following the other dogs in. Unfortunately I
didn't have my camera, but just before we left, she stuck her
head under water until only her ears were left sticking up.
The first time she did it she looked extremely confused, but
she must have liked the feel of it, 'cause she did it twice
more right afterward.
Everything else is going very well. She has
over the last 10 months won over several of the people in the
building that did not like large dogs, and she is becoming
less bouncy and more quiet when meeting new dogs on the
street, which usually means she doesn't scare them and gets
to say hello more. As you can see from the pics, she is
turning into a beautiful girl, and we can't walk her without
getting stopped at least once by someone who just wants to
touch her. My daughter Virginia (16) walked her by herself for
the first time when I was sick last week, and didn't have any
problems with Xenobia minding her, and also had people
questioning her on the street about what kind of dog she was.
Maria and Rick O.
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Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009
Subject: Re: Xenobia (Sweet Georgia X Nigel Bear) June 20,08
Spay
Fredericka and Lucy,
On Monday Xenobia will be 10 months old so
I thought I'd send this to update you.
She weighed 140 lbs and is32 1/2 inches at
the shoulders.
She is walking very well on the leash, and
we are taking more obedience classes starting next week. She
has a number of doggy friends in the neighborhood, as well as
some human admirers. We might have to breakdown and buy a
King-size bed though. It's not so bad when she gets on the bed
after Rick gets up at 5:30 am to go to work, but it gets a
little squishy when she tries to do the same thing on Sat. and
Sun. when he's home, even though she tries to make herself as
small as she possibly can. Weather is starting to clear up,
now that spring is here, but she doesn't mind taking walks in
the rain.
Thanks a bunch for my loving Xmas present.
Maria
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Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Subject: Re: Xenobia (Sweet Georgia X Nigel Bear)
Lucy and Fredericka,
Here is an update on Xenobia. She was
8months old last week and weighed in at a lean 123 lbs. She
stands 31 inches at the shoulder. She is according to one of
my daughters friends the cutest mastiff around, and everybody
at Trout Lake (a local park with an off leash area) love
her.We are running into a lot of people who have either owned,
or have friends that have owned mastiffs, so when they see us
doing training in the park they are very encouraging and
helpful. She can be very rambunctious, and is in the "all
knees and elbows" stage, and is very funny to watch especially
when she tries to play with a more agile smaller dog. Over the
last month my 16 year old cat who recently developed diabetes
has finally decided that she's not too bad to be around and
they can sometimes be found on the couch or the bed together.
And... since we made a point of introducing her to our Mailman
just after we got her home in August and he always has a
pocket full of Milkbones, she has come to associate all mail
carriers as dear friends, and was very excited to see our
mailman after a couple of weeks when he was back from his
vacation.
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Dashing through the snow! |
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Sent: Sunday, January 04,
2009
Subject: Xenobia (Sweet Georgia X Nigel Bear) June 20,08
Lucy and Fredericka,
We had a break in the snow so were able to
take Xenobia to the vet for her weighing.
As of Jan 3rd (28 weeks) she weighed 102
lbs. Here are a couple more pics that wouldn't fit last time.
We look forward to seeing her on the
website some time in the future.
Rick and Maria
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So many gifts, so little time!
My lap dog |
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10 weeks old
I don't fit anymore!
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Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008
Subject: Xenobia
Lucy and Fredericka,
I thought I'd sit down and give you another
update on Xenobia.
Most of the pictures I'm sending are from
5-6 months, I added the one at 10 weeks as a comparison.
I don't know if you remember, but Xenobia
was my Christmas present last year, so it was especially fun
to buy a couple of Christmas toys for her this year. She is
growing well, not too fast and with nice straight clean limbs.
We take her into the vet once a month to be weighed. The first
time we had her in after her rabies shot the vet came out to
look at her after he heard his assistant take her weight
because she had grown so much he thought we had maybe been
overfeeding her, but no, he was very happy to see she was
growing nicely. At five months we took her to visit a vet that
specializes in rodents as my daughters degu was ill, and he
tried to pry her over to his clinic because he thought she was
so sweet.
People have all sorts of reactions to big
dogs, but by and large dog lovers always think she is
so........ cute and good natured. When she was about 4 1/2
months old and we had her out for a little walk we had a woman
cross the street to see her because she had heard there was a
mastiff puppy in the neighborhood. We have had her through her
first obedience classes, and will be doing the advanced class
at some point in the spring, and we are giving some thought to
training her as a Therapy dog, as she is so gentle and quiet
with both elderly people and those in wheelchairs.
She has several dog friends in the
neighborhood, and her best friend at her puppy class was a
6month old Border Terrier. There is an English Mastiff that
lives in our area, but we have only seen him once. She had a
lot of fun playing with him, and you could tell by the way
they greeted each other they seemed to see distant cousins in
each other.
Unlike most Christmases, this year as you
can see by the picture we are in the middle of a very white
Christmas. We currently have about 12 inches of snow, and
Xenobia loves to jump around in it both in our backyard, and
in the schoolyard down the block. As the snow has built up she
has also taken to burying her head in it to get to the clean
stuff, and when she pulls her head out she is munching on a
mouthful of snow.
Thank you for my lovely '07 Christmas
present.
She has her appointment to be spayed on Jan
8th, 09. We will let you know that all is well.
Maria AND Richard
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