Rupert is starting to feel at home here. He is actually playing, especially dragging rugs, towels, and anything he can sink his teeth into around the floor, shaking them vigorously in that cute puppy-dog way. Today he refused to stop chewing on the zipper to my Australia jacket and play-bit me whenever I scratched his ears. This is definitely a more relaxed Rupert.
He seems to be everywhere at once and has been stepped on enough times that he won't come near moving feet any more. He wants to be with both me and Walt, but he walks backwards, in front of us, leaping up and back with each step we take. When we stop, for example in the kitchen, he whirls around runs completely around the kitchen counter to behind us and stands there, tail wagging.
He has even started noticing that not all of the people in this house walk on only two legs. I see him, now, occasionally following the big dogs outside, though he doesn't want to be with them nearly as badly as Mabel did. It's more just out of curiosity....
"Oh. Some of the people here are going outside. I wonder what's interesting out there..."
There is one huge (and I do mean "huge") way that Rupert differs from Mabel. Mabel, even though she was a tiny little thing, seemed to know intuitively that there are certain things that you do outside and certain things that you do inside and even though she had a few little "accidents," she housebroke herself pretty much by herself.
Rupert knows that you do certain things outside and certain things inside too, but he includes "elimination" among the things that are OK inside. This morning, for example, I took him outside as soon as I got him up. He leaped at me and leaped at me and finally whirled, ran into the house, peed, and then came back outside again.
Uh...Rupert? Unclear on the concept, puppy!
Mabel would explode before she would poop in her bed. And only in great need would she pee in there either.
Rupert has none of those scruples. In fact, I can pretty much count on his pooping in his bed at night and, if I'm extra unlucky, smearing it all over the place.
The "smearing" is just because he is so quick and so active that he runs through everything, then he stands up against the side of the playpen leaving Jackson Pollack-like poop designs on all the walls. I clean away the worst of it, but it's going to need major scrubbing and it might as well wait until Rupert leaves.
This is the poopiest puppy we've ever had. He's the smallest breed puppy we've had and has bigger poops than any other puppy I can remember. He can't possibly be ingesting as much as he's processing! Yesterday he left a pile that was almost bigger than he was.
Rupert is just a big bundle of love. He would die happy if he could spend the rest of his life curled up in the crook of my arm. I try to give him some cuddle time before I go in to the living room. I'd sleep with him in the recliner all night, but the other dogs need me in the living room (I am an obedient "person").
I'd let Rupert sleep with me, the way Mabel did, but after seeing what his bed looks like when I get up in the morning, there is NO way I want this puppy pooping on me during the night!
He's not really getting along with the other dogs--they are respectful of each other, but he really doesn't interact with them much, except that when he's sleeping in my recliner, Lizzie, who loves sleeping in my recliner, will lay next to him, as far away as possible and still be on the chair.
I tried to get a photo of the two of them sleeping like this for Photo of the Day, but they both heard me turn on the camera and both sat up. The resulting picture is, I think, cuter than what I might have gotten with just the two of them sleeping together, don't you think?
I still don't know if Rupert is going to Petco for adoption tomorrow. He won't be quite as easy to place as a fluffy little puppy, but I hope people can see what a sweetheart he is, because he is a sweetheart (even if I DID just almost fall down because I slipped in a pile of poo in the dark front hall that I didn't see!)
1 comment:
They look caught in the act! They look so cute and suspicious at the same time!
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