8 months and some milestones

Today, Nala is 8 months old.  She still has her orthodontic piece in her mouth for at least one more week then we get to go check if it's ready to be taken out.  I really hope her canines have moved far enough because I'm tired of Nala only being able to play with stuffed toys which don't stay stuffed for very long and the stuffing just ends up all over my living room floor.  All she has left are rags that she tries to shred up even further.  She hasn't been able to go to the dog park for over a month or play tug-of-war.  But besides all the things she hasn't been able to do as a puppy, there are some exciting milestones she has reached.  She had her longest hike ever, close to 8 miles!! If anyone's been to Portland, they know how many different hiking trails there are, and how beautiful they are.  We are lucky enough to live so close to so many trail heads that we go just about every weekend.  But this particular hike was very special because Nala was able to walk the whole distance and we are very happy when we have a tired puppy for the rest of the day.  Another milestone she has reached is being able to be off-leash in an un-fenced area.  Behind our apartment is an empty lot but it is not fenced.  There isn't much car traffic because behind it is the Columbia River and the other side is surrounded by hotels.  We decided to let go of her leash one day to let her run around and making sure we had a really high value treat for her to return to us (a sausage), we'd call her name as soon as she was a little far away and she returned every time.  She seemed to love the freedom and I tried not to show my fear that she would not come back to me but I had faith that she would always come back for sausage, lol.

She is a Mac dog, she doesn't mess with dumb PCs

*more pictures later