Sophie ....
Around the time Buster turned 2, I guess I had so forgotten what an incredible pain in the neck this puppy training is -- that, well, I got another JRT -- name of Sophie. Suffice it to say that her breeder nicknamed her the "wild child." If you know anything about Jack Russells, then you know what fear clutched my heart. It was enough to send me screaming from the building. And she has been true to her name.

Sophie joined our family when she was 8-weeks-old -- a whopping 3.5 lbs. of squirming, face-licking, neck-biting, ear-sucking puppy. For Buster, it was love at first sight. He's still pinching himself over his good fortune, but occasionally, I catch him looking for some place to hide, just for a minute.

Our Sophie is affectionately known by my wife as the "bat girl" because of her dozens of incredibly sharp and spikey teeth, which are more than capable of tearing the tiniest, most minuscule, L-shaped holes in the finest of wool suits. Well, we asked for it, I suppose.

Sophie has adapted very well to her new home and has everyone in it reduced to a frazzle of frayed nerves. Compared to Buster, this is the puppy-training olympics. To top it all off, she was obviously top in her class at "cute puppy" school, so when I catch her with half my Nike shoelace in her mouth, I have a very hard time convincing her that this is not acceptable puppy behavior. I hope that with a little perserverance and a lot of patience, we'll look around one day to find a perfect little lady sitting at our feet.........Yeah, sure! --mugginsb@interlog.com -- (Sophie, with her housemate Buster, is online. Stop in for a visit!)