Princess Jasmine

I would be extremely remiss if I were to go any farther along with this blog without introducing you to Jasmine...Princess Jasmine, if you know what I mean! You see... Jasmine is of Shetland Sheepdog breeding, so she believes she is in charge of telling everyone where they need to be, and making sure they get there in a timely manner. That means every creature who lives here...even me. Sometimes, especially me.

Jazzy is also an adoptee...we adopted her from the Mendocino Coast Humane Society in Fort Bragg, CA in January of 2008. We'd been looking for a smaller (smaller than 75 pounds that is...) dog to be a traveling companion, but we also wanted a dog that was good with livestock, and Shelties were on our list. When we ran across Jasmine in Fort Bragg, quite on a whim, we instantly fell in love! We coordinated the rest of our vacation weekend around visiting and playing with her, then picked her up for the long trip home on our way out of town. What a gal...she did a 5-1/2 hour drive home like a seasoned traveler!

There's only one thing the shelter was mistaken about...Jazz has grown much larger than they anticipated. They thought she was fully grown when we got her at 8 mos. and 20 pounds, but she put on another 3 inches in height and another, ahem...10 pounds! That doesn't mean she can't launch herself like a rocket though! She can leap with the best of them!

Jasmine is the Princess of the house, and makes sure she keeps her "brothers" Braveheart (an elderly shepherd cross we've had since birth) and Qannik (a Samoyed cross we rescued from a divorce situation) in line. Jasmine and Tiki keep us amused in the house with their antics... Tiki believes Jasmine is his personal toy, and Jasmine believes she is the guardian of the door, forbidding any of the other kitties admittance to the house.


Jasmine loves the snow...there's nothing more fun! We just have to keep her leashed at all times, because she has this technicolor nose that forgets where she belongs! Her nose gets going and she can't help but follow! When we adopted Jazz, they estimated her other breed to be Eskimo Dog...this shot seems to agree with that!

One thing Jasmine doesn't seem to care for though...water. The boys play in the wading pool...she avoids it. They stand in the sprinkler, she frowns and runs to the porch. She had to have a bath after being in the Lassen Volcanic National Park for a week...she was full of volcanic ash dust! She did NOT appreciate that concept. She tolerated the bath, but she didn't like it...not one bit.

Jasmine is an extremely devoted sweetheart. If either of us leave the house, even to do a chore, she's out the screen door to keep watch. She knocks to come back in. We've thought about fixing a mechanism so she could let herself in...but are afraid she'll bring the "brothers" in too! Jazz sleeps in our bed...she has her own big doggy pillow at the foot of the bed, but prefers to sleep in the space between our pillows at the head of the king sized bed...with her head on my pillow, and her neck, and her shoulders, and her legs...oh heck...she can have the pillow....she's Princess Jasmine after all!