This blog entry is dedicated to Brown Dog, Cheeseball neighbor and Queen of Connections, in honor of the family addition. May your potty training be worry free.
Quick--raise your hand if you owned this book when you were a kid. If you are my age, you at least read this book. If you don't remember, it's because you've killed too many brain cells along the way and will just have to take my word for it that you read it/owned it. I loved this book. My sister and I were huge Peanut fans and this book was a staple of the Peanuts world. Happiness is indeed a warm puppy.
Alas, that is NOT the kind of warm puppy I am talking about here. I'm talking about the warm, fuzzy, little, peeing, pooping, crying kind that you bring home from the breeder and wonder what the hell you were thinking because now it's snowing out and it's not very fun having to take a puppy outside every three hours in the snow. Getting a puppy is wonderfully traumatic. All that crying the first night (hopefully, the dog crying, not the owner). All that getting up in the middle of the night and letting it out so it gets potty trained. All that money....dog, crate, food, collar, leash, vaccinations, toys, bones, vet visits, parasite medication, heartworm pills, spaying, dog school, photo development....the list goes on. All that puppy breath. All that pee on the carpet.
I write of this because the Gaybors are getting a puppy today.
(Has anyone alerted Brown dog?!!)
A little bichon is moving in next door. Cute, cuddly, white. Being that it is the first day of spring, you would think this an awesome time to get a puppy-- after all, it's getting warmer out and that makes for less-painful potty training. Of course, it's snowing outside today. So much for spring potty training being fun. So much for having a white dog!
How can you not love a puppy?
Here is a photo of five-week old Lucy, on the day I met her. She's a mess and looks like she only has one eye (a space eyeball, at that). You can't really tell how tiny she was unless you take a look at how big my hand is in comparison to her little, bitty body. This is when she was still white and before she started licking her paws, making them this yummy rust color. I met her while at work-- a co-worker brought a cardboard box of puppies to the office. That was quite the master plan--who can say no to a puppy in a cardboard box? It took me 16 years to get my first dog...only two to get the second. Oh, the poor wife!
Anyone who says having two dogs is as easy as having one dog should be slapped in the head. We heard that many a time. I am here to tell you those people are wrong. Two dogs means double trouble! Double poop, double attention, double the bills (which is worth it, but gets expensive quickly). Thankfully, we have two small dogs, so a double food bill and double poop really isn't much at all. Of course, having two dogs means double the love, double the fun.
I remain glad we have two pooches. I am not sure Freckles is glad in any capacity but she's over it by now. It's hard to go from the star of the family, the Canine Good Citizen, the pampered pet to a second-fiddle puppy sibling. If Brown Dog needs therapy or empathy, she should check in with the Warrior Princess, as Freckles will have soothing words of wisdom (well, that or she'll bite Brown dog--it's 50/50 chance).
I can't wait to meet the new pup. Seeing a puppy, holding a puppy, smelling the puppy breath of a puppy will make me have all sorts of stupid ideas like, "we should get a puppy, too!" but the wife will be there to slap me in the head (justifiably so). Lucy will just bark at the puppy and stay far away--she doesn't know what to do with other dogs. We'll be keeping old crabby patty Frecks far away from the new canine until she proves the puppy won't become lunch. Brown dog? I'm guessing Brown Dog will tolerate the new critter, like Freckles tolerated Lucy, until they become the best of buds, just like Freckles and Lucy. They are miserable without each other, even if Freckles wouldn't want to admit it.
As for the gaybors, I anticipate seeing the proud parents on the front lawn at 2 A.M. saying, "go potty go potty go potty" for the next several weeks. I also think they will be very impressed at how little the poop is (as compared to Brown Dog's large poop).
Welcome to the neighborhood, Bitty Bichon! Congrats, dear neighbors! Happiness is a warm puppy....is it my turn to puppy sit yet?
maybe it's a third nipple tryin' to be born.
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