Well I thought that it was about high time that I put some stories up about my cute puppy Zara for you all since after for some reason this has become a popular demand.
I know that Zara is a hand fall, so am sure that I win hands down over the rest of you with pets :(.

When she was born, the breeders nicknamed her Mischevious Gena. But we decided that we liked her mum's name better, so have named her after her mum. So we named her Zara. Zara Junior was born on 20 August 2001. It didn't take long to figure out how Zara earned her nickname Mischevious. Thank goodness I managed to train Zara early on in the area of toilet training. So she goes over to the door and barks if she wants out. I guess being a Golden Retriever doesn't help either, but Zara loves to dig ... you should see our place (I should take some photos soon of the back yard and post them up huh ;)!!!) - they are all over the back yard and she loves to dig holes in the garden to ... what a mess!!! So far she has destroyed 2 trees completely. One of the worst incidents which we can now look back and laugh about was the day when I was at home by myself with Zara. Zara was outside as it was a lovely day out and since it was so hot I decided that I would put some water outside for her to drink. Zara was busy digging at her latest hole along the side of house, so I tip-toed out the back door to hang out the days washing on the line. I made the fatal mistake of leaving the front door wide open. I had almost finished putting all the clothes out when Zara came up my the washing line. What a sight! She was literally covered in head to toe in mud. Now what Zara had done was tipped her water out probably due to her wet paws as she loves to do. Now quite a bit of it ended up in her dry mud hole. Well you no what dry mud and water makes don't you? That's right. A great big mess (wet mud if ya didn't guess :P). Believe me I was soooooooooooo mad at the time with her as much as myself. I had to go and get the garden hose and wash off the mud on her and get her cleaned up before everyone else got home. I went in the front door to get a towel to dry her off and well, what a sight there was to be had in there. In the space of no more than 10 minutes Zara had totally transformed the lounge from nice, clean and tidy into a bomb sight! Mud paws all over the nice, clean (more or less) carpet, up one of the walls, all over my computer table and equipment, the sofa and chairs. Sadly, my mum and brother arrived home just when I finished only cleaning up Zara. I yelled out the window, because I could just here Mum's reaction in my head and told Brendon he could come up but Mum you had better stay put. Needless to say she came up and hit the roof!!! It took quite a few hours to clean that mess up. Thankfully though it was before Dad came home from a hard day at work.

When Zara was learning to stand at the door and bark to be let out to the toilet, one day my brother went off to the toilet but didn't shut the door and so Zara who loves any opportunity to go where she is not allowed followed him to see what he was up to. Well as he was doing what he went to do, he happened to look down to see what Zara was up to. She had decided that she would copy him and go to the toilet right there and then with him.

Any chance that Zara can get to go up the hallway to where the bedrooms are, which she knows are out of bounds to her she will bounce up and usually steal something such as shoes, slippers, socks, underwear, toys ... you name it and comes bolting back down with her latest pride and joy. Once I caught her trying to bury Dad's shoes and socks (different days) which she cleverly sneaked out with and tried to put in a hole that she had dug outside.

In the food department for a moment. She absolutely loves home cooked meals. Guess I am going to have to learn, so when I leave home she won't hate me hahahaha. At breakfast time she loves sharing toast with Dad. Her favourite would by far have to be banana on toast.

Now that Zara is bigger and can see out the lounge window by herself. Everytime a car pulls up, or if we do ... these days, you see her head pop up out the window she jumps up to pear out. Looks quite cute - hopefully that we can get her out of this bad habits.

On her fifth month anniversary we took Zara on her first ever holiday up to Cromwell in Central Otago. She absolutely loved it up there and she was very well behaved, especially on the long car trip ... we were worried that she might get a bit car sick as we remember the breeders telling us that she was the only puppy who did when they had the whole litter (as they live about three-quarters of an hour away), but thankfully she didn't. Zara loved how we were staying so close to Lake Dunstan as she could go for many walks down that way and through the Old Cromwell Township (a favourite spot of mine) ruins. My brother put Zara in an inflatable boat but didn't like it until he got in with her ... big sook ;). Since she chased a huge dragon-fly down at the lake on one of her first I am sure of many trips down there and quickly realised that there was no longer a bottom to put her feet on, she has since been extremely cautious about going in the water. Poor girl! Zara had an awful lot of adventures on her week long holiday from home.

Zara absolutely loves the males of the house and well also strangers to which can be extremely embarrasing to say the least, especially when you are talking her for a walk and she tries jumping on the male passer-bys. She loves Irish music. Loves children, but because of her overally cheerful nature, not many children are pleased to see her. Like me she has a sweet tooth ;) in the sense that she loves her ice-cream ... which she only gets if she is very well behaved these days. I used to use it when she was getting her baby teeth because she was in a lot of pain. Guess a bad idea ;). She loves to talk to the other dogs, especially this yappy thing up the back. I have to feel sorry for the other dogs she talks to - they can hardly get a word in!

Zara's just about lost her life 3 times in 6 months - twice on the same day :(.

Zara's favourite television show: Animal Farm which screens here on television one Friday nights. But to be honest with you all I think she has a secret crush on the star dog called Hercules hehehe. She just sits staring at the television the whole time it's on. Occassionally she even goes right up to the television hehehe. Looks so cute ;).

More stories and dog adventure stuff coming your way soon.