Who let the dogs out?

A Wednesday blog post?  I am really slipping.. I don't even know myself anymore with this late-ass post.  The Thanksgiving long weekend really messed up my deadline this week.  We had a pretty uneventful Day o' Turkey.  We gave thanks in the booming metropolis of Plunkett.  No, that's not a board game, that is an actual blip on the map.  Other than that nothing too exciting occurred which left me at a loss again for a blog this week.  I know I am going to have a ton of things to write about next week when we spend our Splurge night at Bingo.  Lord help me.  I asked the girls at work for some ideas and cutie-patootie Marie came up with the suggestion of life with our new puppy, Gracie.  Fantastic!  There are definitely lots of things I can say about that.

Recently Curtis and I adopted a 7 month old Black Lab/Great Dane cross from a rescue in Cando (just outside of North Battleford).  For months I had contemplated opening our house to another pooch.  A lot of people give me the gears about having kids but I am still not there yet in my life.  In chatting with my friend, Jinelle (who loves children and even has 3 of her own), I asked her if I was just going to be a crazy dog lady.  She made me feel better by telling me that "Dogs need moms too."  True friends never make you feel like you're losing your mind :-) I mean it's not like I was experimenting with meth or anything, it was just adopting a dog but the amount of negative comments I got from people was irritating.  Getting a second dog was an attempt to help our overly anxious 5 year old Bichon/Shih Tzu cross, Keefer, calm the eff down.  Curtis was skeptical and figured all that would end up happening was that we would have two psycho dogs instead of one.

When Gracie first arrived Keefer was definitely jealous.  She just bounced around trying to get pets
from everyone while he glared evilly at her from people's laps.  Currently at standing she is about 4' tall and is weighing in close to 60 pounds so she is no delicate flower.  She came through our house like a whirlwind jumping up at the counter and trying to get at the dishes in the sink.  For a brief moment I thought that maybe Curtis was right and started to regret the decision.

Gracie also got explosive diarrhea not once, but twice within the first 2 weeks of her stay.  And when I say explosive I mean literally showered our backyard with projectile shits.  One night I sleepily locked her in her kennel and went to bed.  When I woke up in the morning and opened the bedroom door the foulest smell knocked me back.  At the bottom of the stairs stood Gracie happily wagging her tail with what looked like chocolate pudding smeared on the carpet.  Apparently I hadn't latched her kennel all the way and she made her great escape while I was in full REM mode.  As I scrubbed our mini shag carpet that morning I really wondered what I had gotten myself into.

One of the things that kept me hopeful about the playful pup was her ability to listen.  Yes, she has a ton of energy but almost immediately we felt comfortable letting her off her leash knowing she wouldn't take off on her new family.  Within a few weeks Keefer started to warm up to her.  His behavior did a complete 180 actually.  We used to have to take him to doggie daycare due to his anxiety while we were away, even for the shortest amount of time.  Now he and Gracie spend their days lounging around at home.

I've taken Gracie to an obedience class so she's learning to walk on a leash much better now.  She was constantly pulling and with a dog her size it was hard to control her.  I can't blame her, she had come from a farm where she had full range to run outside and now she was thrown into a new house where walks outside were limited to the length of the leash.  She's actually become a great running partner now.  I can even take both of dogs and burn through the neighborhood without any worries of her jerking me around or stampeding over Keefer. 

Her listening skills have gotten even better and she has learned a few new tricks courtesy of Curtis.  She understands that the furniture, countertops and stove are off limits and that she is not supposed to eat the food in Keefer's dish.  She has really come a long ways in the month that she has been with us.  Not only did we give a home to a puppy that needed one but her and Keef are best buds now.  Anything she does, he does.  Anything he does, she wants to do.. including attempting to be a lap dog herself.  She's not perfect but she's a puppy and she has made our lives that much better with her in it!