January 29, 2007

The puppy didn’t sleep through the night, and Sarah was a saint. He woke up probably three times during the night needed to go potty, so Sarah got up and took him out, the first time as early as 2:30.

Being the first day we had to leave him at home, we were a little nervous and didn’t know what to do. Since he was so small, fairly weak, and really clumsy, we figured it would be ok to setup the baby gate by the back door, put him in his box, and then wedge a large rock to keep him pinned in and away from knocking over the gate. He whined a good deal when we left which tore us apart, but we expected no less.

The first day back to work, the first day home to let the dog out. I got in at a decent time so I could leave and get him out right at lunch. We were pretty nervous about him making it that long, and I thought about him all morning and the drive back to the house.

When I got in, I dropped my stuff and rushed over to the back door. He wasn’t there. This didn’t surprise me too much. I have been around enough lonely dogs now in my life to know even weak little puppies find strength to do some pretty amazing things.

So, I turned around and looked in the most logical places, first, down our hall. I didn’t find the dog, but I found something else that alarmed me. I found one pile, of what I thought was poop, with small amounts of blood in it, one drop of blood close by, and a puddle of pee. But no dog.

Then I came back out to the kitchen, no luck their either. I started to get nervous. The stairs were blocked off, and I felt stupid. He was just a little dog, he couldn’t have made it far. Worried, and rushing more, I started to call out the many different names we had thought of but hadn’t settled on yet. I returned back to the scene of where it started, surely there must be something here that would give me a clue.

I turned my head so slightly to notice our cute little puppy, and his head sticking out between two pillows on the couch. He had gotten up on the beanbag and used his claws to get on the couch, and then snuggled away in the corner. It was too cute, and I went to get my camera, to then notice his backside just barely sticking out of those pillows, blending right in with the color of the couch. To this day, these are two of our most treasured photos.

I took him into the kitchen for some lunch. I walked out to go to the bathroom, and when I came back, he had done just that. A huge steaming pile right by the kitchen sink. Thrilling. So, I got out my face mask and gloves, and gated him in the kitchen while I started the 15 minutes task that was cleaning up all of his messes. I barely had time to eat lunch, or even just say hello to him before I had to run back out to work. I knew he wasn’t going to stay where we had him, so I just kept the gate up and left him in the kitchen. At least messes would be easy to clean. I moved his box by the fridge and headed out.

I beat Sarah home, and he had only gone once, a small pee spot right in front of his box, so that was encouraging.

The rest of the night we just enjoyed him, doing some more snuggling in front of our Monday night tv. I do remember trying to eat dinner and he kept biting at my toes, which was really distracting and painful, sharp little puppy teeth.

Here are some similar arcade posts

• January 31, 2007
• January 30, 2007
• January 28, 2007
• January 27, 2007
• May 23, 2007

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