puppy tales

It's like being a new parent...tired all the time. She gets up earlier than we do and being a puppy who is still getting house trained that means she has to go outside and pee...now. Sometimes she'll quiet back down but not usually so we are not getting our sleep.

She's about 4 months old now and best guess by the vet and the techs is a rat terrier/chihuahua mix. She is long legged and long bodied and a week and a half ago, she weighed 6lbs 5oz.

She's also very smart and stubborn and ignores you if she doesn't want to do whatever you want even though you know she knows her name. But she also wants to please so she does learn the lessons and she is so cute and funny. I had to go all alpha dog on her last night because I didn't want her romping in my lap so she went over to Marc telling him mom's being mean and then climbed up on his shoulders and laid down curled around his neck. 

She bounds like an antelope and runs like the wind and the other day I was in the pool (12' diameter x 30” deep) when she leaped up and grabbed onto the edge and scrambled herself up and over and into the water where she then swam like mad for the other side and I lifted her out. She didn't try that again.

Another thing she likes to do is make a nest out of the bath mat while I'm brushing my teeth.

She has learned to keep a wide swath between her and the cat who finally got tired of waiting for the little pesky dog to leave and started asserting herself and claiming her space back by charging at the little dog and swiping at her from hidden spots, though I'm beginning to think Emma is playing with her in her cat-like thorny way. Minnie, on the other hand, is still very intimidated by the cat who will sit in the doorway that the puppy wants to go through. If I pick up Minnie and hold her at eye level with the cat (but far enough away that Emma can't swipe at her), the puppy will turn her head from side to side...ma! don't make me look at the cat!

The other day, Minnie was in my lap asleep draped over one leg when Emma decided she wanted in my lap too so I had the dog on one leg and the cat on the other with their backs to each other. Then Marc walked in and Minnie jumped down. I don't think the puppy ever realized the cat was right there behind her because if she had she would have freaked out.

So she has a new trick, besides standing on her hind legs to get whatever toy is being dangled. Yesterday she was chasing her tail spinning around really fast until she got dizzy and then she would stop and wobble a bit and then do it all over again. And fetch, she has learned how to play fetch with one of her toys.

Unless she is asleep, she is in near constant motion.

It's a good thing she makes us laugh so much.