Changes
This post is difficult to write, to explain the changes that have happened in our lives.
The first is a good one. After almost three years, we have finally moved into our new home! The Sheltiechick house is not finished being under construction, but the major things have been done – I have a functioning kitchen, for example, a bathroom, and (the missing component for a while) a water heater! So we packed up and moved in and have loved our new space and having our massive agility backyard right outside our door.
The second is not nearly so good. After much deliberation and conversations with her co-owner, Pepper has gone back to live with her instead of with me. It was always my hope she would live with us forever, but that is not how everything shook out ultimately. I don’t know if she will ever come back to live with me, although she will always have a safe place here and will always have a place in my heart.
And so our lives change. The boys have adapted better than I hoped to being back to just the Bros again, so… here we are.
Something came to visit
Her name is Pepper.
Auggie loved her.
She thought Auggie was stupid… and she might be right.
Auggie’s like OOOOMG PLAY WITH MEEEEE and she’s like “ew no you’re weird.”
Auggie says “but but but…”
She’s so dark on her back, just like Kota. My mom was watching us play in the yard out the kitchen window, and I called Pepper and she ran across the yard to me and jumped up to give me kisses. My mom could only see Pepper from behind and when I came back in she was kind of choked up and said “For a minute there it looked like you and Kota.” Then she looks at Pepper and says “Kota didn’t want to play much with Auggie either.” Hahahaha… it’s true.
Auggie’s the biggest flirt in the world and normally ALL the bitches love him, but he is really stumped that Pepper doesn’t want to play. I think she will play with him tomorrow. Today she is just trying to get settled in here I think. She kind of has acted like she wants to play with him some but just isn’t sure. In Pepper’s defense the dog is in fact an idiot. He has run into the wall like four times in his zoomies.
Auggie is currently trying his hardest… tailwagging everywhere and she looks mildly interested… then he just barked and playbowed and she walked away. So he got a toy and she’s looking at it but won’t touch it. Poor poor Auggie.
Auggie says “this one is broken can I have another?”
I’m not kidding, he just tried to get her to play again, and when she wouldn’t he turned to me and barked in my face.
Two Little Puppies
If you’re having a bad day, I challenge you to do this:
Imagine a sheltie puppy. A pretty small one – tightly curled up it’s just about smaller than a volleyball. It’s fuzzy and fluffy, covered in super soft downy puppy hair. They go “yarf yarf!” in little high-pitched squeaks instead of barking.
Got the mental image?
Now double it.
TWO little puppies. Soft and snuggly, they fit so nicely in your arms. One of them is a little snotty and every time you pet her she goes “AAAARRR RARR RARR” like she’s going to bite your hand off with her tiny (but sharp!) little puppy teeth. The other one keeps giving you kisses as you hold her, and you can feel her little puppy tail wagging away in your arms.
This was my yesterday.
It was a wonderful, wonderful evening.
No, neither of the puppies are mine nor will they be. Mom desperately wants one of them, though. She couldn’t stop talking about them all night long. Auggie rode home snuggled up in my lap because I was so very nostalgic for the first day I brought him home, a small fluffy ball of puppy.
I put Auggie down next to them (they were in an ex-pen at first) and let him sniff them through the bars. He wasn’t very interested. I picked one of them up and held her out to him outside of the pen and he still wasn’t very interested. He went off exploring J’s yard, peed on a tree, and looked for forgotten cookies in the grass while we talked about the dogs. I got to touch tiny little puppy feet and itty bitty puppy toenails, look at teeny tiny puppy teeth, feel little puppy ears… oh my God, now *I* have puppy fever.
After agility practice J got the puppies out of the ex-pen and let them prowl around the yard with Auggie. NOW he was interested in them. They were playful and feisty and that got him all excited. He bowled one of them over (she was being called Bullwinkle) playing chase, it was hilarious. I opened his water bottle and started to pour water into his travel bowl, and he was drinking from the stream coming from the bottle (as usual) – and Bullwinkle came over to see what he was doing, and he backed up to let her drink from his water bottle! It was soooo cute, this tiny puppy with her nose shoved into his water bottle and Auggie waiting patiently for her to finish so he could get a drink next…
Now I have a pretty good idea of how Auggie will react once I bring a puppy home. He acted much like I expected… we just have to make sure he plays gentle, because I don’t think he realizes they’re very small and he needs to be careful!
