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May 18, 2005
Chaos in Puppy Land
To begin with, I'm a cat person. Living with 2 dogs. Ida was a weak moment of mine when I agreed to her and Sandi...well she needed a home and I sure as the world wasn't going to turn her away. She showed up in our yard one summer evening, starving and beaten. That was 5 years ago.
Now, my husband and I have found ourselves the 'grandparents' of my daughter's puppy, Cooper. She's moved out. He's still here. The 'girls' are showing their age and are quite sedate at this point, preferring to find some shady spot and just watch the world go by. I had forgotten just how many things a puppy can get into.
Cooper is now about 8 months. He's a pound puppy. He's a mutt, a mix of some larger breeds, with great big ungainly paws. He's pretty smart. Certainly he has learned to stay away from my Calico. She doesn't like him and has really good aim with those claws of hers when he gets his nose to close to her.
He, like any puppy likes to chew....but not just anything...certainly not his chew toys. He seems to like cardboard, plastic plant packs, plants, shoes, furniture, cut up firewood ...and Sandi's ears.
Gardening has been a real challenge this spring. He doesn't know plants are suppose to stay where I plant them.
I've just spent the last 20 minutes or so hunting down my brand new Banana plants. I ordered them in Feb. and just got them yesterday. I happened to notice that the 3 containers were empty. Yep, he got them. Had them spread throughout the yard. I live on an acre so that's a lot of yard to have to hunt around. I can see why he thought they might be fun to chew. Sitting in their containers it looks like I stuck sticks in the dirt. We found them....all over...slightly chewed. The root balls looks unharmed. So I've plopped them back in the planters and we'll see what happens.
He's fasincated with the fish in the pond. I'm waiting for him to fall in. The rocks around the pond are not stable and one of these days he's going to lunge and find himself smack dab in the middle of the pond.
While the older dogs have learned to mostly stay out of the garden beds, the puppy hasn't quite learned that. Of course it doesn't help that Ida has figured out a way to lure him into the beds, while herself staying safely out of them. She then pulls off one of those distinct hound howls causing someone to see what is happening. Poor puppy gets yelled at and Ida walks away with what I swear is a smirk on her face.
I guess that's fair in some sense. Ida and Sandi have to put up with him. He wants to play. Sandi is more willing to play with him, but I imagine she's tired of him chewing on her ears. She puts up with it for a while, then will turn around and snarl at him. Cooper's smart enough to back off for.... a little while...then they're off again. Wrestling with each other.
We also have the added entertainment from the fact that Cooper is not yet fixed. He has urges. The 'girls' are fixed and just find his attempts annoying. We find it pretty funny to watch him keep trying when they have had enough of him jumping on them and they just sit down refusing to budge for him I guess that's the dog version of "Not now, I have a headache."
Yes, he's brought chaos to the household. He's also brought a lot of laughter and energy. The older dogs are playing...that's good for them and we really enjoy watching them. He's just as lovable as can be, especially when he's trying to get out of trouble with 'grandma'. His sense of wonder and excitment at all the new things he encounters, reminds me that it's good to maintain that sense of wonder. That's the really great thing about a young dog, kitten, or child. They energize their surroundings. They shake things up.
I still consider myself a cat person, but I have to admit. I can't imagine how boring it would be around here without my dogs. Especially that puppy.
Posted by aster1961 at May 18, 2005 08:18 AM
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