In Case You Were Jealous…He’s NOT Perfect

Well that first 24 hours with Locks was pretty glorious. However, over the subsequent days, we have observed a few flaws 🙂 Jeremiah’s mom came in town on Tues. night and wanted to take us to dinner. Since it was going to be a late one at a nice restaurant, I got a babysitter. It was very last minute and all of my normal sitters were busy, so I called up a new one and trapped her into coming. She shows up and tells me that she is allergic to dogs…ughh…what do you do? I try to put Locks in our bedroom, and we learn that he has some separation anxiety. He starts screaming–not barking mind you–SCREAMING. It was a very bizarre sound, somewhat akin to a howl, but more high-pitched. The babysitter feels bad and says that she’ll be fine as long as she doesn’t touch him. Ok, we let him out.

Then, I am trying to turn on a movie for the girls in the den, while Babysitter sits on the couch and holds them. Suddenly I hear, “That is a gag, isn’t it?” I turn around to see not one but two big fat poopie logs on TOP of the coffee table. What in the world?!!!! I am so embarrassed and trying to figure out the best method of cleaning when Pace says, “That’s not REAL,” and proceeds to stick her finger into the poop. Then, sweet Pace, who likes to keep things clean and orderly, has a melt-down because there is dog poop on her fingers.

Dad (who is a vet for those who don’t know) assures me it is normal (the pooping, not the fact that he did it on the coffee table :))…that Locks is trying to figure out where our doors are, his new schedule, etc. I can understand this and am not mad that he has yet to take a single poop OUTSIDE, but I am hoping the little guy is going to get the hang of it soon 🙂 On the bright side, he has at least learned to stay off the coffee table when he relieves himself.

These things are laughable. I can deal with poo, but we did have one completely unacceptable incident on day 2. The girls are all over him. I am trying to teach them how to be gentle and give him his space, but it’s going to take some time. Locks is pretty patient–much more patient than I would be considering–but he apparently reached his patience limit and decided to give the Instigator (Dapples) a little warning. I was sitting on the floor with them and Jeremiah was beside us, talking to me, at the desk. Suddenly we hear–grrrrowl, SNAP– I saw it, he didn’t bite her hand, but it was a definite statement of, “Back away, I’ve had enough of you!” Oooohhh did he get in trouble. Jeremiah gave him quite a spanking and I got on to him too. Now, he tends to run in the other direction at the site of Dapples (Look at that mischievious grin…Can you blame him?). He is very eager to please and learn, so I am hoping we won’t have any more issues with THAT. (But don’t worry, I never leave them alone and am keeping close tabs)

To end on a positive, he still follows me around the house like a joyful shadow and seems very happy in his new home. Together, the girls and I brush him every day and he is a great cuddle bug. I invested in a good, cordless vacuum, and have been zipping over the floors every day with it. So far, the dog hair hasn’t been an issue. He is so beautiful and sweet…We still love you Locks, even though you’re not perfect 🙂

(Mrs. Linda got the adorable outfits in these pictures from Bellamia. Are they looking sassy or what?! There are also some dresses that coordinate, that she got us for the Spring. Thank you Thank you Moogie! We love our new clothes.)