Notes from the crib

Today George and I took the dog to the vet for a checkup and vaccines. We went with the vet recommendation from the shelter and ended up going to see a rural country-boy vet. He doesn't take appointments and was only open until noon today. After getting off work, rushing home in the rain, and loading up George and the dog, I made it to the vet with five minutes to spare. We got right in, the vet gave George a lollipop and got down on the floor to check out the dog. Looked him in the eyes, ears, mouth, felt his body, checked his paws, and declared "You got yourself a right fine dog here". There was no charge for the office visit and the shots were only $30, so all in all I think we'll be going back. We scheduled neutering for early next month.

So how did we end up with our new family member? Last Saturday after George and I left the birthday party, we met DH at a shopping center so I could buy a book I'd been wanting and so he could take George home. We got there before DH, so we walked down to the pet store to look at the doggies that a shelter had available for adoption. George and I have been entertaining ourselves looking at doggies for several months, but I didn't expect to find one I liked enough to want to take home when we looked on Saturday. It's always been "Oh, look at the cute doggies. Nice doggies. Let's go now." Well, this time was the same, until I was drawn to our doggie. He was so sweet and gentle, and I ended up crawling into the pen with him for a good 30 minutes where he tried to do his best lapdog impersonation. The shelter agency that was at the pet store was actually located not far from our house. So on Wednesday, George and I went back to visit him again at the shelter and spent about an hour seeing how well the two would get along. They acted like the best of buds chasing each other around in the mud (have I mentioned that after months of drought it's poured for days straight). We made an appointment for them to be open after hours that night so DH could come check out the dog. He thought he'd be okay, but had reservations about having an animal in the house again so we slept on the decision. In the morning, he decided that as long as we made a conscious effort to keep George's toys picked up and vacuum frequently that he'd be okay with us getting the dog. So on Thursday afternoon George and I went to pick up our new family member.

First thing upon arriving home, we gave the dog a bath. He was filthy what with all the mud and all. He was also covered in fleas, but a good flea shampoo made quick work of that. After bathing, we loaded up the doggie and headed to a pet store for supplies. George rode in the cart and the dog walked on a leash, and we were quite a site loading up on collars, bowls, brushes, toys, and a kennel. I ended up having to get an employee to help me load everything and everyone back into the car.

Everything is going well with the dog, with the exception of crate training. I want the dog to have a safe place to go to get away from George. But the dog wants little to do with his crate. I'm sure his experiences before have been bad, what with being locked in the shelter cage, and loaded up in crates to go to adoption events only to have to be loaded up again to be returned to the shelter. And who knows what happened in his previous life, with owners who abandoned him on the side of the road.

The only other issue we have to work on is getting George and the dog to play with their own toys. The dog wants to play with George's toys, and I caught George trying to chew on the dog's plastic bone. Eww. I'm sure we'll get it all figured out soon.

George is super excited to have a doggie in the house. His first words this morning were "Hi, Daddy. Where's Rufus?" Oh, yeah, we named him Rufus. DH came up with the name, apparently it's Latin for "red-headed". It took forever to get George down for a nap since he was so entranced with his dog. It turns out while George had quiet time, he didn't nap at all.

Notice how one of the bins is missing from the changing table? George dumped his shoes out on the floor and turned the bin over on the bed. Then he stood on it and turned on the lights. With a lit room, he turned his attention to stringing dirty clothes around the room and emptying his toy-filled bean bag. It looks like he sure had a lot of fun in there, doesn't it?