gracie the grown up.

If you look to the top of the page, right under Frannie Loves Marie, you will see the line treasures, dress ups and stories of a wonderful life. Well, caring for my puppy Gracie means that the treasures and dress ups don’t come about as frequently as they used to for fear of their destruction and lack of funds, but the life becomes becomes even more wonderful. I last wrote about Gracie graduating from puppy school over 3 months ago and boy has she grown from a fluffy little youngin’ in to a stinky, slobbery real-life dog!

Here’s a FLM update on her canine capers of late because I know you all adore cute dogs as much as Marie and I do…

This photo is a tribute to all of you out there that completed Tough Mudder recently! Tough Mudder’s tagline is “probably the toughest event on the planet”. I’ll take your tagline and raise you one kelpie x border collie puppy gone stir crazy following a week of rain.

As if it didn’t take long enough for us to rid our house of muddy paw prints following said rain, we decided to take Gracie on a fishing adventure one day and were dealing with residual sand for days afterwards. I had planned to relax on the shore with a good book while CB reeled in that night’s dinner, but Gracie had other plans as she dug a hole under my legs and covered me in sand and mangrove mud.

As Gracie’s legs lengthened (and continued to grow at a ridiculous rate in comparison to the rest of her) she realised she could jump up and grab whatever she wanted off the kitchen bench. I thought I had it covered by pushing everything she was trying to reach towards the back of the bench, until I turned around to see her MacGyver-ing her way towards her prize. This dog proves she’s smarter than me everyday. 

We tried to take a family photo one day too. This was the best of a very bad bunch!

And then there was that time that we try hard to forget… the longest 10 days of our life after having Gracie spayed. You can read more about that here.

Gracie lovesssssss car rides… 

…And pretending she’s a lap dog! 

She falls asleep in the most ridiculous of positions.

We watched Ghost one night, her ears pricked and eyes glued to the screen every time Patrick Swayze spoke. My girl has excellent taste!Winter came so we bought her a cute coat to keep her warm. Luckily it was on sale because… 

It didn’t last very long.

And most recently, this happened. I was heading out for a good friend’s engagement party when Gracie walked up to me with this sign around her neck.

My heart melted (very smooth move there CB!).

My heart is continually happy because of this furry little monster. There is no frown she can’t turn upside down and no scowl she can’t break by making me laugh. This is a dedication to the most loyal friend I will ever have – my Gracie.

Look how big she has gotten!!