The Dog Days of Summer, Indeed

We sure are fond of our Maci around these parts. With the first Nitti baby still but a twinkle in my eye, Lauren and I have been able to lavish an awful lot of attention on our one-and-a-half year old yellow lab pup.

This summer, with my own athletic activity brought abruptly to a standstill, I've been forced to live vicariously through my dog. Which, I must say, has been rather entertaining.

As proof, behold the Top 5 Maci pictures of the Summer of 2008:

5. My sister Karen and her husband Rob are proud owners of Zoe, a beautiful 7 year old chocolate lab. Zoe, for all her strengths, is a tad overweight; ironic since her parents are both lean exercise junkies. I guess when you've got three little girls in the house dropping food all day long, you tend to pack on some extra pounds.

Anyhoo, Maci and Zoe became good pals this summer, and their play sessions in Barnegat Bay are responsible for shaving a good 5-10 pounds off Zoe.

4. Every day Maci has spent on LBI this summer has essentially followed the same format: wake up, follow me around the house until I take her to the bay, swim until exhaustion, then sleep all day. Here she is after my nieces got a hold of her during some REM sleep.

3. See my vest, see my vest... While not made of real gorilla's chest, Maci has fallen in love with her new Ruff Wear life vest. The vest serves three purposes: it allows Maci to swim alongside Lauren and I when we kayak without us having to worry about her, it allows her to swim with me when I swim in the bay, and it allows us to pick her up onto the dock at 9th street without having to get in the water.



2. I've gotta say, Maci has certainly won over the grandparents this summer. They've got an unspoken mutual agreement: Maci doesn't poop in the house, and in exchange she gets a piece of my mom's bagel every mornning. But the first day Maci doesn't get that bagel, look out...

1. The picture of the summer. For full effect, click on it to enlarge. It took Maci and I most of the summer to work out the toss so that it matched her considerable pace when hitting the bulkhead. The video below gives the full speed look.

Summer's just about over for Lauren and I here in New Jersey. Lauren celebrated her 31st birthday on Saturday, August 2nd, and after spending the next few days tying up some loose ends, we're heading back to Aspen next Saturday morning.

It's been an interesting summer to say the least, and while I'm very grateful to have spent it back in New Jersey with friends and family, it's about time we headed home and got busy living.