Maggie the Mugger

It's a little after 11pm on Friday the 13th, and we have just discovered that our puppy is a felon. Yes, 19 week old Maggie committed the most heinous of all puppy criminal acts: she mugged a four year old. Nadja and I bought a pay-per-view movie "Babel" and as the credits were rolling, we awoke our three "daughters" from their naps to herd them outside one last time. Immediately after closing the door, they began barking fiercely at a man and his two little boys walking past the house. Shadow and Hannah came back in quickly, but Maggie, smarty that she is, has learned she can slide like Joe Mauer right under the fence. When she didn't return with the other two, I knew where she'd be found.
She was happily munching on a carrot that she'd mugged the four year old for. In his fear for his son, the man told him to give her the carrot so she wouldn't bite him. I was mortified! Anyone who has every met Maggie even in passing would know that she loves EVERYONE. She has never met someone she didn't immediately LOVE! The brother of the mugging victim walks past every day on his way to and from school, and tried to explain the sweet and loving nature of our girls to his brother and father. Alas, they wouldn't listen, and Maggie was rewarded for scaring the Holy Hell out of some dude and son with a carrot. How am I supposed to discipline that?!!? "Dad gets mad when I run out of the yard, but all his yelling can't compare to getting food and love from strangers!" I'm at a loss with my felon puppy. If she were human, she'd be on her way to jail right now, so at least there's the fact she's not to be happy about.
Along with tonight's adventure in criminality, she's committed, recently, the most common of all puppy crimes: shoe destruction. All I can say for this is that at least there weren't MY shoes...sorry sweetie. C'est la vie! She's Hannah's size now, so I have to constantly remind myself she's just a baby. This fact is sweetly driven home each afternoon as she curls up on my lap for her nap. I know you will all disagree, but I believe Maggie is one of the most loved puppies on this great blue planet. She has two sisters who love her very much, two 'parents' who dote on and adore her, and a huge, HUGE network of our loving friends and family. She is truly blessed to be giving us the blessing of her. We're very thankful for her, Hannah, and Shadow, along with the many, many other blessings we've had bestowed on us. I think she's thankful for us too. Except for this very moment, as she is again destroying one of Nadja's shoes and getting yelled at by mom. We still love you Maggie.

New pics! Four months old!

She's probably close to 25 lbs in these pictures, but she has gained even more since they were taken almost a week ago! Her ears, especially, are getting longer and floppier (and more adorable, of course!)

Longer, Taller, yet still somehow sweet....

So Maggie is growing quickly and occasionally overnight. Saturday morning I swear she'd grown 2 inches longer and at least an inch taller. Nadja agreed. She is nearly Hannah's size, but has 3 times the attitude. Why is it that the smaller the dog the bigger the attitude? They have NO idea they're small. Just this afternoon, she was right there in the corner of the yard yapping her growing head off at a huge dog walking past. This is always done with what has become a familiar mantra at our end of the block; my screaming at them "Oh, shut up! No one cares what you think!!!" This gets chuckles from dog walking neighbors and odd "Get the man a straight-jacket" looks from bus-waiters (we have a stop in front of the house). Maggie is a digger, we were too last fall...so now we have lots of dirt...I mean mud for her to play with. For those who've lost count...we now have 12, yes count them, 12 paws to clean and dry now. Stupid or crazy? But, we're in love. As much with our three 'daughters' as with each other. It makes you do crazy things. Like bring new furniture into the house (see houseblog). As far as Maggie is concerned, life is great. She is the single most affectionate spirit I've ever come into physical or ethereal contact with, hands-down. She has all the kisses in the world for anyone who'll accept them be they white, black, orange or green, two or four legged. She is also entering into the wonderful "2 year old phase". For those who've forgotten...she's starting to challenge authority. On that note I'll say that I'm incredibly happy that we made the puppy decision before we had kids...well before. I'd need lots of good drugs otherwise.

Long time no blog...

