Hell's Belles or It's not you. It's me.

So I would have LOVED to show you a cute little picture of Belle being all kind and sweet. But this is more how she is. A blur. She does have her kind and sweet moments but pretty much from the time her sleepiness wears off after a nap (which is around a minute and a half) until we turn off the lights at night and lock her in the laundry room ... she's non-stop.

I took her to the vet for her final round of puppy shots and her rabies shot yesterday after Grace got out of school. I had taken her in my car each time until yesterday. I STARTED in the care but quickly realized the futility of that by the time we reached the mailbox and turned around for the truck. She rode in the back. With the deer blood. Nice.

She weighed 20 lbs at the vet. Well, we THINK she weighed 20 lbs. She would barely sit still long enough for the scale to register. It took two vet techs to give her her shots. She's a handful.

We have really been making an effort to take her on several walks a day which with the time change has grown more and more difficult. We are off today so she's been on two walks already. I still had to give her a time out in the laundry room just now for my own sanity. NOW she's napping. I have about ten minutes of peace and quiet before all hell breaks loose and it all starts again.

My problem is once again summed up in a Seinfeld episode ... I have no hand. You can watch the clip here   Upper Hand  and you'll understand immediately. Actually, I've NEVER had any hand. After dozens of junior high and high school kids during my three long dog years of teaching HS English, now somewhere around the fifth pet, a husband and a kid of my own you would THINK that somewhere along the way I would have acquired the necessary skills or at least come across some voodoo hypnosis tricks to ensure some minute amount of hand. Nope. No hand. Handless.

Grace and Belle both mind Bryon without question or fussing. I might as well be invisible. In fact, sometimes I wonder if maybe I'm not. One day years ago after an especially trying seventh grade, seventh hour English class I told the class in frustration, "What am I invisible? No, that can't be the case, I can hear myself talking. I can see myself. Yet, no one in this room is listening to me." I was literally saved by the bell.

The counselor's office was right next door to my classroom and the principal's office was across the hall. I walked into the counselor's office where several of my soldiers in arms were already gathered for our daily bitch and moan session after school. I walked in and one of them said, "Has anyone seen Mrs. Medley? She must be invisible."

Har de har har.

Still that was the perfect example of my complete inability to bend people of animals to my will. I could never be a politician ... or a coach ... or a lot of things.

If there was a conference I could go to so I could achieve hand on a regular basis, I would happily pay up.

I am signing up to take Belle to obedience class in Rogersville starting January 25. I figure it can't hurt.

I just hope we both survive until then.

Attack of the Mums - Day 12 of 31 Days of Blogging

Okay, so I'm cheating a little today with some puppy cuteness. Hey use it if you got it I say. One thing about a puppy is every day is a new adventure. Today Belle discovered ice cubes and bouncy flowers.

For Belle, everything is coming up mums right now.

Appetite for Destruction - Day 11 of 31 Days of Blogging

Today was Belle's first day home alone. I puppy proofed the laundry room for her and left her with food, water, paper on the tile, six dog toys and a pissy cat overseeing the situation like a big sister left in charge. We have a lot of wood in our house. Wood trim, wood wall in that room, wood door and wood vanity.  That's a whole lot of puppy temptation.

Day one was a complete success. She peed on the newspaper and didn't destroy anything. I'm pretty sure we got lucky, still I'm hopeful that one of the other pups in her litter got all the Marley genes. We saw one in particular, a boy, who had a whole lot of that potential just oozing from his pores. Fifteen years ago we would have totally chosen him. Mercifully, now we know to leave him to someone else.

We chose the laziest runt of the litter this time and it's already paying off. Last evening we all three took Belle for her first big walk through our woods along the trail Bryon made last year. We were trying to wear her down so she'd sleep better. It really wasn't all that long a walk; maybe 3/4 of a mile or so but her belly drug the ground in most places and it was pretty much a continual obstacle course for a 7 week old puppy.

She did pretty well but took a lot of breaks. Anytime Bryon or Grace stopped to pick up an acorn to pelt at one another, she took a little break. She's big on breaks.

The first night we were up with her every 90 to 120 minutes. She whined. We came and took her outside. She did her business. Repeat.

Last night I took her food and water away at 8:30 when Grace went to bed and she did a lot better. Bryon and I both got up with her 3 times each. A couple of times she faked us out and didn't do any business but still she did okay and with minimal whining. Tonight, it's raining so I'm a little skeptical about her going out to do any business in the rain.

The moon has been so full and bright the past few nights it's been sort of cool to be out there for a little bit. Last night I heard something scurrying around over by the chicken coop as Belle was finishing up and coming back up onto the porch. She got back to me just in time for two little skunks to skitter across the front lawn in a little skunk parade about 30 feet from us. I was glad Belle was oblivious. If she'd given chase, we might all have been having tomato juice baths last night.

Things have already been much, much different with this little dog than with Ruger. Poor Ruger just didn't have a chance with our family. We were not a good fit. My heart turned hard against him pretty quickly. Mostly because he was an idiot and a furry pinball. HE was a Marley in a Brittany Spaniel suit.

We broke out the books on labradors we have collected over the years and Bryon's ready to start training her. She's much smarter already and reminded us immediately what it was like when we first got Briar and Daisy all those years ago. I think we got Briar in 1993 right before I quit teaching. He used to sleep in our kingsize waterbed between us with his head on one of our pillows as he breathed hot dog breath on us all night. He also snored. And farted. We found it endearing.

I don't plan to have dog hair in my bed anymore. I have cat hair. Pansy sleeps on us most nights. She makes the rounds. I don't forsee her sleeping with Belle anytime soon. She has been establishing the rules. I worked from home on Monday and Belle slept under the table while I worked. Pansy sat on top of it and growled and hissed all day.

She was making a point. Unfortunately Belle is still oblivious to that point. I have a feeling she'll find out soon enough.

I know we'll have our share of chewing and destruction. This is probably the calm before the storm but for now we are just enjoying the newest member of our family. Well, most of us are. Sorry Pansy. We all know you are really the boss.

Meet Belle - Day 8 of 31 Days of Blogging

 Meet Belle. Our new chocolate lab baby girl. She was a surprise today. We had no intention of getting a new dog this weekend but our friends the Hugglers were at Wally World and saw these guys in the parking lot for sale.

We were planning on getting a yellow female but this little one was the runt of the litter and oh so cute. We've had a yellow lab (Daisy) and a black lab (Briar) but never a chocolate so Bryon and Grace out voted me and we came home with the chocolate. It wasn't much of a hardship.

Right now she's asleep on top of Bryon while he watches Huskers football on the couch.

I'm sure it will be a long, long, long night of whining which will start very soon. And then there's the getting up to take her out every couple of hours. 

She's a couple of days shy of eight weeks old and will probably end up being about the size Daisy was.

 

Life around the Medley house is about to get shook up again.  I'm just praying she's lazy. Very, very lazy :)