Puppy-dom

For the past few weeks, our house has been turned upside down by a puppy who is now, basically, ruling over everything. Fortunately, he’s extremely adorable, and can only bark, so any supreme-dictator laws he wanted to start are unable to get off the ground. Plus, he arrived here at 2.8 pounds and is now 8 (still a major, crazy difference!) and so we can still pick him up when we disagree with him.

Kirby at 5weeks old–when we first visited him. Small enough to fit into a pocket, but not quite ready to come home…

You’ve probably heard the quote..

Happiness is a warm puppy.

– Charles M. Schultz

It’s always been so true, and what’s great is reappreciating it all over again with our warm, tiny puppy. Even though we miss Otis… Kirby has helped bring so much joy and laughter, and quite a bit of Otis’ spirit back!

The start of many new adventures… Kirby has no idea.

One of the things I never considered about getting another dog, even though, after a couple months, I became open to it, was that they would help me remember my other dog even more.

Taller… stronger… faster. He’s superdog. (this was the second/third week we had him? Sometime in Dec.)

I want to always be able to remember and enjoy Otis’ memory separately, remember what he looked like as an individual… but these two Bostons are so similar that it’s great because otherwise I wouldn’t remember half of the silly things Otis did or quirks that he had if Kirby weren’t here to repeat them.

An ill-timed moment.

And, the good thing is, they do have their differences. Kirby has his energizer bunny moments, but other times, he has a middle ground, and he can be very mellow and just chill out. Otis, as a pup, was either totally ON and crazy or sound asleep. There was no middle ground.

He’s inquisitive and wants to chew the camera.

Kirby loves toys too, but he isn’t out for complete and total destruction, like Otis was. Instead, all of his original toys have miraculously survived so far, and he’s just not the type to try and rip them apart.

Dog germs!

He also has a great sense of humor, which works well with our family.

Sometimes the hardest part is leaving to go to school in the mornings. He is usually wanting to snuggle at that point, and will crawl up my leg and paw me pitifully. Just as I was hoping, he’s a super snuggler, it’s definitely one of his best skills. He’s such a pro, in fact, that a few weeks ago I had him in bed with me once or twice… (shh, don’t tell the dog training pros. They’ll be stunned that it in no way ruined him for life.)… and insisted on sleeping ON my face. Like, he tries to get as much of him up on there as possible. Mostly it ended up being his head. He’ll also settle for the pillow or under my chin. I can’t complain.