All The Everything

It's been a crazy week. Puppy related and otherwise. Let's start at the beginning. Note: It says something that when I started this draft, it was titled 'Days 1-5'. We are basically at two weeks now.

But I digress.

Simon's first day and night were both action-packed. After the ride home and the trip to Pet Supermarket, then the laps around the parts of the house I left open for him, he was one worn out puppy. On top of that, right before bed we discovered he had fleas. A number of  fleas. Because it was late and we had nothing in the way of flea control yet, he got a dunk in the sink at 10:30 and a humiliating 30 minutes or so of having live parasites picked off him. I felt so bad for him. We hit the pet store the next morning but due to his size, his age, and the general unhelpful nature of the snarky clerk at the pet store, we came away with nothing.

At the vet! 11 weeks and 5 pounds.

But the fleas were short-lived as I got him an appointment that first Monday to meet Dr. Bowers at Animal Medical Clinic of Punta Gorda and he gave him the right dosage of flea treatment right on the spot. Simon still seems to be scritchy and scratchy, but it's not because of fleas. Maybe dry skin, maybe the shampoo he has, but I know it isn't critters any longer.

He weighed a whopping 5 pounds at his first vet visit. He was wearing his harness and leash, so it's possible he weighed less than that. Nonetheless it seems like he's grown since then. We go back tomorrow (Friday) for a booster shot so will see if he's had a growth spurt.

So nights are going well. He appears to be a 'sleep in the bed' dog. We've never had one of those. Sophie was a pee-in-her-sleep dog her whole life. Ruby was just too damn big. And Truman, well, if you listen, you'll hear our windows rattling from his snoring. There's no sleeping with that. For a few nights Simon slept in his own bed next to our bed. But then I didn't hear him if he woke up and we had potty things to manage in the morning. So it became easier for him to sleep in the bed. He hasn't argued with that logic. We are apparently on the same overnight bathroom schedule. Actually, most times, I wake him up. I guess that's the advantage of getting a puppy at 50 when you already have to get up several times a night anyway.

The potty thing is going ok. I have to remind myself that he's really a baby. He was 12 weeks old on Sunday. So being able to hold it and/or being able to tell me when it's time to go out is a little beyond what I should expect. But I will say he's wicked smart, so I don't expect that to last long. I'm getting good at reading his signs and getting him outside probably 90% of the time. Today was more of a 50% day for some reason, but it's less about him than it is about me right now. So I'm being patient. I do want to get him a tiny bell for the door and work on teaching him to announce when he needs to go out. Like his big sister Ruby always did.

"Working" with mom.

Jack Russell and Maltese are both known to be smart breeds. And that is evident. So far he's mastered sit, lay down, and roll over. That last one is absolutely useless, except for the adorable factor. And he seems to like it, flipping himself lightning fast. Sometimes he just twists his head around. Really, dude, you think that fools me? We're working on shaking hands, which every gentleman puppy needs to master. He seems to be both a lefty and a righty. And it's more of a high five than a shake. But it's still really cute.

He spends at least part of every work day on my desk. Mostly napping, but always inching ever closer to my keyboard. He's on the side where the Escape key is - so that's cause a problem a few times. He likes to be touching me if at all possible, so he slides out of his bed and scoots until his nose or paw is on my left hand.

It's good to use the whole desk.

Then he wakes up for what has turned into his favorite part of the day. Snack time. Our dogs have always been allowed one snack. Popcorn. Anyone who knows me can tell you that if they crunched popcorn with their mouth open in my presence, I'd likely threaten to throw them off a cliff. But when Simon does it, it's absolutely charming. We have our little popcorn snack almost every day and it continues to make me giggle. I am so smitten with this puppy.

Simon had many outings to Home Depot over the last two weeks. He loves it there and everybody has to stop and talk to him. So sometimes it's just easier to leave him home if we need to get in and out quickly. The cashiers know him by name already. I guess that says more about how much time I spend at Home Depot than it does how cute my dog is. He's also been to the pet store a number of times. Punta Gorda is totally dog friendly, so everyone takes them everywhere. We went out for pizza last Friday night and he came with, sitting nicely in his carrier on the patio next to a Pomeranian with a broken leg in the cutest pink hard cast you've ever seen. Simon was good the whole time. No whining. Just watching the world go by while we ate pizza.

Simon and Arthur

His absolute favorite outing was to see Maggie, who cuts my hair. I took him with because Maggie is a dog lover and always needed an update on my Ruby.  What I didn't expect was that she had her puppy, Arthur, in the shop. Arthur is only a few weeks older than Simon and is a Dachshund. They are almost exactly the same size, except Arthur's body is twice as long. The two of them hit it off like old friends and spent the next 20 minutes rolling in the grossness of cut hair on the shop floor (he needed a bath anyway). Simon and Arthur. Like two old Jewish men. I should teach them how to play Pinochle.

Maggie now has orders to make sure Arthur is in the house every third Tuesday so these two little men can have a play date.

Avert your eyes. 

Simon loves his toys. Our neighbor brought over a Welcome Baby gift full of little stuffed toys, chewies, and more. He loves all of them. I also made the decision to dump the big toy bin and let him take what he wants. Ruby's favorite toys are safely tucked away. What's in the bucket are toys that go back God knows how long and never really belonged to anyone. I put them all through the washer and dryer and he sort of adopted them all as his own. He also loves tennis balls. I try to spend a few minutes every day out in the yard bouncing one off the side of the house. He likes chasing them, but he's too ADHD to see me throw them. So the sound gets his attention. And I wouldn't really call it fetching. It's more like a full body attack, and then he rolls around on the ground with them. Sometimes he even brings one back.

Seriously, nothing this dog does isn't cute. NOTHING.

He did take on the Truman within just a few days. And now it's a daily battle. One that had Truman gimping and limping for about three days. We finally decided he was just sore. Like he'd taken his first ever Pilates class and had to spend a few days recovering.

He and Simon have an ongoing battle over beds. Simon takes up residence on Truman's giant bed and Truman will go find Simon's igloo bed and just carry it around. Then there's a round of barking until I can't take it anymore and I make everybody lay on their own beds. But again - fairly adorable.

In my snappy new sweater.

We are taking our first road trip this weekend, up to Nashville to see Simon's oldest human sister. It'll be a long drive and it will be cold up there. So, of course, I had to get him the proper outerwear. Trust me if I could have found boots in SWFL, I would have bought them. But the fleece will do. He looks so adult. As if he went to grad school and now he smokes a pipe. It has the same effect of a ThunderShirt on him. He turns all sober and serious when he's wearing it. Not a bad thing and certainly one I intend to use as needed.

Apologies for the lack of attention to the blog. I promise I'll get in the swing of it.

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