Clifford

I will assume most of you are familiar with the story of Clifford, the Big Red Dog.  Those books were some of my favorites as a kid and I loved gettng them in the Scholastic Book Fair book order that we got about once a semester.  Since I have had children, there has been a PBS show based on the books.

If you are not familiar with it, basically it goes like this.  A young girl, named Emily Elizabeth is given the runt puppy of a litter.  This "runt", who is named Clifford, grows at a phenomenal rate and eventually is about as large as a house.  Despite the difficulties caring for this large canine, Emily Elizabeth and her family are committed to raising Clifford.  (I assume they must have taken out a loan to pay for the dog food.)  The books follow Clifford's antics as he copes with being such a big dog in such a little world.

Last night I was looking at Bear laying on the kitchen floor.  I told David we mis-named him.

We should have named him Clifford.

I am not sure pictures can do it justice, but the dog is huge.  A horse really.  Oh, wait...a bear.

He turned 11 weeks old this past Thursday.  At 9 weeks he weighed 22 lbs.  Four days later he weighed 24 lbs, 11 oz.  He fits well in his extra-large kennel.  His paws barely fit in the palm of my

hand. 

His feats now include  standing up and looking over the kitchen table. Successfully knocking down baby gates.  The one he can't knock down he can stand and look over with his paws resting over the top.  A week ago he knocked the garbage can in the kitchen completely over. 

The large physical size also presents itself with very large, sharp puppy teeth and the ability to jump really high. 

We also tend to forget his is still a puppy.  A very young puppy who still has lots to learn.

One who will hopefully not eat us out of house and home.