Gnarly meets the grand kids, well three of the grand kids

Gabriel, Molly and Connel came over for a visit and got to meet Gnarly.... It all went MUCH better than I had thought it would. Susan picked 'em up, Gnarly and I met them at the gate with Gnarly wearing his leash and collar, just to make sure there was SOME control... Face it Gnarly wants  to sniff and lick see what these guys are all about.  Problem is the littlest two look him right in the eyes and have a tongue level face perfect for licking.

Well as it should be, Gnarly behaved exactly like a newf should, he LOVED the kids, even played subservient to Molly, laying on his belly and woofing little woofs....

Of course when Connel ran, Gnarly followed .  When Connel jumped out of the way, Gnarly was invariably in Molly's face... Licking...

All in all they all settled down pretty good, none of the grand children even got knocked down (bumped into) by Gnarly.... You know what they say, "Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best"... I can't express how Gnarly has more than met my hopes and expectations, he's 99% newf (the other 1%, well he just doesn't "eat anything" like most newfs. He is expanding his taste a little).

It makes me cry to think he spent two(2) years in a "bad situation", but I'm sure glad he came to be with us...

Been a little over a week since Gnarly came to live here...... Hmmmm....

.... Well it's been just a little over a week since we "rescued" Gnarly (was Marley). He likes Gnarly better.  Gnarly chases the cats, but that's kind winding down as the cats are running less and he's getting kinda tired of them.  When he catches one he wags his tail and barks, they usually let him have it with the claws if he gets too close.

He sleeps on our bed but he's WAY TOO MUCH when we're in it.

He hasn't eaten the cat food, either before or after they eat it? He actually doesn't eat much of anything but liver snacks and dog food, potato chips...

He's VERY gentle, loves everyone he met. He does have a definite play time, about 7AM & 7PM then he's ready for bed shortly after 8PM and out like a light until morning. He is a rough player....

We've left him at home a couple of times, closed him in the bedroom and expected to come back to at least SOMETHING ripped up... nope, he's just happy to see us and ready to curl up at my feet and sleep some more....

All in all we probably couldn't have picked a better match for our family.

And he's very small as far as male newfs go

"I think I'll stay, I like it here"

AGAIN, this house goes to the dogs, or dog...

As my lovely wife pointed out a couple days ago a new (used but new to us) newf came to live with us.  He's a two year old solid black neutered male newfoundland that came with the name "Marley".  He's more than welcome to stay as he's very very nice.  HOWEVER his name has got to go.... at the very least it's kinda "feminine".

So the first order of business is to pin down a new name.  I immediately thought hmmmm Harley sounds like Marley, Susan nixed that as one of the horses is named Harley...

So we crossed several off the list - Harry (hairy), Darth, Gizmo, Buddy, and a few more...

Currently our short list is Chewie (Chubacca), Bailey, Riley - I'm leaning toward Chewie myself...

So if you have ideas, please post them  under the FB pointer to this blog, well if you're my FB friend, you can use he comment here if not, OR you can become my FB friend. If you don't have any new ideas how about telling us which of the short list you like...

He has a fabulous personality, typical newf. He weighs a little over a hundred pounds, about the same as Amanda.  He looks a lot like Amanda but with an obvious male head...

He does chase the cats so they've been hiding... When he catches them he just barks and wags his tail...

The camera has experienced a few issues.  Susan used it and somehow, who knows how she changed all the autofocus settings so all the photos she took of him playing fetch with a ball are  blurred.  It's true, a newfoundland that likes to play fetch. If he's like the others he'll outgrow it at about four(4) when he turns into a black rug.

I DID however get one OK photo that follows. That gnarly looking thing on the right is a HUGE bone he drags around.



I don't care what they call me as long as they call me for dinner!
  Newfs  aren't generally very photogenic being black and rather camera shy!

His general story is that a "service dog trainer" was looking for a newf, found him in Denver full of mats and left outside without too much contact.  While she didn't think he would be  a good "service dog" (for allergy alert & companion) for a four year old girl, she gave the $300.00 they were getting for him and turned him over to the newf rescue group. 
Well all I can say is I think he'll be happy here, actually I'm pretty darn sure he's already happy.