OK, it has been a while. Bender and I have bonded very closely with just the two of us. He has now been certified in both live air scenting and human remains detection.

After a great deal of thought, we decided to add another family member. His name is Grits (actually Sir Galahad's Breakfast of Champions which I am thinking about changing to Sir Galahad's Champion of Breakfasts). Grits is a German Shepherd Dog and he will be 11 weeks old tomorrow. Last Monday (at 10 weeks) he weighed 20 pounds!

Grits and Bender are great buddies. Grits is quickly trying to establish himself as the top dog (over Bender anyway--he is pretty clear about my role in the pecking order). He is a little pig. He knows sit and is working on down. He rings the bell to go outside and housebreaking has proved to be interesting--Bender lets me know when HE thinks Grits should go out. So far, he has been right about 90% of the time.