Puppy Love, Part 1

Now we. know what they mean by the term “puppy love”! It has been all of three days, and we are fully in love with this fur-ball. She shows us new ways to see the world. She make us smile three times before breakfast. And she is affectionate, and clearly bonding to us quite well. In short, she is a delight.

We are carefully filling out a journal of when she pees and poops, when she eats, when she sleeps. Every burp and fart is documented. But it’s kind of fun. She has been introduced to many people, but no dogs (yet). And she had her first visit with the vet today, which went well.

(Now picking this up on April 15) Finding the time to write this blog has been a challenge. This pup is fun, witty, clever, but time-consuming (like a new baby). And, of course, we are not the same age as we were when we had the babies. Between taking her outside for her pees and poops, feeding her, getting her ready for bed, playing with her, cleaning up after she pees on the floor, and so on - there isn’t a lot of time left when we want to be awake and working.

And we had our first trauma with her. Three days ago, we took her on a 20-km ride to see how she would do. Not surprisingly, she threw up—once on the way there, and once on the way back. So we decided that was too long, so we tried a shorter (3 km each way) trip. Again, she threw up twice. Then she stopped eating and drinking, and we got worried. But maybe she would be okay, so we gave it the night to see. The next morning, she was lethargic, and we phoned the vet. Bring her in, she said, and we did. At that point, we realized just how much she had become a part of our lives already. We were scared of losing her, and waited anxiously for the vet’s call. Dr. Whelan called and said she was dehydrated, but probably not seriously infected (no fever). We thought maybe she had eaten some walnut stuff. But she had lost about 12% of her body weight! And for a pup that only weighs 8 lbs, that’s a lot to lose.

They gave her 150 ml of fluid sub-cutaneously and kept her for several hours. The staff were great, including carrying her in a make-shift front pouch. She was happy, but happy to be back home. And you can imagine how relieved we were to have her back. That afternoon, when she was feeling better, we invited our friend Margot to come over with her dog Midas (a full-sized Golden Retriever) for a doggie visit. They had a great time.

That was actually the second dog she had met since being here. We have to be careful: only fully-vaccinated dogs are allowed, since Lily doesn’t have all her shots yet. But there was a little miniature poodle from the neighbourhood (Pearl) who was walking by the other day, and they met.

And we’ve had a visit from our dog trainer lady (Cathy), who said we were on the right track so far. Hopefully, she will keep us on the narrow road to victory with this pup. 

And several visits from friends who have dropped by (with social distancing) to visit the new baby. It’s been a busy time. Right now, she is alseep at my feet, which is a favoured place to be (for both of us). Soon she will get another trip outdoors and some food, then perhaps a sleep again. A dog’s life is a hard one.

Puppy Time

To be fair, this started with a cat. I had wanted a dog for some time, but was reluctant to push it, knowing that Darlene (and I) were so upset when we had to put our last dog down, 15 years ago. And we were working, so time was not too abundant.

Thant changed over the past year. We are both retired at present. And the pandemic has prevented us from visiting friends or having people over. Plus, everyone seemed to have a dog. So we began to think about it again. Darlene felt a kitten would be enough for her, and they were easier to come by, but I was opposed, and wanted a puppy. After all, it was easy, wasn’t it? just call the SPCA and go and pick one out. But it turns out the pandemic has changed that as well. Now, even with the SPCA, you have to fill out the application, and almost get a police check. And that’s for a 12-year-old dog who is blind in one eye! Even thought, we tried, and failed.

Through a friend at our Tai Chi classes, we learned of a breeder of Golden Doodles (cross between a poodle and a golden lab), from whom she got her dog, and of whom she had high praise. And her dog is well-behaved, and lovely. So we contacted them, paid a deposit, got through the initial interview to check our worthiness, and waited. And waited. Finally, in late 2020, one of her dogs got pregnant, and our pup was born in a litter of ten, on February 3, 2021. That meant we would have a pup in late March. We had a deadline, and worked towards it. A few trips to the Dollar Store, and a few to Pet Valu. Also some searching for second-hand things from the web (FaceBook Marketplace), and from friends, and we thought we were pretty ready. Darlene, the researcher, went on ahead of me to read what she could about raising a puppy: you see, we had never had a puppy, since Buddy was adopted at the age of 11 months. We were nervous, but felt we were up to it.

The breeder had one down side: she live north of Durham, Ontario (a two-hour drive from here). So we decided, rather than go both ways the same day, we would go up the night before, stay in a motel, and the next morning, get our pup early and head home. We stayed at Lilas Villa Inn in Flesherton, run by an Indian couple and their son. Very nice people, they provided us with a dinner to take in our room (because of the pandemic, their restaurant was closed), and we had a pretty good night’s sleep. 

The morning of April 3, we were up early, got our car charged a bit for the ride home, and went to get our puppy. We were met at the spot by Jamie, who went over the paperwork with us, and then got our puppy. Jamie put her in my arms, and I was hooked.

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The it was time to load her into the car and head home. Darlene kept her on her lap while I drove. Along the way, we tested her out on serene classical music. She fell asleep to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto, and also to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (spring). So we wondered about naming her “Brandy” or “Viva” because of this. But there is a lot of competition for names. As I write this, we are beginning to close in on “Lily”. But “No Name” is also a possibility. 

We had planned to stop about half-way for a pee. But the pup threw up a few times along the way, so we stopped three or four times altogether for some air and a pee as well. Got her home, let her out of the car, and carried her to her designated “elimination” spot, and she immediately pooped and peed. What a good girl!

We had planned ahead to have Cathie Klein, who is a dog trainer and has agreed to help us. She had agreed to come on our fist day and help us settle into the routine. She came, was pleased with what we were doing, and helped us get her down for her first nap. That was a traumatic experience: we put her into the large crate, closed the door, and left the room. She cried and whined for about fifteen minutes, but then settled and slept. If it had not been for Cathy, we would have given in to her. But she was fine, and this did not “poison” the crate for her. She still prefers the smaller crate, and that is where she sleeps at night.

And speaking of night, Darlene and I agreed that we would share the night. She was to take the first shift, staying up with the pup until ten or so, taking her out for an elimination break then, and putting her to bed after that. I would get up at five or so and relieve her. As it happened, she slept that first night from ten to the point that I took over at about 5:30! So we lucked out. 

End of the first day.