Happy Festivus.

Festivus... for the rest of us! You've got to love those old 'Seinfeld' shows.

Our friend Corey has been visiting us for the past couple of days, so we've had an early Christmas this year. This afternoon, we went to some of the local shops and Corey found a little tree that she decorated with red ornaments and Crayola crayons... it will be a surprise gift for a little girl that she knows. I love that she 'rescued' a sad little tree from the thrift store and brought it back to life with inexpensive ornaments and crayons and red ribbons. Gone is that sad little tree and in its place is a happy celebration of childhood.

Corey and I also went shopping for dishes and flatware for the kitchen in her cozy little rental house... we found some beautiful mix-and-match plates from "The Pioneer Woman" designs, along with a classic-looking flatware set that she could also use with other styles as she finds them. Corey's previous 'flatware' was a box filled with plastic forks, spoons, and knives... totally inappropriate for her first Christmas dinner in her little house.

My husband and I were hoping that Savannah would make friends with Corey quicker than she has done with our neighbors up here... but that didn't happen. Savannah, at eight months old now, is still extremely cautious of strangers and very protective of me. Savannah made sure to give Corey her most ferocious of barks when she got too close to me, and whenever she walked out of the house to go to the guest cottage and then came back into the house. Every time Corey walked into the back door, it was like the first time, and Savannah let her have it with the full blast of her barking ability.

I'm getting worried that Savannah will never let anyone other than my husband and myself take care of her. How will anyone be able to pet-sit for us if Savannah won't let them get near her? I've never seen such a scared and cautious puppy, and we've been doing all we can to teach her to have trust and confidence in herself and our friends... but it's been a slow progress.

We thought that trips to the local dog park would help Savannah's confidence, and so far it has--- but just with other dogs. She will run up to and play with all the dogs in that park, but she won't get near their owners. Other than myself and my husband, only three other people have been able to pet her. Totally un-puppy-like behavior.

But we're working on it... and hopefully, Savannah will learn to trust more people as she gets out of this puppy stage. I also hope she'll sleep better at night... as I type, it's nearly 3:30 in the morning. Night-time train whistles, plus the howling of the coyotes, plus the screeching and howling of our two outside cats because a stray cat came into the yard... all of that woke up Savannah and set her to barking, which woke me up two hours ago.

It's been a long night... and by the time the sun comes up, I'll be too tired to celebrate Festivus or anything else.