Are You Barking at ME?

There's no other explanation for it. Munchkin has temper tantrums.

The good thing is that I'm getting used to them, so they don't bother me any more.

This puppy only wants to do one of three things:

• sleep on my shoulder or in my arms;

• bite any part of my body that he can connect with; or

• cry

The crying bothered me at first. As displayed in that audio clip I posted a couple of days ago, his cry is loud, plaintive and gut wrenching.

Over time you get used to it!

Tonight I put him in my recliner when we went to have dinner. Now, he isn't afraid to jump (or fall) from great heights, but for some reason he won't jump off of my chair, so he walks across the table between the two recliners to Walt's and tries to get enough nerve to jump off of that one.

Only tonight, nerve failed him, so he sat there having a first rate temper tantrum. Two days ago I would have picked him up. Today I just kept on eating. He eventually did jump off. Then he attacks my bare feet or tries to play tug of war with my pants leg, leaving holes in the cloth.

Lord, this is a difficult puppy, though we are making progress today. Up until now Russell and Scrappy have either given him a wide berth, or snarled and tried to attack him. Today they actually started playing a little, chasing each other around the house and even out into the back yard.

I felt like a mother whose toddler had gone down for a nap. A free few minutes!

He also has discovered toys and today was carrying around a teddy bear and playing tug-of-war with it and Russell.

Wow...look at those boobs!

I thought I had the sleeping thing licked the first night, when I finally gave in and brought him to the couch with me and the other two puppies, but last night was a total disaster. By the time I was ready to sleep, he had been sleeping and was ready to PLAY. All the other dogs were ready for sleep and the pack of us went into the living room.

Russell came up onto the couch and settled at my feet. Scrappy decided to sleep with Sheila along the edge of the couch. Lizzie got into "her" chair. I put Munchkin on my shoulder, and he leaped off onto Russell, who growled and snarled. So I tried to create a demilitarized zone. Everything below my waist belonged to Russell. Everything above my waist belonged to Munchkin. Russell was fine with that. Munchkin was unclear on the concept.

When I wouldn't let him go below my waist, he climbed up to the table that Lizzie sleeps on in the day and promptly fell off onto his head behind the couch. Then he got lost and set up another temper tantrum. I called and called and he finally found me by following my voice and we tried again.

It quickly became apparent that this was not working. I was doing more policing and not at all sleeping, so I decided to try the recliner.

I got up, carrying Munchkin, followed by both Russell and Scrappy. Soon all four of us were cuddled on the recliner. Munchkin was finally settling down and the other two were sound asleep. Only my legs were screaming. This was "restless leg syndrome with puppies." I had a dog on each leg and I couldn't move if I wanted to. I lasted about 30 minutes and finally I couldn't stand it any more and moved the whole group back to the couch, where we started all over again, except that after Munchkin fell off the couch one more time, he finally settled down.

(I was too sleepy to wonder if he had just knocked himself out finally)

Things went well and then my damn body woke me up at 4 a.m. This time Russell stayed asleep on the couch, the other two dogs didn't even move, and Scrappy joined Munchkin and me on the the recliner, after a brief trip outside for peeing.

Good lord, I don't know what tonight is going to be like.

I'm trying to like this puppy, but he makes it difficult. I know that as he gets older it will get easier. He's already chewing on me less, as each time he sinks one of those razor sharp canines into my wrist I yelp loudly and grab him by the scruff of his neck and pull him off. Two times doing that and he stops biting, briefly. He'll get there eventually, if I don't kill him first.

The proof of the pudding is Scrappy. I am growing so fond of this little puppy. He came here afraid of his shadow and nobody could get near him. Now he has become my shadow. He's the one that goes everywhere with me while Russell is off doing other things. He loves sleeping in my lap, or coming up under my desk to be petted and he'll even let Walt pet him as long as he's in my lap.

I know that I'll get to that point with Munchkin, but we both have a way to go before we reach that stage.