puppy love

Well, who wouldn't fall in love with a face like that?

This pup is what ended The Storm after 6 weeks of raging, and restored a semblence of peace and happiness to our home. As I'd said, I was at my wit's end. I happened to meet this pup, in need of a home, and something told me he was the answer to our current situation. Mind you, I NEVER reccommend for anyone with a new baby to get a puppy, it's just too much work on top of something that is already SO much work. But we needed something to shake up our household. So I brought the puppy home.

Zoo Boy and I were in the front yard with the pup when The Map Man and Jacob came home from an outing. I still remember the look on Jacob's face when he stepped out of the car. With a huge smile (the first in over a month) on his face, he joyfully cried "PUPPY!!" and ran over to meet his new buddy. It was love at first sight, and that pup has gone on to grow into the best child's companion I can imagine. He's perfect -- when the kids want to play with him, he's right there for him and they can do ANYTHING to him, yet when the kids don't want him pestering them, he's off lying in a corner and doesn't bug them. (We have other dogs, all of whom are really pushy about getting attention from the kids and sometimes overwhelm them.) He's extremely protective of them, which gives me great peace of mind that when they are in the yard with him, NOONE is going to bother them. On his own, Jacob taught his pup to sit, lie down, stay, and fetch. Guess he picked up a few tricks from watching me with the other dogs.

From the day the pup came home, Jacob's attitude took a 180 degree turn. Suddenly my happy boy was back, at least part of the time. He still had major meltdowns whenever Zoo Boy cried or for any one of a million other reasons, he was still big-time moody, and still would run screaming for his play room to slam the door and block the world out.

But the skies were clearing. It was time to get busy finding out what was going on with our boy.