Chicken
So I ducked out of here a little early yesterday to rush to the airport to pick up my sister.
Her flight was an hour late, which was good for me, because it meant that I didn't have to leave too obviously early.
My mom and I drove to IAH, and our timing was nearly perfect. Liv was just getting out of the terminal when we drove up.
She hopped in the car, and we took off, driving another 15 miles north to a small farm with a posterboard sign on the driveway that said "Corgi puppies!"
We parked, and we saw two corgis and an australian shephard waiting behind a fence for us. One of the corgis had obviously recently had puppies. Everyone was terribly excited to see us when we walked up to the gate. A woman walked out of the house and said hi and welcomed us into her home. We were greeted instantly by three seven week old puppies. There had been ten (two mamas had given birth within a week of each other), but only three were left. Two of them, a boy and a girl, had their ears already up. The other boy's ears would come up every now and then, but he wasn't quite coordinated with the ear thing.
Liv got on the floor. My mom and I sat on the side and just admired.
At first, the puppies were wary. The flat eared boy hid behind me. The other boy grabbed his sister and started wrestling. I got the camera out. At some point, someone came up to Liv and she got the nerve to pick him or her up. Liv was overwhelmed by the cuteness. The puppies played. The puppies explored. The puppies chewed on a photo album they weren't supposed to. The puppies seemed to have no problem whatsoever with the fact that their legs are so damned short. The boy with the upright ears didn't particularly show much interest in Liv, so she focused on the other two. She'd pick them up and cuddle. She'd let them go and watch them interact. She'd ooh and aww. She'd lay down and see who came to talk to her. She'd sit up and see who got scared of her.
She'd ask questions to the breeder about personalities and what they might turn into when they got older. All three were tricolored, mainly black with some white and red. This was the second litter for the mama, and it was clear that we weren't getting puppies from a puppy mill or from someone who didn't know what they were doing. It was clear that the breeder's partner just wanted to keep all of the puppies because they were so damned cute. It was clear that these were puppies of love, not puppies of profit.
At some point, the little girl was in Liv's lap, and she gazed into Liv's eyes. I knew right then who the newest cainine member of our family would be. Then the little girl nuzzled Liv's hair, and it was all over*. We stayed another 20 minutes or so, though there wasn't any doubt at all about who would come home with us.
At around seven or so, we were on the road and Liv started to freak out a little bit. She went through that "what the hell have I done?" moment that all new parents go through. Fortunately, she had two dog people with her to talk her through how normal it was. Hell, I felt that way with Crianza, and I knew what I was getting into.
We stopped at my house on the way home to pick up Crianza's puppy collar and leash and a baby shower present I'd gotten the puppy and a racooon (I couldn't find a moose at petco, so I had to order another one**, but in the meantime she can use the racoon, since it's not really in Crianza's rotation). She went to my back yard and peed. Yay!
The collar turned out to be too small. Same age as Crianza when I picked her up, but much larger neck. (Crianza totally had her beat on the leg length, though.)
So we got to my parents' house and Relampago, Holden, Zapata, and Crianza were waiting with my dad and Jose. The dogs were, of course, elated to see us, and they didn't instantly take note of the puppy. Instead, they were overjoyed to see that Liv was home (and their respective owners). Jose and my dad marveled at the puppy, and there was a little bit of chaos until we got Liv and the puppy into the room that they'll be staying in for the next five days. The dogs, of course, were instantly suspicious of the fact that they weren't given access to everyone, and they started complaining. In the meantime, the puppy started checking out her room. She walked the perimeter, she went back to Liv, she kissed my dad.
We decided that Relampago would be the ambassador for the pulik, and he was the first let in. He didn't notice the puppy at first. Instead, he interrogated me about the dogs I'd obviously been recently in contact with, and he expressed his joy that I was home. I pointed out the puppy. Relampago went to talk to the puppy. He sniffed her all over. He hovered over her. He followed her every step. His tail was wagging a million miles a minute. He fell in a deep and somewhat troubling love. My 14 year old dog who generally dislikes most other dogs was totally and completely enamoured by this itty bitty little puppy with funny ears.
There was some confusion next. We were supposed to let just Crianza in, but Zapata barreled his way through, and there was a bit of a gang up on the puppy. She got scared and Liv picked her up, which was the wrong thing to do. Zapata got confused and anxious and slightly aggressive. So he was led out of the room, and it was just Relampago and Crianza.
