Operation: Puppy (Day 1)

Yesterday was a big day for me. I left work and eagerly changed clothes and headed across town to Bluefield. I pulled up to my friends' house and immediately wondered "How the hell am I going to get this dog home?" I had not seen the puppy in person yet, only the pic I showed yesterday. When I knocked on the door he came running. No shyness in this dog at all. He let me pet him and play with him. He never barked and even though excited wasn't too wild. Nice!

I chatted with Leslie a little bit and played with my buddy (her baby) Spencer. The dog and the child did well together. Everytime the dog would get in sight of the baby, he would start laughing. It was so cute. She has another video of him doing it and cackling too, but she hasn't uploaded it yet.

She also gave me some supplies to get me started. I got 2 leashes, a half bag of dog food, and some toys. I took the walking leash and put it on him without any problems. We walked around outside for a while. The pup wants to play tractor pull when he's on a leash. He kept wanting to drag me around.

Les helped me load everything in to the truck. I tapped on the seat a few times adn the dog jumped right in. That was easy! Next came trying to drive with the dog in the truck. I was worried at first because he seemed to only want to be in my face the whole time. I couldn't concentrate like that, so I tapped the seat a few more times and asked him to sit. He did! Wow. You could tell he was a bit un-easy about the ride, but I sang some Pink Floyd, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Godsmack tunes to him to help settle him down :)

I had to stop by my Mom's house. I took him out and let him run around her yard for a while (still on a leash). He did his business and we took him inside while we eat. Mom wasn't too thrilled with having the dog run wild through the house while we were eating. All he wanted to do was sniff out the situation anyway. I shut him in the bathroom just in case there were any "accidents".

I left Mom's house "accident" free. We hopped back in the truck. This time the ride was much easier for him. He was more at ease. He even stood up in the seat to stick his head out the window to check out what was giong on. But then he wanted to come to my side again. He just wanted some petting I guess. It wasn't like he was trying to climb over me. His footing wasn't so awesome on the console though and I was afraid of him slipping and breaking a leg or something if I had to stop suddenly. So with a few more taps on the passenger seat, back over there he went until we got home.

His first sight as we pulled up was the neighbor's German Shepherd. He really wanted to check that dog out. Once we got inside, I let him roam the house and check out the situation. He pretty much scanned the perimeter of every room with his nose and then it was all good. He seemed more fascinated with downstairs than upstairs (which is good for me with tile floors and all).

Once I got everything settled in, I took him outside. I have a big yard, but it's not fenced in or anything. I was afraid to let him roam around without a leash. I wasn't sure if he would run off or anything. So I had one of those in-ground leashes that lets them roam pretty far. He checked out a little bit of everything and did his business too which I was happy to see. He kept wanting to crawl underneath my porch though. I'm not sure what fascinated him so much down there, but something interested him a lot.

We played for a while and went back inside. He roamed around a little bit more and he chilled out with me for a while. When it was time for bed, I took him out for another walk. He peed almost instantly. I was hoping for a nice steaming poop, but no luck there. We went back inside and I took him into my bedroom. A couple taps on the bed and he hopped right up there. My bed is pretty high off the ground, so it's a decent leap and I was surpised he could do it. He didn't want to cooperate at first. He wanted to roll around and hide his head under the pillows. I showed him that the head of the bed was my side.

When I finally laid down, he wanted to play a bit. So I petted him and got all that out of his system. Finally he tuckered out and laid down at teh foot of the bed. He stayed there for most of the night and didn't interrupt my sleep one bit. Until 5:00 a.m. A dog barked outside and then he jumped up barking and ran into the kitchen. This went on for about 30 seconds and I incoherantly hollared at him to get back in the room. He did just that. He ran back into the bedroom, jumped back on the bed and resumed the sleeping like nothing happened.

When the alarm clock rang. I played with teh puppy for a bit and took him outside. I left him out there on the long leash while I showered and got ready for work. Then I let him back in and played with him for a few more minutes before I left for work. I made him a bed and put some toys in the downstairs bathrooom. It has tile floors and is pretty open so he'll have a place to hang out during the day while I'm gone. If there are any accidents, then they will be easy to clean up.

I decided to call the pup "Smoltzie" after Braves pitcher John Smoltz (ie) :)