Puppies, lists, and a serious note

[mrissa]

ellameena asked for a puppy update entry, so what could I do? Well, I could only oblige, obviously. I am an obliging sort of Mrissa. Just ask me, and I'll tell you. See? That's obliging in itself.

She has been an extremely good puppy today, very lovey and snuggly. I don't want to jinx us, but I think she's essentially housetrained, has been for awhile. She's very good about indicating that she needs (or wants) to go outside, and since she's stopped requiring that I go with her every time, I don't really care whether it's a need or a want. Trotting around after the gophers entertaining herself? Sure, whatever. We have two problems with the backyard. One is that we don't have the rocks to block access to the underside of the deck yet, so she keeps going under there to hunt gophers, and the other is that we haven't found all the prickly weeds in the wooded part of the back yard, so she keeps coming in with seeds stuck in her fur. It's been better -- markgritter uprooted several before he left, and we haven't needed to pick 20-30 of the little suckers out of her coat every time she comes in any more. But still: oof.

She is still working on learning how hard she is and is not allowed to bite. A ritual holding of my arm in her mouth is just fine with me as long as she doesn't clamp down -- she finds it comforting, when she's newly awake, to have her jaws around my arm while I rub her tummy, and as long as she isn't biting down, this is fine with me. She discovered the tummy rub for the first time in the first week we had her, and now she's a fiend for them, even when she's being just a general fiend. She would really love to chew on both toesies and shoes fairly hard, but this is on the list of Stupid Monkey Prohibitions.

Also in the first week we had her, she discovered that she farts. The first time, she looked at her butt like, "WHAT was that? Who did that?" Now she believes that her butt is the source of all flatulence. We don't have to blame the dog. The dog blames herself. We had "Blazing Saddles" on the other day, and the infamous campfire scene came on. Ista leaped up and glared at her butt, looking over her shoulder each time the movie made a farting noise.

She's a puppy, so she has a new Best! Thing! In! The! World! every few hours, but one of her consistent favorites is strollers, as they have wheels and monkey-puppies, two of her other favorites, all in one convenient package. When there are not monkey-puppies on the playground when we walk past, she gets disgruntled and looks to me as though I am to fix the situation.


Must do yesterday even though the world has not yet ended when I didn't:
Clean strawberries
Clean bathrooms: downstairs, T, M^2

Must do today:
Walk missista
Wash dishes
Call Guthrie to figure out tickets
Write thank-you notes for anniverary presents
Pay bills
Figure out and prepare something to put on the metric ton o' pasta, not that I'm blaming anybody for the metric ton o' pasta, not even pameladean

Really should try to do today so they're not on the list still tomorrow:
Wash towels
Finish edits to "Carter Hall Recovers the Puck"
Implement at least two items from the Thermionic Night list
Read another chapter of Sampo with screamy pink pen in hand
Send out "The Patient Geometers"

Would like to do today:
Write to Crazy Aunt, Grandpa L.
Post Sunday pictures from trip to London
Post cute puppy pic from the folks' house
Finish September F&SF


Tomorrow markgritter's parents will be coming over in the afternoon, possibly also seagrit at some point. I wish this was a happy happy fun family occasion, that they were just vacationing in Minneapolis and came to meet the puppy. But unfortunately, seagrit's husband Jeff's mother has died, and they are here for the funeral. I didn't know Audrey well, but she gave me an awesome brother-in-law-in-law, and I'm really sorry for their loss.

Sarah says that Audrey's breast cancer was diagnosed way too late. Monthly breast self-exams and regular mammograms for people of the appropriate age don't solve everything, but they do catch some of the problems while they're at an early stage. Doesn't take long, and it can buy you years. Please take the time to do it yourself or encourage someone you love, depending on which is more appropriate in your situation. This is important.

Comments

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Oh, fun puppy stuff! I've had to teach every young animal I've ever known the appropriate biting pressure. Ferrets, cats, dog, child. (Oh, wait until the biting manners are being taught while a very sensitive portion of your anatomy is in the teething baby's mouth!). My friend with the raccoon went through this when the coon was a baby. Well, she still bites too hard when she plays sometimes, but she is a wild animal, so I'll forgive her if she forgets sometimes. Thanks for indulging my puppy madness. Ista is obviously a gifted canine to be housebroken so early. *knock wood* That, or you are an EXCELLENT puppy trainer. We cheated and brought Nala home when she was already housebroken. :-)

[roane.livejournal.com]

"Now she believes that her butt is the source of all flatulence. We don't have to blame the dog. The dog blames herself."

This is quite possibly one of the funniest things I've ever read on LJ. The idea of the puppy glaring at her butt... HEE! *must keep giggles to herself*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

She is a very bright girl. She likes to do clever things with her toys: right now she is carefully threading her binkie through the large central hole in her chewing ring. She is extremely patient when an activity like this occurs to her and will not stop until she gets it the way she wants it.

It didn't take long to teach Ista the No Boob Biting rule, but I was not attempting to nurse her at the time!

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

We have quite the gourmet--- first the rawhide sandwiches, now a binkie shishkabob. (Or maybe just stuffed chewing ring.)

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Butts can be highly threatening:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/donttouchmybone.html