So, there's been alot going on in the last couple of weeks. The basement kitchen is nearly done, the rest of the basement now has it's subfloor. Tonight it will get insulation. These are the reasons that all has been very quiet on the puppyblog front...sorry. So, Maggie is now 13 weeks old, and very much over her kennel cough. She briefly passed it onto Shadow, who in turn, through frequent visits, passed it onto my mom's dog Toots. On a positive note, going to the vet for the kennel cough brought about the discovery of a narrow trachea and some sort of liver disorder that has apparently been there for a number of years. The puppy-raising skills are still different between Nadja and myself, but we're also learning to work as a team. Maggie has discovered an extremely fun new game. This involves running away as fast as possible when asked to come back into the house after being let outside. The only way to end this game seems to be to just walk back into the house and send Shadow and Hannah out to fetch her. This brings me to the newest bit of news in Maggie's world: she has started puppy classes! Yes, a couple days ago she made her first trek to the Twin Cities Obedience Training Center. In week one of classes, homework included luring her into a sit position (mastered), learning not to pull on the leash (almost there), letting go of toys when asked (working on it), sitting quietly at our feet when needed (she's a puppy), and letting strangers pet her without jumping up or shying away (mastered). She seemed to love puppy play time and was quick to tell everyone that she was the queen bee of the group, but not in an aggressive way. Her personality is coming out a little more everyday, and she is one of the happiest, most curioius, generally well behaved and intelligent dogs I have ever met. Believe it or not, I say this with complete unbias. She loves to play with her older sisters, and they are both doing a phenomenal job of teaching her how to be a good dog. She is taking to the house training well, and our newest 'problem' is chewing everything in sight. Shoes, chairs, rugs, plants, Shadow, Hannah, leashes, even her own knees are fair game. It seems that the bigger her mouth grows, the larger her available chewing apparatus. As I write, she is terrorizing Shadow and Hannah in the Game room on the 3rd floor, and they are ganging up on her. This is an amazing development, since Hannah is lower than Shadow on the ladder, and until recently, she would aquiesce to Shadow in all Maggie related matters. Now she is confident in her position and ability to discipline and play with Maggie, and Shadow seems to definetely approve of the occasional reprieve from 'puppy play duty'. Hopefully life will allow time to write more sooner rather than later!

New Puppy PICS!!

Bureacracy ruins yet another surprise...

As I am right now working from 6 am to 2:30 pm on a remodel at a local grocery store I find it has some conveniences. One being an early quitting time to run errands, but more importantly, that if we need something for that night or next morning, the only stop I make is on my way out to the truck. Today I decided to surprise Nadja at work with a single red rose, a card, some healthy at-desk snacks, and Maggie. The rose, card, and snacks went over well, but the puppy was not allowed by policy. In my haste to surprise my darling fiancee, I overlooked bureacracy. While being absolutely understanding and gracious about the whole thing, Nadja's boss let us know that animals of any kind (except for official assistance, I'm assuming) are not allowed in any building on the grounds. The same goes for children apparently too now, a recent development. After getting doted on at Nadja's office, Maggie then headed to the bank where she received oohs, aahs, and a drive-thru tube doggie bone. After a quick stop at my parents' to pick up a greatly appreciated dinner for Nadja and I and much love for Maggie, we were off yet again. This time to the same Humane Society from which she came to pick up Maggie's antibiotics for her sinus infection. She was well worn out from all of this love and travel and quickly fell asleep in my lap on the drive home. I know, she should be protected, but I find that I drive much more carefully if I have her with me (even though I know they don't call them accidents for nothing). She was coughing so much last night that I think I was lucky to have gotten 3 hours of sleep. It's only 8:12, and we're already in the get-ready-for-bed process. Thankfully Maggie seems to be quickly taking to potty training, though I'm sure it's not said and done for at least a couple of weeks.

We have one sick Puppy...now named Maggie!

