March 30 — At only twelve weeks old, Truman is already turning on the charm and workin’ it for the camera. If he’s this much of a flirt now, imagine my misery once he gets bigger and starts noticing girls. Heaven help me if he is not neutered early….
Posted in TRUMAN
March 25 — I was doing laundry this evening, and it came time to go downstairs to take my clothes out of the dryers. It was going to be a quick trip, maybe two minutes, so I figured I could put Truman, who’s very good with kennel time, in the soft crate in the living room with a couple of toys.
Apparently, they weren’t the toys he wanted.
I came back to a crate that been not just partially unzipped, but moved from its usual spot. Truman was lying in front of it gleefully chewing all the toys I’d previously taken away from him and put on top of the crate for “under supervision only” time:
Busted.
Posted in Bad Dog NO, TRUMAN
March 24 — I attended a GDA outing with puppy raisers from several area groups, from Union Station on the Gold Line to Pasadena, lunch at Cheesecake Factory (and yet, we ate no cheesecake?), then back to Union Station. Pictured at left: Suzanne with Windsor in front of the MTA Gold Line train.
Truman was too young to attend, so the brave young man had his first overnight stay (at my area leaders’ house) and I borrowed my favorite cuddler, Little Miss Paige.
All the dogs did very well on the train, and it was nice to meet people from different groups — one future puppy raising family brought their two little girls. Here’s a photo of Paige and…Paige.
Human-Paige’s sister Aubrey brought puppies of her own. She made their jackets herself.
I was also happy to see other friends I wasn’t expecting.
The MTA generously gave each of us a free day pass so we had one less expense. Having the pups ride the train was a great way for them to promote public transportation for people with disabilities.
Guide dog user Agustin, who regularly uses MTA, and his dog Shadow (who has her own MTA pass ID badge — look closely at her picture) joined us. Also joining us was a news crew from Spanish-language TV station Univision; all day long we were asked to stop so the camera man could catch up and get a dog’s eye view of our pups in training as they walked past him.
Paige received many “she’s so beautiful” comments, like she always does. It was her first trip on the metro, and aside from pulling a little too enthusiastically and lying down in some gum, she did great.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of the best part: the looks on people’s faces. One woman was unprepared to board a train car where nearly every row contained a floor-riding guest, but it was too late for her to go anywhere once she realized. And there were certainly some surprised restaurant patrons when we all got up to leave and a dozen or so dogs emerged from under the table.
Posted in O.P.P. (other people's pups)
March 21 — Truman accompanied me to work for the very first time. I’d like to say it was an easy transition, but it seemed forces were conspiring against us.
I knew it was going to be a challenge, bringing such a frequent piddler to a place where the door to the outside is, what, seventeen miles away from my desk? The nearest exit-to-pee-spot is a sprint to the door of the office suite, out into the hallway, down the stairs, across the lobby to another set of doors, through another hallway, up a few more stairs and finally, FINALLY outside.
I’d been planning to use this one bit of landscaping on the side of my office building since the day I first took a dog there. The older, “street legal” pups could use the grassy areas, but I wanted to find a spot where there were fewer neighborhood visitors. It’s a perfect little patch — away from office windows (“Sorry about the pooping dog, Mrs. Johnson. Shall we discuss your upcoming surgery?”), on a side street instead of busy Wilshire Boulevard, containing a big enough packed-dirt area to be minimally distractive in terms of leaves and twigs and rocks, not directly in view of passersby.
Turns out, however, CalTrans had other ideas. I got Truman to work and took him out to get busy immediately, successfully navigating the halls, stairs, lobby and doors, only to arrive outside to the sounds of jackhammers and construction equipment. Thirty workers or so, stomping around yelling orders to each other over the din. Orange cones and yellow caution tape. Utter earsplitting chaos. There could not be a scenario less conducive to a peaceful potty break. I mean, hey — I wouldn’t want to pee there, either.
