Chester the lapdog, originally uploaded by Phil Youngholm.

It was one year ago (the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s Day) that we got Chester. He’s grown, and grown up, a lot since then. He’s now almost a year and a half old, and he weighed 55 pounds at his last visit to the vet in November. He’s still very wiggly and rambunctious at times, but he’s learning to settle down.

He’s working things out with the cats. Although he still wrestles with Sophie, he doesn’t pounce on her every time he sees her (as he used to), and he’s even worked out enough of a truce with Willie that they can share the daybed (click to see an unstaged photo).

At the dog park, he’s very good about coming when called (though far from perfect). His favorite game, besides stealing Kai’s tennis ball, is playing catch-me with another dog who likes to run. Not only is he faster than most other dogs, but he’s wily. He likes to hide behind a tree and then feint in different directions to fake out the other dog.