We’ve had our puppy for over a week now and although the adjustment has been a big one, all of us are doing fine. The puppy no longer cries (except at night) and doesn’t look scared anymore; I think he has accepted us as his new family.  In fact I think he is downright comfortable since he now barks, growls and tries to chew on everything (including us).  We are starting to recognize his moods and signals that he wants to eat, potty, play or be left alone.  Except my daughter…she doesn’t like when he wants to be left alone.  Since we got the puppy, every waking moment she is playing with him.  Until they both collapse, like this:

They stayed asleep together for over an hour.

I had my first chaotic moment with the puppy while at home alone.  First, I had been noticing that he was scooting his butt on the floor.  Next, when I took him outside to potty, he couldn’t go, even though he tried for over 15 minutes.  Finally I noticed that he had a wood chip stuck to his butt, or rather the wood chip was stuck to poop that was hanging out of his butt.   I put some gloves on and tried to wipe it off, only to find that it wouldn’t come off because it was halfway in/halfway out.  I called the vet in a panic and they told me to come in.  Here’s where I broke down and actually started to cry as I had to figure out how to get the dog in my car with poop all over his butt.  I thought that I had a brilliant idea: I took a pee-pee pad and tried to fashion a diaper out of it with scotch tape.  It’s funny now and I wish that it had been filmed, but I wasn’t laughing as the puppy tried to run away from my efforts.   The diaper idea didn’t work, so in the end I just wrapped the pee-pee pad around his butt and placed him on a towel in the front seat.  Which presented me with another dilemma: how do I drive and make sure the puppy doesn’t get poop all over my car seat?  I couldn’t put his special car seat belt harness on because of the poop, so I held him down with one hand and drove with the other.  It was truly a comedy of errors, but we arrived at the vet safely and without poop all over my car.   He stayed there all day and came back with a vet bill of $246.82.  That was a big “Hello; welcome to puppy parenthood!” day for me.

I gave him a bath.  He didn’t like that at all; we both emerged soaking wet.  I have started brushing his teeth and he does like that because it is poultry-flavored toothpaste.

And finally, finally the puppy got a name.  Every member of my family is so opinionated so it took a full week of daily conversation to name our puppy.  My daughter wanted Chewbacca (Chewy),  my son wanted Ferris (Bueller),  my husband wanted Bugsy (Malone) and I wanted to name him Groovy.   We spent considerable time trying to get each other to agree on our favorite name: we sorted and voted, twittered and live-streamed.  Finally we agreed on….Chili Dawg.  So that’s his name, Chili Dawg–the Dawg spelling is a nod to his good ‘ole country boy roots.  Ha ha!  I also call him Chili Man, Chili Willie , Chili Bear or Chili Sauce (you know, from The Time).

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The other day I was doing some work at the computer and my son was doing his homework, so Girly was left to her own devices.  That’s when she gets creative….which can sometimes mean a mess or something wonderful like this piece of art that she made for her friend’s birthday.  She dug around in the the recycling bin for the materials.

It’s that wonderful?  

Such an artist, that girl!

© 2009, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

I just love this video; Anita Renfroe, a fabulously funny comedienne and a member of my church, made this song.  Even if you are not a mother, you will laugh at all the things your mother used to say to you:

© 2009, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

Every morning my daughter artfully arranges her stuffed animals when she makes up her bed.  Everyday it’s different and she can tell you why she puts each one where she does.  There’s sort of a hierarchy involved too.

Do you see the different poses?  They look like they are having conversations, a la Toy Story style. 

I think some of them have dominance issues.  There’s a story there for sure.

© 2009, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

We finally did it.  I blogged about wanting a dog and we adopted a dog from the shelter that didn’t work out, but finally on Saturday we drove out the country and got Puppy.  

I thought I was prepared.  Unlike the carefree (“how hard can this be?”) attitude I had with the shelter dog, I did my homework this time.  I read 4 books on puppy training and dog psychology, I googled and researched the internet for weeks, I watched countless hours of The Dog Whisperer, I talked to everyone I knew and strangers too about having a new puppy and I shopped for pet supplies in advance.   I typed up a puppy schedule, posted house rules on the refrigerator and held a family meeting explaining all that I had learned.  I rolled up all the area rugs, pinned up the curtains and covered the electrical cords.  Lastly we assembled the crate, but the toys in the basket and drove the 1 1/2 hours out to Royston, Georgia.

My first indication that this was going to be more difficult than I thought was when we first saw the puppies….they were so little; this is a baby!  And like a baby he cries at night and often during the day for no reason at all.  He hates his crate, just like my kids hated their crib or any confinement; the crying and wailing are so familiar, but something that I haven’t dealt with for a long time.

And just like that, I am taken back to the early days of motherhood….those days when it was a good day if I was able to bathe, dress and eat something.

Yesterday within a span of an hour Puppy had 3 pee accidents, 2 poop accidents and vomited.   All this while I am learning that the elementary school is closed because of storm power outage, but the junior high is still open.  I must instantly rewrite my day and set the bar way low.  Forget exercising and all the other things on my To Do list; my goals for the day are to shower and dress, take Puppy to the vet and watch Puppy like a hawk to prevent anymore accidents.  

The vet visit went well; Puppy slept through most of it, but I found out the source of the vomiting–tapeworms and parasites.  Grrrreat….let’s add forcing a pill down Puppy’s throat every morning to my ever-growing list of Puppy Duties.   

He’s really asleep on the examining table.

But oooh, just look at that face; he looks like a stuffed animal and is just so cuddly! 

The kids love him too.  My daughter won’t ever let him sleep, poor thing, or if he does it’s in her arms like a baby.  

Honestly I already love his little furry self and so happy that we got him; I’m just a little sleep deprived and thrown off-balance.   Kinda like having a baby–exhausted and elated at the same time.  But just like early motherhood, I know it’s only a matter of time before Puppy potties outside on a regular, stops crying and learns to like his crate.  In the meantime, I might be kinda scarce on Funkidivagirl.com, Twitter, 12 Seconds and YouTube.  If you happen to catch me somewhere in the social media world, please give me a shout and a wave.

Oh, in case you are wondering, no, Puppy doesn’t have a name yet.   We posted this 12 Second video on Twitter asking for votes.  So far Paddington, Astro, Quincy and Ziggy have the most votes.  Since then we have added Niko and Spanky to the list.  Chewy (Chewbacca) was suggested often and we like it also.  We have to decide by the end of this week; I refuse to to go back to the vet next week with “New Pet” as his name there.  

Please leave a comment if you have a vote or any suggestions; we need help!

© 2009, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.