We have settled on Maggie!!! This morning when I woke up at five minutes to five, she was hacking up what I thought was literally a lung. She was wheezing, coughing, and actually blowing little snot bubbles. It was cute for about half a second, then (what I hope will be) a strong paternal instinct kicked in and I was worried that our little ball of energy wouldn't make it to day three. I sometimes write little love notes to Nadja on our refrigerator's dry erase board, and this mornings was allllll Maggie related. We made our free appointment (compliments of adopting through the Humane Society) and took her in to see the doc. After nearly an hour and a pretty thorough exam, he said he thought that it was a combination of a viral and bacterial respiratory infection. He also said he thought it was entirely sinus related and with some antibiotics and time should get better within two weeks. For the heavy, sleep interrupting cough, he gave us a suppressant that should help quite a bit...we'll see. The potty training is going exceedingly well. She's already starting to tell us when it's time by either crying softly while circling, or by going and standing by the back door. I'm am SO hoping that we'll be done with this in a couple of weeks, I'm already tired of stalking her through the house waiting for the squat. If anyone has any advice for nurturing the middle dog child, I'm all ears. Hannah is 4, Shadow is 10, and Hannah is having a harder time adjusting. Shadow gets all maternal and protective of Maggie if Hannah barks at her. Hannah is definetely subordinate to Shadow and so obeys almost all commands Shadow puts out. She definetely plays more when Shadow isn't in the room to interfere, but we can't keep the 3 of them segregated at every play time!

The first 24 hours...

So, this is the first post as new puppy parents. This is also my first attempt at blogging, so please bear with me. Nadja has given the short version of the puppy story, I'll expand it. After Nadja found the yellow lab and dropped him off at the Humane Society on Sunday, she called me to let me know they had six Bernese mixed puppies. The only words I said were "I'll be right there." My mom came with me ( I was working on HER house), and all three of us fell in love with one of the females. On Monday, Nadja took an extended lunch hour and I left school early to see how the pup was at her first interactions. We fell even more in love and decided to come back that Monday night with Shadow and Hannah to introduce them to their prospective tormentor. Puppies under 6 months generally don't have their full vaccinations yet, so aren't allowed out on walks or even to touch the floor of the Humane Society, so the meeting was verboten. Nadja snuck our dogs back into the hallway outside of the puppy room and after a few minutes, cajoled me into bringing the pup to the door to meet our dogs. After said meeting, I took them back outside, and got yelled at by the staff. I guess Nadja and I are partners in crime afterall... So, we placed a deposit down on the little cutie and went home to ruminate. As I was working on some sheetrock in the basement, Nadja announced that she was sorry and didn't want the puppy afterall. I was heart-broken, but had a job to do in the basement, so discussion was delayed. After much agonizing and feeling depressed on Tuesday, Nadja called me at 3:30 to say that she thought we should do it. I was practically doing backflips! So at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, we adopted a yet to be named, adorable, rambuncious yet mellow, sweet-heart of a furball. She slept all through her first night and gave us a full evening of fun and laughter tonight. As I write she is sleeping peacefully in her crate, and Shadow and Hannah are revelling in the peace and quiet of our bedroom. As for her name, we've decided we like: Calli, Maddi (Madeline), Zoe, Heidi, Sasha, Sophie, and we're completely open to suggestions. Nadja has never had the "pleasure" of new puppy motherhood, since Hannah was a little older when she was adopted. I got Shadow when she was 10 weeks old (same as our un-named cutie), so I've been through the experience. Our puppy raising styles are already apparently different, so 'tis another compromise in life. We're both very excited and happy to be sharing this experience, but feeling the squeeze as it applies to adding this little furball into our already established pack. Shadow and Hannah were barely used to sharing Nadja's and my attentions with each other and between us. Now they have this third "thing" to figure out and vie for love with, though we love them all equally as you veteran parents ( of puppies and people) know. Thank you for your suggestions, and we look forward to any advice as we share this extra journey with you. God only knows how much we'll get done on the house this week with the pup to train...