The Puppy

Hey! Can I chew on that?

Yes... some friends of mine got a puppy. Meet Louie the Black Lab-German Shorthair mix. Louie is a "Happy Dog". Dealing with Happy Dogs can be tough. Dealing with a Happy Dog puppy... Cripes! What was I thinking!?

Louie joins my friend's home with two feline, fur-children. Long and well-established fur children.

Lainy is in the midst of planning Louie's untimely demise.

This is Jimmi... she's helping.

So I was in charge of the little darlings for a couple days. Mostly it involved not letting Louie out of my sight. Although it didn't help all that much. Once he peed while I was walking up to him to pet him!

It's not easy to deal with an animal who's entire thought process consists of, "What's that? What's that? Gotta pee, gotta pee! What's... you get it.

It's been quite awhile since I was around a Happy Dog puppy. First and foremost you try to avoid letting them get those, 'drop-like-a-stone-and-be-dead-sound-asleep' power naps. These are bad. As a puppy wakes up from one of those dreaded naps, it's not unlike letting a rabid badger out of it's cage.

Louie was a docile little puppy the first time I saw him... sleeping all curled up on his little bed, all warm and puppy-breath-ed. He's at the coltish stage where his skin is loose, his ears seem way too big for his head, his legs seem at least six inches too long for his body and of course... paws the size of snow shovels.

Yeah... Louie crawled right inside my heart from the moment I laid eyes on him.

Big mistake.

When I first met him, he was, for the most part... uninterested in the cats. That has changed. It is simple really. They want to kill him and they want to do it soon. Poor Lainy made the mistake of jumping over the gate to come into the kitchen to eat. Louie was curled up on his crate bed. The door wasn't closed. He'd just crawled in to nap.

He opened his eyes, saw her and charged up and out like a thoroughbred out of the gate... She broke the sound barrier leaping back over the puppy gates.

Yes. War has been declared.

Later that night, I laid in bed with Jimmi at my feet and Lainy was sucking on my hair, kneading my pillow and explaining the master plan as she purred the night away.

Louie should be afraid... very afraid.

As for me? The pup's exercise time will be doubled at the very least... a tired Happy Dog puppy means I can read more than one line at a time of my book!