Yet Another Journal

Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans,
cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of.

Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net
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» Saturday, June 07, 2014

Tucking into the World

After a long absence, we went to the Farmer's Market this morning. We did find a parking space on the Square, but on the opposite side, so we had as long a walk as if we had parked in the usual parking lot. The Square itself was full of hay bales, pup tents, and wagon pieces for an upcoming historical event. We bought some sweet corn, Vidalia onions, a barbecue pot pie for Sunday supper, a chocolate chip brownie muffin to split for a dessert, chicken salad, and some boiled peanuts for James. Then we went for breakfast at IHOP. Crowded, but not unpleasantly so.

We brought the things home, then put them up, and thought about what to do next. We had decided last week that this weekend would be the one to start doing a serious puppy search. I even did some puppy surfing on Petfinder. Finally I said, "Why don't we go out to Trader Joe's, and we can stop at the Petco on Johnson Ferry. We had stopped there once during our endless search for food that Willow could eat and noticed that they had a lot of small dogs at their adoptions.

Let's say we didn't get to Trader Joe's.

They had only one big dog, in fact, something that looked like Bristle-Face in the movie by the same name. Two cages held the most adorable four chihuahua pups you've ever seen. There was one dog that was half shih-tzu and half cocker spaniel. One dog was part dachshund but looked like a half size Doberman, and another that was a Pomeranian; we were kinda taken by her, until we saw a little tricolor guy in the next cage. He had big prick ears, a fuzzy face, and a long black tail with a white tip, and it was like he called my name without saying a word.

So after filling out forms, and taking him outside at least twice, we drove home with the little guy, who was called "Tucker" at his foster home, and we figured that was a good dog name as any, as he responded to it readily. (I did get a kick out of the guy at Petco who had fostered Tucker and the Doberman-looking dog; he reminded me of Otto Kilcher on Alaska: the Last Frontier.)

We brought him home and introduced him to the house, and realized we needed a bunch of things dogwise, so took him back out to Petsmart to buy a new crate, a food dish, a collar and a harness, and three toys.

We interrupt this narrative for bedtime, but a few more details.

We have discovered Tucker is very well-socialized around other dogs, unlike Willow who was always afraid of them unless they were afraid of her. He likes balls, which is astonishing, as together we've never owned a dog who liked to chase balls before. He likes the squeak mouse the best, and will now take it to James to play tug with. And he already killed the third toy, a pull-rope type thing. He's already had a wet accident and a solid accident, both which were easily cleaned. When he discovered we weren't going to give him our dinner, he went and lay down on the dog bed, at least for a while. He ate the quarter cup of dog food prescribed for him, and drank a little water. We let him go out on the deck, but right now I have to watch him out there, because he can get his head, and therefore part of his body, through the bars. Luckily nothing attracted him. He loves the back yard, but we have some holes we need to patch up. They were okay when the fence was put in, but erosion has taken its toll.

I think the part that was the funniest but yet the most heartbreaking was when I was in the bathroom and James was at the computer. Tucker had been playing with his mouse toy and then got very quiet. I was just coming out of the bathroom when James said "Tucker, you're being awfully quiet." Yes, he was, because he was lying on the recliner, right in Willow's old spot, and it tickled me so much that I laughed aloud...and then started to cry and cry.