This Boy and His Dog

72 Hours

I'm a sunny day kind of gal...for reals. In fact, Erik's mom gave me one of those light boxes for Christmas. It's called "the mood improver". Ahem. To her credit, she quickly pointed out that I could also put somebody else in front of it. Nice save.

Having said that, I'm always pleasantly surprised at how very much you can find to do inside when a stormy, long weekend lands in your lap. Things like, cleaning up and organizing a book shelf and a desk in your bedroom...

You're just going to have to trust me on this one; big improvement!

Or, you could spend some time practicing an art...

 

In pajamas you put on Friday night...and never took off!

Or meeting a new friend...

Or watching (two-thirds of) a favorite trilogy...

And then faithfully recreating the battle at Helm's Deep...

How about a hair cut for your puppy?

It was such a lovely, blustery, Winnie-the-Pooh kind of weekend, which cleared up just enough for a before-dinner stroll over at my mom's house on Sunday night.  The rest of the weekend was perfectly spent with my favorite boys.

Now all I need is a sunny, warm, spring-like weekend so I can attack the yards and get out on the lake with our new canoe. I know that's coming, but if we get another stormy weekend...or two...before that, I won't be too sad!

Babysitting

My brother and my mom went to LA, and we watched my brother's puppy, Wicket.  Or, as Scotty calls her, "Biscuit!" Unless he's calling her "Bubble Gum!"  I have no idea.

They're sisters, I think I've mentioned, and they looked like fuzzy little bookends.  

Fuzzy, adorable, bookends.  These are easily the most ridiculous looking animals I've ever seen.  There are times when you have no idea which end you're looking at!  

The boys were so happy to each have a pup for our walk!

 Of course, even without the squabbles of who gets to hold the leash that were miraculously resolved with two leashes attached to two pups, we still had the non-stop discussion about what "walking" a dog means.  Like, let it actually, you know, walk.

Please, for the love of all that is good, let the animals walk.  Four legs.  They can do it!

We loved our little visitor!  But we REALLY love our pup.

Have I mentioned her name?  What we FINALLY landed on, after all the great suggestions?

Lego.

Seriously.

No Butter

You won't believe this, but after ALL THAT, we still haven't settled on a name!  My mom (HILARIOUSLY) told me that her animals "just name themselves; after a while, a name will just come to you."  Oh, really, mother?  Your cats, "Mr. Gray and White Kitty" and "Fat Black Cat", their names just "came to you"?  You're a creative genius.

It almost doesn't matter what we name her, since we call her something different every day.  puppy wuppy.  cutie mccurly pie.  kitty.  girly-girl.  NO!  puppers.  The list is endless.  We tried every name you gave us, plus Tommy tried "Brack" (for brown and black together) and Scotty tried "Miss Brie" (his teacher's name) and we even tried Holly (because we got her on Christmas), and Snowball (because that's funny!), but, not so much.

But you know what's sticking?  You know what Scotty, in particular, insists we call her?  Popcorn.  POPCORN.  Come here Popcorn!  Get down, Popcorn!  I love you, Popcorn!  Who's the cutest pup?  Popcorn!  Tell me it's better than Spock?  Humor me?

Can I tell you, I did not even realize how much I wanted a puppy.  This puppy is my buddy.  I don't want to boast or brag, but this dog is THE BEST.  I mean it!  Her second night, we put her in a crate.  She yipped for 5 minutes.  I got up in the middle night and let her out for a ...stroll...then put her back in the crate.  She yipped for 5 minutes. 

The next night, she went into the crate, turned twice and fell asleep.  By the third day with the crate, she puts herself to bed during the middle of the day, and sleeps all night in the crate with no complaining at all.

I am in love with this dog!  Erik just shakes his head, but I know my happiness makes him happy.  :)

For future reference, so when I vent about this ludicrous animal it doesn't seem to come out of left field, here are some things I do NOT love about my pup:  alligator sharp teeth (ow), coming INSIDE to crap (grrr), shoe chewing (no!), completely spaz-tastic for 10% of the time.  She sleeps 85% of the time, so let's just say...this first year is going to be rough.  :)

Taking Suggestions

We added to our family this weekend, and now we have this to deal with:

She's pretty dang funny.  I don't care for an overly-confident dog, myself.  I like my dog's slightly insecure.  This one's self-esteem is fully intact, however, as evidenced by her proud and regal stature.  There's only room for one top-dog in this casa, my friend, so stand down.

Fortunately, she has personality to spare and she seems very bright.  It's the little things, you know?  I put a harness and collar on her, then hooked up a leash and took her for a spin in the court.  I've had dogs who lay down and make you drag them under similar circumstances, but she got right with the program.  She also had the good sense to immediately remove the plaid sweater I was going to make her wear.  So I have hope for her.

I can't believe we finally got another dog.  We loved our Howard so much, and when we lost him (over two years ago now) I thought I'd NEVER get another one.  We've always had big, working, busy dogs, but I insisted that we have a totally different experience this time.  A shitzu-toy poodle mix seems about as far from Australian Shepherd as you can get.  It barely seems like the same species, and I've never owned a small dog in my life.  In fact, I'd probably still be dogless, except my brother found these and got the sister, then Erik shocked me by approving the purchase.

She loves to play fetch.  Another point in her favor.  We got her situated with a crate today, so forget about sleeping in the bed every night, chump.  Now we just need a name.  We usually give our pets human names, because we think it's funny to have a goldfish named Keith, a dog named Howard, or a cat named Tim.  For some reason, my family has lost its collective minds with this one, though.  Without your intervention I'm going to be stuck with Brain (Scotty's choice, who is an Inspector Gadget fan) or Tron II (Erik's choice, who is an ass) or Sparky (Tommy's choice, who seems unconcerned that our new dog is a girl and might want a less gender-ambiguous name).  The phone lines are open, and we clearly need a voice of reason.