The Little Tarter Family: Puppy Time!

Yep. We are officially gluttons for punishments! I was coerced into getting Josh a puppy! Good lord. Josh and Dixie were yearning after a new puppy. I was still recuperating from cleaning the carpets every two weeks and patching holes in my walls daily and not being able to nap for fear that Dixie was chewing up a electrical cord some where or sneaking my shoes outside (or my contact case, pencils, socks, dishtowels, dustpans.... you know) or sneaking off somewhere to wee on the floor. So Josh finds a huge litter of puppies that had been turned into the Yavapai Humane Society. 10 of them! Apparently they were labeled as "hound mixes" which was tempting to me because I had sworn that I would not get a lab. ESPECIALLY A BLACK ONE. I imagined a hound dog to have a closer temperament to Duke off of the Beverly Hill Billies. Or Charlie, the Pioneer womans dog. So Josh asks me and Ann (fellow worker at the salt mines and friend and dog picker outer) to go and "just take a look" (haha). We promptly go to the Humane Society and find these cute little puppies. There are some laying in the back, sleeping ever so quietly, and some chewing on the wire fence. There is a cute little black one at the front. He wiggles and starts chewing on my finger when I pushed it through. I instantly bond and decide he is the only one for me. (bad idea to send me Josh) I go and find the lady and say I want him! so she starts filling out the paperwork. "How will you train him to not chew?" (AHAHAHAHAH lady you have no idea what I have been through with chewing) "How will you train him not to nip? How will you potty train him? Describe your home environment?" (well I have a husband who won't paint our chimney and that annoys me...... and sometimes I nag him about that? so sometimes it can get a little dicey?) Finally after an eternity of filling out paperwork and her explaining how I musn't bathe him for 2 weeks because of his nuetering.......(HAHA he stunk lady and I carefully washed him after 4 days) we headed home to present Josh with his new friend. I had a scary thought pop into my head because the lady had said that someone had adopted a puppy earlier that day and for a second I was terrified that Josh had given in and went and seen the puppies and got one to surprise me. Finally we get home, I took him in and put him on the bed next to sleeping Josh. Josh rolls over. I put the puppy on the other side. Josh groans and doesn't open his eyes. I finally ask.... Ummmmm.... Josh are you going to play with your puppy? He opened his eyes and and was so happy! :) It was so cute. The first night with the puppy was sheer torture. Josh blissfully trotted off to work and I proceeded to put the little baby in bed in a crate. He was not so happy about this arrangement. He howled and shrieked and stomped his little feet and yanked on the wire sides. Finally after an hour he fell asleep. And then he proceeded to wake up every hour and repeat this routine for the whole night. Yep. But other those few hiccups he has been a fairly good little puppy. Dixie and him have complete opposite personalities, he is not scared of anything and she is running under the bed all the time. Hopefully they balance each other out as time goes on!