Poor Crianza. Her entire life, she's always, absolutely positively been the cutest thing in any room. She didn't know how to handle this. She went to the puppy, sniffed the puppy (Relampago was still right there, supervising every single step), she hovered over the puppy, and then she came to me and said "what's going on???" She would pout under my dad's desk for awhile, and then she'd go back and see what this puppy thing was all about. She never really got into the whole puppy thing at all. I had to promise her over and over and over again that she wasn't going to be replaced and that the puppy wasn't any cuter than she is (slight fib on my part, but any parent would say the same). It was tragic.
Zapata was let back in after it was explained to Liv and Jose (who thought Zapata would eat the puppy) that interference will the socialization process will increase aggression between Zapata and the puppy, and they agreed to try again (this time without leashes and without the puppy being picked up). It worked. Within ten minutes Zapata and the puppy (and, I don't really need to add, Relampago) were touring the room together. When I say together, I mean that if there was more than four inches between the puppy and the puli, that was a long distance. This is how it was when Crianza was a baby, and this poor puppy had i>two pulik doing the same thing to her. There were times where you couldn't see the puppy because she was under the puli's cords. They were herding her and making absolutely sure that she was supervised. Relampago's tail did not stop wagging for an instant after he met the puppy. Every now and then the puppy would grab one of Zapata's cords and start chewing. Crianza continued to pout.
Claudia showed up a little bit after that, and she and the puppy had their moments together. Holden (who will eat puppies) was let into the room, but he wasn't allowed to have much interaction with the puppy. He didn't really seem to care though. Relampago and Zapata backed off a little when Holden got there, and the puppy stayed in people's laps. I'm sure I don't really need to report that there wasn't really a shrotage of laps to sit on.
Eventually we went to eat. We'd gotten the first crawfish of the season from the Ragin' Cajun, and it's sort of hard to eat crawfish under the best of circumstances, much less with a puppy on your lap. So we put the puppy in Zapata's, then Crianza's old crate, and she cried for a minute and then passed out. mmmmmmmmmmm crawfish.
Jose and Holden took off for home shortly after dinner because Jose was exhausted and Claudia wanted to play with the puppy without the accusatory eyes from Holden.
As soon as dinner was done, the puppy was back on Claudia's lap, and my dad suggested that she go outside to pee. In one of the most heartstopping moments of dogdom, back when Zapata was an itty bitty puppy, he managed to wiggle through the railings on my parents' 6th floor balcony, so everyone was a little paranoid about letting her explore too much outside. But she had her entourage (Zapata and Relampago, and sometimes Crianza) making sure that every step was accounted for. She peed. Yaaaaaay!
We went back inside, and we discovered that if you (a person) run the puppy will run after you (with a puli or two helping her along). The baby galloping was absolutely adorable.
Eventually, it was time for me and Relampago and Crianza to go home. Crianza ran to the door and started barking and got her leash. Relampago wouldn't leave the puppy. Crianza grabbed Relampago's leash and started pulling. Everyone laughed at how desperate Crianza was to get out of there, and how reluctant Relampago was.
As we were leaving, Liv, my parents and Chicken were getting ready for bed. Liv and Chicken seem to have bonded perfectly, and Liv's moment of panic seems to have been replaced by overwhelming love.
I suspect I'll see them soon for my non-lunch hour. Crianza will be irate when she finds out.
*My dad later reported that Chispa did the same thing to him 18 years ago, and he can remember that moment as if it were yesterday. I suppose we all remember when we first fell in love.
I met Relampago at IAH. My mom and my best friend came to pick us up. Relampago had flown in from Northern California, I'd flown in from Southern California. My mom and best friend had picked him up from cargo freight before they came to pick me up. I must have been a little late, because they'd parked and taken Relampago for a mini walk. I remember leaving the terminal and seeing my best friend turn a corner walking this little black puppy on a red leash and nearly dying from love. He slept on my lap all the way home from the airport. We got to my parents house, and everyone was shocked. I'd come home a day earlier than I'd told everyone, and I had a new member of the family with us. Relampago bounded into the monkey grass and started playing as soon as we got home. Chispa was less than impressed and later that week she tried to off the puppy by pushing him in the swimming pool. Relampago preservered.
And who can forget Crianza?
