(Almost) All about my puppy

This is the first time I have worked on this blog from home. Up until now, I was always writing something work-related and, therefore, felt good about doing it at work. This time, however, I want to tell all the dog-lovers out there about my puppy.

Keep in mind that CC was not the usual 6-8 weeks old when we got her. She was 3½ months old, so she definitely had developed her own personality. The first thing we noticed about her was that she has a thing about feet. When she is in a mellow mood, she will lie on our feet or sit between our feet. She especially loves to sit between my feet when I’m wearing a long skirt. When she is HYPERACTIVE!! (which happens about twice a day), she thinks she is a predator and our feet are her prey. She stalks them and pounces on them and bites them. If they refuse to cooperate, she gives them her “play with me” bark. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard her bark for anything other than “play with me.” She loves to meet new people and will try to get them to play with her by pawing at their knees (if they’re close enough) or barking at them (if they’re too far away to paw).

At first we thought CC was a genius. Then we found out she had already learned to sit and to fetch before we got her. The previous owner was also teaching her to walk on her hind legs. I like to think this is partly responsible for her habit of pawing at people’s knees, which is embarrassing when done to strangers and costs a fortune in pantyhose when done to me. She caught on to housetraining very quickly, but does not comprehend “come” or “stay.” We’re working on those.We have, of course, bought a number of toys for CC. She gets bored with them pretty quickly. Her first FAVORITE toys were the little white plastic cups that cover the bolts that attach the commode to the bathroom floor. My husband never saw the point in gluing those down. They are just the right size to fit around her nose or chin when she carries one in her mouth. Apparently they are just hard enough for a teething puppy to chew. But the best part about them is that, when she drops them off of the love seat, they make a wonderful tapping noise when they hit the wood floor and then they skitter across the floor tapping all the way. After dropping them off the love seat, she can leap off in hot pursuit. When she catches up to them, she can use her mouth to toss them in the air and chase them some more or she can use her front paws to knock them around. She still loves the toilet bolt covers, but now also loves attacking, tossing, and chewing yogurt cartons and those little plastic cartons that applesauce and other fruit snacks come in.

We had planned to get an indoor dog, and we treat CC as an indoor dog, but she has dreams of being an outdoor dog. She can entertain herself for hours roaming around the back yard sniffing everything. Sometimes she is obviously in hunting dog mode. We’re pretty sure she is hunting and eating bugs (crickets, maybe?) but never actually catch her in the act. When she gets tired of sniffing and hunting, she finds a spot in the sun to stretch out and sunbathe. Or she jumps up on top of the monkey grass that’s growing around the live oak tree. I’m pretty sure she considers herself to be a queen and the monkey grass to be her throne.

CC is always skittish about new things, especially if they appear to be self-propelled. Shortly after we got her, I was down on the floor vacuuming under the desk. The vacuum cleaner terrified her. She squeezed into the tiny space between my belly and the floor for security.
One day when I was at work, my husband got out his remote-controlled Jeep in the hope that CC would enjoy playing with it. She is terrified of that Jeep to this day. We use it to keep her away from places she shouldn’t go, like the top of the dining table.

When she went into the guest room for the first time, something in there obviously scared her half to death. After watching her for a minute or two, I figured out it was my 10” tall teddy bear. I got the bear off the window seat and put it on the floor and just held it there. CC ran off in obvious terror. After about 15 seconds, she came within about 4 feet of the bear then ran off at top speed again. She kept coming a little closer and then running off until she finally got to the point that she touched the teddy bear with the very tip of her cute little nose. She ran off again, then thought it over and apparently decided she could take the bear. So she came back, grabbed the bear’s ear in her teeth and started trying to paw it to death. She is no longer allowed in the guest room, but she scratched at the door for days, wanting to get in and show that bear she’s tougher than him.

The German Shepherd mixes we had growing up were outside dogs and were very different from small indoor dogs, so I never really understood why anybody would call a dog “Snoopy” until we got CC. She is unbelievably inquisitive. She has to know what my husband and I are up to every second. Neither of us can leave the room without her racing after us to see where we’re going and what we’re doing. She follows us to the bathroom and paws our knees while we’re on the potty. She loves to watch the commode flush and she’s always checking the bathtub and the small trashcans to make sure there’s nothing interesting there. When we’re doing something at the kitchen counter or the kitchen sink, it drives her crazy that she can’t see what we’re doing. She desperately wants to know what’s on top of the dining table, which is why the Jeep is there now. While I’ve been typing this, she has been climbing from my lap onto the top of the desk to try to explore it. Right now she's trying to stop my fingers from typing. I should stop now, anyway.