October was a busy month with soccer, Paolo's trip to the USA, our 10th wedding anniversary and Jagger's homecoming.
Always something interesting/alarming to be found when I do the shopping...
Oscar did a photo shoot for the Guide Dog Association calendar.
Sometimes we arrive early enough for swim lessons for a gelato.
Gio has officially surpassed me in shoe size. Yikes!
Paolo (and Bruno!) on a conference call.
For our 10th wedding anniversary Paolo and I escaped to enjoy a 3-hour dinner and night away from the children and animals! My parents surprised us with this lovely bottle of champagne in our hotel room!
A walk before dinner.
A visit to Jagger who has only one more week of cage rest before he comes home!
At a "Hot Dogs for Guide Dogs" event.
Our gym is very guide-dog friendly and has even given Oscar his own membership so he can come along with us!
For "International Day" at his school Gio chose to be Italian on the top and American on the bottom!
Black Labs under the Jacaranda blooms.
Every Monday and Friday I become a puppy taxi. I drive 7 dogs to GDA on Mondays (Oscar for training class and the others for the 5 day stay for formal training). On Fridays (after I visit Jagger) I bring everyone back to Pretoria. This saves other Pretoria-based Puppy Raisers from facing the long drive themselves.
Most weekends we end up with an extra dog. This one we got to have our very favorite visitor, Isaac! His family is enjoying a trip on the Garden Route.
A 4-leash walk!
Maria has begun a Saturday morning soccer program.
Might need to do some dribbling practice at home...
Goal!!!
True confession: When Paolo is away (currently in the USA), I often agree to more than one extra puppy for the weekend. This weekend we had 5 dogs. From left: Bruno, Tom (GDA pup, age 7 months), Isaac (GDA dog in training, 14 months), Nandi (retired Guide Dog, 10 years) & Oscar (GDA pup, age 10 months).
Isaac is a super-mellow guy and escaped the dog chaos by sitting under my desk whenever I was sitting there.
GDA had a huge fundraiser this weekend. They asked Isaac and Oscar to come for a photo shoot with the Mrs SA finalists.
Oscar is the most beautiful, of course!
Dinner time with 5 dogs.
Sunday morning fun with Gio and his buddy Jasper.
Maria had her own special transport out to the bouncing play area.
Later that afternoon at the dog park. I managed to keep track of all 5!
Oscar comes to Gio's swim training thanks to his new gym membership!
Maria & Nomsa- true love!
Oscar at Maria's dentist appointment.
Maria's favorite part of her swim lesson is the peanut butter smoothie at the end!
Sick day for Oscar thanks to some trash eating. He promises he has learned his lesson and will never eat stuff he finds in the park again. Yeah, right.
And then on Oct 20th our sweet Jagger came home, this time forever! He is officially ours!!
More soccer.
Ostrich bone time.
Gio doing hydrotherapy work with Jagger. He attends professional hydro sessions every Monday and Friday, but Gio helps out a few times a week also!
Exhausted.
A bittersweet morning for us. We were off to GDA (after we collected 5 more dogs!) for Oscar's training, Jagger's hydro and to say goodbye to Nandi who was adopted on this day. We are thrilled he found such a lovely family but it was very hard for us to say goodbye.
Later that day (his 10 month birthday!), Oscar and I visited Menlyn Maine where we visited Bounce (trampoline park), Woolie's, Pick-n-Pay & a bookstore. He was a star!
Hide-and-seek, Jagger-style.
House color and crazy hair day at school!
Even our old car looks lovely in this Jacaranda season!
Another weekend, another visitor. The puppy in front is Oscar's brother Oslo.
Gio's soccer team finished with an impressive 3rd place in their final tournament.
It's not a proper Saturday night unless you come home with face paint and a belly tattoo!
Dog park morning.
Dressed for trick-or-treating in our neighborhood!
Papa Lion.
Me!
Driving to the other side of our estate where some other ex-pats had arranged a trick-or-treating walk.
Oscar was quite relaxed about it all.
Woodhill trick-or-treaters!
Saw this sign at Gio's final soccer match last week. Love the message.
What is coming up in November? Paolo has many trips, we will go to CapeTown for Thanksgiving and Maria will finish her final month at her beloved preschool. More soon! xox. Clara