**Dog owners, Pet Guys is a pretty awesome website.
Her flight was an hour late, which was good for me, because it meant that I didn't have to leave too obviously early.
My mom and I drove to IAH, and our timing was nearly perfect. Liv was just getting out of the terminal when we drove up.
She hopped in the car, and we took off, driving another 15 miles north to a small farm with a posterboard sign on the driveway that said "Corgi puppies!"
We parked, and we saw two corgis and an australian shephard waiting behind a fence for us. One of the corgis had obviously recently had puppies. Everyone was terribly excited to see us when we walked up to the gate. A woman walked out of the house and said hi and welcomed us into her home. We were greeted instantly by three seven week old puppies. There had been ten (two mamas had given birth within a week of each other), but only three were left. Two of them, a boy and a girl, had their ears already up. The other boy's ears would come up every now and then, but he wasn't quite coordinated with the ear thing.
Liv got on the floor. My mom and I sat on the side and just admired.
At first, the puppies were wary. The flat eared boy hid behind me. The other boy grabbed his sister and started wrestling. I got the camera out. At some point, someone came up to Liv and she got the nerve to pick him or her up. Liv was overwhelmed by the cuteness. The puppies played. The puppies explored. The puppies chewed on a photo album they weren't supposed to. The puppies seemed to have no problem whatsoever with the fact that their legs are so damned short. The boy with the upright ears didn't particularly show much interest in Liv, so she focused on the other two. She'd pick them up and cuddle. She'd let them go and watch them interact. She'd ooh and aww. She'd lay down and see who came to talk to her. She'd sit up and see who got scared of her.
She'd ask questions to the breeder about personalities and what they might turn into when they got older. All three were tricolored, mainly black with some white and red. This was the second litter for the mama, and it was clear that we weren't getting puppies from a puppy mill or from someone who didn't know what they were doing. It was clear that the breeder's partner just wanted to keep all of the puppies because they were so damned cute. It was clear that these were puppies of love, not puppies of profit.
At some point, the little girl was in Liv's lap, and she gazed into Liv's eyes. I knew right then who the newest cainine member of our family would be. Then the little girl nuzzled Liv's hair, and it was all over*. We stayed another 20 minutes or so, though there wasn't any doubt at all about who would come home with us.
At around seven or so, we were on the road and Liv started to freak out a little bit. She went through that "what the hell have I done?" moment that all new parents go through. Fortunately, she had two dog people with her to talk her through how normal it was. Hell, I felt that way with Crianza, and I knew what I was getting into.
We stopped at my house on the way home to pick up Crianza's puppy collar and leash and a baby shower present I'd gotten the puppy and a racooon (I couldn't find a moose at petco, so I had to order another one**, but in the meantime she can use the racoon, since it's not really in Crianza's rotation). She went to my back yard and peed. Yay!
The collar turned out to be too small. Same age as Crianza when I picked her up, but much larger neck. (Crianza totally had her beat on the leg length, though.)
So we got to my parents' house and Relampago, Holden, Zapata, and Crianza were waiting with my dad and Jose. The dogs were, of course, elated to see us, and they didn't instantly take note of the puppy. Instead, they were overjoyed to see that Liv was home (and their respective owners). Jose and my dad marveled at the puppy, and there was a little bit of chaos until we got Liv and the puppy into the room that they'll be staying in for the next five days. The dogs, of course, were instantly suspicious of the fact that they weren't given access to everyone, and they started complaining. In the meantime, the puppy started checking out her room. She walked the perimeter, she went back to Liv, she kissed my dad.
We decided that Relampago would be the ambassador for the pulik, and he was the first let in. He didn't notice the puppy at first. Instead, he interrogated me about the dogs I'd obviously been recently in contact with, and he expressed his joy that I was home. I pointed out the puppy. Relampago went to talk to the puppy. He sniffed her all over. He hovered over her. He followed her every step. His tail was wagging a million miles a minute. He fell in a deep and somewhat troubling love. My 14 year old dog who generally dislikes most other dogs was totally and completely enamoured by this itty bitty little puppy with funny ears.
There was some confusion next. We were supposed to let just Crianza in, but Zapata barreled his way through, and there was a bit of a gang up on the puppy. She got scared and Liv picked her up, which was the wrong thing to do. Zapata got confused and anxious and slightly aggressive. So he was led out of the room, and it was just Relampago and Crianza.