But we pressed on. I plopped little Truman down amongst the landscaping…and the mud. And because I have to relieve him while he’s on leash, somehow keeping him from eating every molecule of matter off the ground and nearby plant life, I had to stand in there with him. So my boots — the ones that go with my warmest sweater, which I had worn in anticipation of the promised rare chilly day in Southern California — also collected deep tread wells full of that mud. I thought the long walk around the building back to the entrance (we can’t go back in our exit door, unfortunately) would work it out before we went back inside, but it was not to be. Many were the chunks of dried mud upon the office carpet in my cubicle. Many, and according to Truman, delicious.
He didn’t have to pee, or so he led me to believe after 15 minutes of my most diligent effort. Nope, didn’t have to pee…until we went all the way around the building and back inside.
So I did the circuit once again, by this time sweating profusely in the aforementioned warmest sweater, carrying a wiggling-and-hopefully-not-spraying puppy, back through the lobby and into the whaddaya-know-it’s-going-to-be-80-degrees-today weather. And don’t get me started on the ridiculous winds we were having, which did more to whip Truman into a frenzy than anything else I’ve seen thus far. Still, he peed like a champ, not nearly as concerned with the construction as with whatever swirling foliage he could get into his mouth.
This happened several times throughout the day. How much work did I get done? I feel like I should give back part of my paycheck.
Posted in TRUMAN
Posted in TRUMAN
Yes, I know it’s sideways, and no, there’s no way to fix it. The new-and-allegedly-improved Blogger is buggy in this area, and will all of a sudden only post my portrait photos as landscape. More reasons Google is evil, I’m afraid. I’ll go back and fix it when they figure out the bug.
So, turn your head to the right and look how cute we are! Happy Easter from me, Truman, and apparently someone’s hiney:
March 19 — Our first night at puppy kindergarten class was…mellow. Truman had just had his nine-week puppy shot, so he was deceptively calm and gave no resistance when I cradled him.
No resistance whatsoever. Nighty-night, little man.
Posted in TRUMAN
Here are a few more photos. This first one shows Truman in his Happy Place by the door, on the blue rug, snoozing contentedly in modified belly-up position. This is a great showcase for his fancy collar, by the way; Denise made matching collars for Truman and Tai. The collars also perfectly match their GDA jackets. And as soon as Denise gets her website up, we’ll be sure to link here so EVERYONE can wear such attractive accessories!
This is the bunny that came home with Truman as part of his “puppy kit.” A stuffed animal meant as a little comfort item to snuggle with on his first night away from his littermates, the bunny quickly became a target for The Teeth That Know No Rest. He once wore a cute little bow around his neck. A mere two weeks later, it may now be said of bunny that he also once wore a cute little nose.
And this seems to be one of Truman’s favorite toys — a tiny, smiling stuffed carrot (perhaps he is taunting the bunny with it?). It’s one of my favorites as well, so I took a picture of it for posterity, before it is inevitably Trumanated. He’s figured out that it squeaks, and loves to carry it around the house. He’s almost too big for it these days….
Because I’ve been so remiss in blogging — and because puppies grow so quickly — I’ll catch you up with some photos from our first few days together.
Truman on the balcony, on a sunny SoCal day:
Truman in his Happy Place, near said balcony:
And Truman in his toy basket, looking a bit like a catalog model:
Posted in TRUMAN
As if the new puppy weren’t enough of a time filler, I’ve also been experiencing technical difficulties that have precluded me from regular blogging. Technical difficulties of the “re-installation of operating system” kind. And while it’s been a fine opportunity to re-organize the ol’ hard drive, the systematic re-installations of said OS and the rest of my software have proven time-consuming to the point of…well, I’m tired.
The sleep deprivation that comes with a whiny infant pee machine is also unhelpful in this regard.
That having been said, I have finally been able to download a few more photos and find a few moments to blog (special thanks to Wrio’s people, who are hosting wee Truman at their home for an overnight visit, that I may sleep in past the unholy hour of 5:30 A.M. tomorrow). Watch this space over the next few days for some catch-up posts.
Meanwhile, I leave you with this:
Posted in TRUMAN
I'm Jenny. You may recognize me as the one with the opposable thumbs.
LabradorRodeo 