First of all a Happy New Year to all my fellow Sunday Saloners. I hope you all had a great holiday period and received as many wonderful bookish gifts as I did. I’ll be speaking more about these in subsequent posts but I wanted to use my first Sunday Salon post of 2009 to introduce you to a new addition to my life. It’s one that’s had a serious affect on my reading routine of late, and it’s one that up to now has brought to a grinding halt, my speedy return to regular posting on RobAroundBooks following the Christmas break (arghh! 
)). This is it, or rather him, he’s called Steinbeck, and he’s a seven-month-old Labrador Retriever:
We picked up Steinbeck (formerly known as Ebo) at the rescue kennels on New Year’s Eve. I know the woman who runs the place and she knew we were on the lookout for a new dog. She thought this bouncy Lab was the perfect match and she wasn’t wrong, but boy does this guy have energy, and I mean endless energy, as I’m sure anyone who has ever owned a Labrador knows already ).
Wishing to settle Steinbeck into his new home, and to give him time to get used to us (and vice-versa), reading went out of the window entirely for a few days, but thankfully, as we’re all settling back down again, I’m getting back to some greatly missed page flicking – albeit after much strenuous exercise and with a ton weight on my lap )
With a passion for tearing up paper, our ‘book bursting’ home must seem like an Aladdin’s Cave to Steinbeck, but thankfully he seems to sense just how precious books are in our household. The worst thing he’s done so far is to crinkle one of the pages of Ammaniti’s The Crossroads with his slobbery tongue (a slobbery tongue which I may add, was en route towards my face at the time). That doesn’t mean we’re getting complacent though. We know the first chance Steinbeck gets to commit some serious ‘book crime’ he likely will, so we’re making sure temptation’s not too much in his way.
It’s kind of strange safe-proofing your home against someone who sees books more as a meal than a good read but I’m sure in time the dog will be as sacrosanct about looking after books as we are, and with a new name like Steinbeck, how could he not be? I’m just looking forward to reading him his namesake’s Travels with Charley (he’s sniffed the book already but didn’t seem too overly impressed ))
So apologies to anyone and everyone who has visited me in the past few days and found a complete absence of activity. I’m still here and probably more active than I’ve ever been, but as you can see it’s been fully doggy-centric. The good news is I’m beginning to adapt to this new routine and I’m finding ways to work in my blogging responsibilities. So we could say, without tempting fate, that service at RobAroundBooks has now fully resumed.
**This post has been specifically written for Sunday Salon participation**
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A new dog seems to me to be an excellent reason for missing out on a little reading – as far as a decrease in reading time can ever be called “excellent,” that is.
Congrats on the new family member! I hope you manage to steer him away from the book-eating impulse sooner rather than later.
Congratulations. Steinbeck looks like a cutie and yes, they are lots of work. Baby proofing your house for dogs or cats is always an interesting proposition. Have fun establishing a new routine.
Robin
I adopted my yellow lab (girl: Tori) when she was 9 months old (they think) . She ate every potted plant in the patio as she loved the crunch that the roots made when she chewed on them. She destroyed my backyard. She ate an entire sprinkler system. She ate remotes. She chewed shoes.
When she turned 2 years old, it’s like she turned into another dog, completely. She stopped all of her bad habits on her own (except licking you to death). She sleeps with me every night and is the light of my life.
I just wrote a post about her because I had written a Marley and Me movie review and other bloggers wanted pictures… so, here’s the link: http://anovelmenagerie.com/ghost/2009/01/03/yellowlabs/
Happy Chewing… and, hang in there…. he’ll be the best pet in the world soon enough!
You must have fallen in love at first sight. Absolutely adorable. Watch that copy of Travels with Charley…he could be making designs for snack time.
says:
No worries my Travels with Charley is well out of his way, as are all my other precious titles. Glad you like the dog though, he’s a live wire but well worth the effort. Keep an eye on my Flickr thread in you’re interested. I’ll be updating pics of Steinbeck as time progresses.