Bolt...

The wonder soon to be homeless dog!

 Puppy's are hard work! We did know this before we got him but the reality is, well real! We love, love, love him to bits. But he is very good at making bits!

 Not only do we have cabbage moths inside our cabbage moth net but we also have Bolt! He actually chases the moths and ends up in the veggie patch with no idea how he got in there. He has exactly the same expression as Ryan when he finds himself in the same situation! He also likes to "garden" and can be found in there just digging! We are however very thankful he only digs in the veggie patch! He loves wrestling with ice cream containers of all things. There are three in this picture! And several tomato stakes. Notice there are no tomatoes! I put the kitchen rubbish bin out under the outside tap to clean the other day and then walked away. Bolt thought all of his Christmases had come at once! Massive ice cream container and I now need to go and buy a new bin!

But at the end of the day Bolty is very, very sorry. He doesn't mean to be naughty. It just happens. And that is how we know he is a Rickard!

Bolt is growing up!

Remember what our baby looked like on the day we picked him up?

Well he has grown heaps since then! Oh! And the adventures he has had....

 He has watched the movie Bolt about a million times and the boys are busily training him to do the "Superbark".

 He has done something no other Rickard dog has done before.......... Hoped into bed with Mummy and daddy for a snuggle. His favourite position is on top of daddy's head!

 We have found out he loves his tummy being rubbed!

 He often seeks Daddy's protection.....

 The boys gave him lessons on going down the slide. He has been quite keen to have a go himself!

 But kept trying to go up the wrong way!

For all those people have said "Oh Kelpies but they are such active dogs!" Have obviously not met my "such active" boys! At this moment they still wear him out! And I haven't even started walking him up the mountain yet!

 We have discovered he loves the sprinkler almost as much as he loves trying to round up the boys into the sprinkler!

 He has mastered the slide but still needs a hand up the stairs! (He has also overcome his fear of the trampoline but is yet to master those stairs as well!)

 His favourite game is the skipping rope that Matthew tied to his favourite soft toy. This can be a two player game or a one dog game! He drags it around chasing it for hours! I have the most fun helicoptering it over my head and watching him try to catch it!

 And he is still gorgeous and a bit of a camera tart!

He has fit into the Rickard boy mould so well. He has such a spunky personality and we cant imagine our family without him now!

Look what followed me home!!!

We picked him up in a little town called Carbargo! We have been looking for a puppy for months and after many many false starts we were starting to think we weren't going to be able to come through on our promise of a puppy for Christmas! But we found this little guy and we knew he would fit right in!

 We didn't tell the boys we were bringing them back a dog. We came in with a handful of shells telling them that that was all we had brought back for them. We then showed them the puppy and asked them if they would prefer this instead. Guess what? They preferred the puppy!

 Matthew has not been further than this from him since he came home! He actually wasn't giving Ryan a chance to bond with him so we had to allocate some Ryan and Bolt time!

 On the drive back from Carbargo Nathan and I had decided to call him Bruiser. It had to be a "B" name to go with Busta and Barkley. (Sorry Hudson! But we didn't give you your name!) However, Cleon didn't like Bruiser and kept suggesting other names so his name is now Bolt! Our across the road neighbours have a Pepa and the idea is that they are now collectively "Bolt & Pepa!"

 He is still getting used to his collar and if he could reach it he would happily chew right through it!

 He is a gorgeous little thing. He is a purebred Kelpie (he doesn't have a pedigree but then again neither do we! So who are we to judge!!!)

It is interesting trying to get the boys to understand we have a baby in the house. One who loves to play but still really needs to sleep. I had prepared them for Bolt to cry all night but he slept through silently! Hope he does that again tonight!