2000:
Netstock
Day 2
Books Read in 2007 My Favorite Video Blogs Missbehavens (for others, see Links page)
"Imagine" Peace Project The Barry Z Show College Conservatives on Iraq Book Trailer for "Schuyler's Monster"
Family Stories Vlog New on My
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DISTANCING 5 August 2007 I've done this often enough now that I can feel it happening. It always happens right about this time. It's the distancing of myself emotionally from the puppies. They are going to a new home next week (assuming arrangements are ever finalized!) and I'm already putting up walls around my heart so it won't hurt so much. I find myself doing this with each batch of puppies that we have. As they get older, Walt gets closer to them, and I start to feel farther away. This batch has really become "his" anyway. They run to greet him when he comes in the room. They run to me, too, but usually because I'm the one who supplies the food. Walt cuddles them (or tries to). I don't usually any more. As they have gotten older, they are less and less cuddly. Tattoo especially is the most un-cuddly puppy we've had. She has Things To Do and Places to Be and Games to Play and she can't be bothered with humans, unless they are going to feed her. Her goal in life is to get Lizzie to play with her. Goro is a big ol' teddy bear and is soft and floppy and likes to be cuddled. Sopa is kind of between the two. I have a stronger bond with him, because he's the smallest one, the one with the cough (which is almost gone, thank goodness), the one I've worried about the most. He also has the strongest suck reflex and still likes to suck on my finger, even tho he doesn't get milk squirted in his mouth by syringe any more when he does it. I joked with Walt the other night that Sopa was "my" puppy, Goro is "his" puppy...and Tattoo is Lizzie's puppy. We were in the family room at the time, Sopa sucking on my fingers, Goro snuggled up under Walt's beard, and Tattoo attacking Lizzie until Lizzie finally growled at her and walked away, Tattoo trotting along behind her hoping for another chance to play.
Fortunately, the puppies make it easier to distance yourself the older they get. They become very demanding.
If Tattoo is on the floor, she wants to jump into my lap. If she's in my lap she wants to climb up onto my shoulder and chew my hair and then she wants down again, and then back up again. Walking across the family room, with five dogs, 3 of whom are so small, is like trying to walk through a flock of sheep clogging a back road in Ireland. I can't wear shoes in the house because if I do, I can't feel where the puppies are and am more likely to step on them. But when I go barefoot, I more easily find the puddles of pee that they are leaving around the house with more regularity now. Nothing more fun than realizing you've stepped in a cold wet pee puddle with your bare feet. The lot of them prefer sleeping under the foot rest of my recliner, where I can't see them and run the risk of squishing them if I get up without thinking about it.
We also may be close to the end of their sleeping in the playpen at night. Last night Goro put up such a ruckus that I finally took him out of the playpen and let him sleep wherever he wanted. The other two were OK, but it's only a matter of time... There will be a pang when they leave, but I'll pack up the playpen wash the Pergo and all the coverings on all the dog beds, put away the towels, give a big sigh, and wait until the next batch of orphans comes along. It's what I do. |
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
The day is coming very soon. Sopa
actually
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This is entry #2686
