slowly.... spring

Spring hasn't exactly sprung here. It's happening slowly, in fits and starts. We get the odd warm day and then a few more where the temps hang around the freezing mark or slightly below, with some snow flurries thrown in for good measure. It means that there is a lot of mud and it's not drying quickly. I can't keep my floors clean. It's an effort in futility and I've pretty much given up worrying about it.

My incredibly clever puppy is growing up at an astonishing rate. He has started asking to go outside. He goes to the back door and stares intently at the jackets hanging there, barking if we slow people don't get it right away. The downside of this is that he has figured out that he really likes it out there now and doesn't want to come back in. Because of the "limit his activity" edict from the vet, I don't want to leave him out there to climb the deck steps when he finally decides to come in so I need to either bribe him or trick him to come to me. This gets more difficult every day because I think he may be smarter than I am. Thankfully his leg is healing very quickly and I will soon be able to let him climb and jump at will.

He is entering the sheltie youth stage of being all legs and nose.
That front leg is the one that was broken. You can see that it's filling out and looking almost like the other ones.

His puppy fluff is coming out in brushfuls and his new big-boy coat is coming in along his back and tail.

For some reason all the dogs were especially photogenic today. Maybe it was the partly sunny skies making the lighting just right for pictures.