Poor Crianza. Her entire life, she's always, absolutely positively been the cutest thing in any room. She didn't know how to handle this. She went to the puppy, sniffed the puppy (Relampago was still right there, supervising every single step), she hovered over the puppy, and then she came to me and said "what's going on???" She would pout under my dad's desk for awhile, and then she'd go back and see what this puppy thing was all about. She never really got into the whole puppy thing at all. I had to promise her over and over and over again that she wasn't going to be replaced and that the puppy wasn't any cuter than she is (slight fib on my part, but any parent would say the same). It was tragic.
Zapata was let back in after it was explained to Liv and Jose (who thought Zapata would eat the puppy) that interference will the socialization process will increase aggression between Zapata and the puppy, and they agreed to try again (this time without leashes and without the puppy being picked up). It worked. Within ten minutes Zapata and the puppy (and, I don't really need to add, Relampago) were touring the room together. When I say together, I mean that if there was more than four inches between the puppy and the puli, that was a long distance. This is how it was when Crianza was a baby, and this poor puppy had i>two pulik doing the same thing to her. There were times where you couldn't see the puppy because she was under the puli's cords. They were herding her and making absolutely sure that she was supervised. Relampago's tail did not stop wagging for an instant after he met the puppy. Every now and then the puppy would grab one of Zapata's cords and start chewing. Crianza continued to pout.
Claudia showed up a little bit after that, and she and the puppy had their moments together. Holden (who will eat puppies) was let into the room, but he wasn't allowed to have much interaction with the puppy. He didn't really seem to care though. Relampago and Zapata backed off a little when Holden got there, and the puppy stayed in people's laps. I'm sure I don't really need to report that there wasn't really a shrotage of laps to sit on.
Eventually we went to eat. We'd gotten the first crawfish of the season from the Ragin' Cajun, and it's sort of hard to eat crawfish under the best of circumstances, much less with a puppy on your lap. So we put the puppy in Zapata's, then Crianza's old crate, and she cried for a minute and then passed out. mmmmmmmmmmm crawfish.
Jose and Holden took off for home shortly after dinner because Jose was exhausted and Claudia wanted to play with the puppy without the accusatory eyes from Holden.
As soon as dinner was done, the puppy was back on Claudia's lap, and my dad suggested that she go outside to pee. In one of the most heartstopping moments of dogdom, back when Zapata was an itty bitty puppy, he managed to wiggle through the railings on my parents' 6th floor balcony, so everyone was a little paranoid about letting her explore too much outside. But she had her entourage (Zapata and Relampago, and sometimes Crianza) making sure that every step was accounted for. She peed. Yaaaaaay!
We went back inside, and we discovered that if you (a person) run the puppy will run after you (with a puli or two helping her along). The baby galloping was absolutely adorable.
Eventually, it was time for me and Relampago and Crianza to go home. Crianza ran to the door and started barking and got her leash. Relampago wouldn't leave the puppy. Crianza grabbed Relampago's leash and started pulling. Everyone laughed at how desperate Crianza was to get out of there, and how reluctant Relampago was.
As we were leaving, Liv, my parents and Chicken were getting ready for bed. Liv and Chicken seem to have bonded perfectly, and Liv's moment of panic seems to have been replaced by overwhelming love.
I suspect I'll see them soon for my non-lunch hour. Crianza will be irate when she finds out.
*My dad later reported that Chispa did the same thing to him 18 years ago, and he can remember that moment as if it were yesterday. I suppose we all remember when we first fell in love.
I met Relampago at IAH. My mom and my best friend came to pick us up. Relampago had flown in from Northern California, I'd flown in from Southern California. My mom and best friend had picked him up from cargo freight before they came to pick me up. I must have been a little late, because they'd parked and taken Relampago for a mini walk. I remember leaving the terminal and seeing my best friend turn a corner walking this little black puppy on a red leash and nearly dying from love. He slept on my lap all the way home from the airport. We got to my parents house, and everyone was shocked. I'd come home a day earlier than I'd told everyone, and I had a new member of the family with us. Relampago bounded into the monkey grass and started playing as soon as we got home. Chispa was less than impressed and later that week she tried to off the puppy by pushing him in the swimming pool. Relampago preservered.
And who can forget Crianza?
**Dog owners, Pet Guys is a pretty awesome website.