I said never again. I said old dogs are good dogs. I said maybe we’ll spend some time dogless after Dork is gone.
Yep, no more puppies. That was the plan.
B doesn’t even like dogs all that much. He likes Dork and all, but he’s always been immune to my finds on Petfinder, he’s been mostly cool to the idea of another greyhound, just generally okay with dogs but not needing one of his own.
So when he went by a friend’s house on the way to dinner and met the stray they’d found wandering around, and then had this friend show me the pictures on her camera, and then when I still hadn’t taken the hint said, “I sure do like that puppy,” I figured it was significant.
That’s why this is B’s dog. I’m going to get him a messenger bag to carry the dog around in.
I suspect Unnamed Puppy was a dumped dog. He’s fine with people, knows what kibble is, shows some signs of knowing what Outside is for (though my housebreaking methodology is “after food, after water, after sleeping, every hour in between, and whenever they turn all wiggly”, and so far we’ve only had one accident when I ignored his post-nap wiggling), so I think somebody had an unplanned litter and then turned him out when he was just old enough. Judging by the puppy breath, the waddle, and the needle teeth, he’s 6-8 weeks old.
Opinions vary on what he is (I think there’s some Boston Terrier there, definitely some kind of smooth coat shorthair terrier) and how big he will get (his feet are solid but not huge). We’ll go to the vet next weekend, but vets don’t have any secret size knowledge that I don’t have.
He is terribly cute, kind of bitey (like puppies are, I suppose), and is showing signs of being pretty smart. We’ve had three successful fetches so far. He’s taking to his crate pretty well, though he hasn’t been confined to it yet. We gated him into the sink alcove in the bedroom last night, where he mostly chose to sleep in the crate or entertain himself with his chewtoy fairly quietly. He let us sleep almost 5 hours straight last night.
Dork is not very amused. He’s a patient dog most of the time, only really cranky about his bed and his bowls. He’s tolerated having his tail chewed on and his ankles bitten, but UP is kind of tenacious with the biting so we won’t be leaving them alone together anytime soon. While we’re training the puppy to be civilized with liver treats, we’re training the big man to like the puppy with liver treats. I’m pretty sure that Dork thinks the puppy is another cat; he’s not interacting with him like he does other dogs.
Two of the cats are fairly cool with him. One of the cats (Old Bitchcat, of course) hates him. She’s already knocked him over once, and I’m working to teach them how to get along. This is why I knew I’d be crating him.
Expect his Flickr set to expand in the coming weeks.