Puppy Love

Let me tell you one thing that I've learned about puppies in the past four days. They do not care if it's raining outside. They want to go out and load up their paws with mud and then come inside and slide all over the hardwood floors. However, they also do not want to PEE outside. Just play. So here's a picture of the very wet Lizzie and Cash after one of our trips of folly outside to see if Cash would continue in his stellar housebreaking attempt. He peed on the floor about three seconds after this photo was taken. And luckily, none of us really minds being soaked to the skin. We are having a deluge here today -- something like 4 inches of rain on top of the already saturated backyard. It's like a giant puddle out there. To be honest, I wouldn't want to pee out there either.
As you can see though, there's lots of love for Cash, wet or dry.

Oh, for sure, we've had our moments. We got the dog on Tuesday and almost returned him (not really) on Wednesday because Hannah and Lizzie were both jealous of the dog, mad at me, jealous of my relationship with the dog and overtired. So poor Rob came home to crying wife and kids. We were all fine by the next morning though. And having Cash is FUN. Like for instance on Friday I knew we were going to have this deluge so I went to the Walmart and bought him these wee wee pads so that he would have a place to "go" if he didn't want to go outside (or, I'm sure you've guessed, if I didn't want to go outside.) Well, while I was making lunch, Cash ATE the wee-wee pad I put down for him, and then pooped on the floor. Good times. Here's the photographic evidence of the digesting wee-wee pad. I'll leave the other to your imagination...

The girls have different relationships with Cash. Lizzie wants to run around and around and around with him. Frankly Lizzie in general likes to run around and around and around, so it's nice for her to have a companion (although I have learned that Cash is only really allowed to run around the family room where he's confined most of the day until he's a little more consistent with housebreaking....) Here's one of only a few photos I have a her with Cash, because they are always on the move and the pictures are usually of her back or his back or general blurriness as they whiz by. This one was pretty blurry, too, but I sharpened it as best I could.

See what I mean? Always running, running, running. In this picture you can sort of see the barricade I've made to keep Cash in the family room. Of course he can easily jump over the chairs, but it works when it's just the two of us, or if the girls are in the room with him. Once anyone leaves, he wants to leave, too. Which is when he takes a little break in his crate.

I love this picture of Cash because 1) it's not raining outside and 2) you can see how his tail curls so adorably (or is that handsomely?) Most poodles' tails are docked shortly after birth, but the woman we bought him from's vet doesn't believe in docking, so his tail is longer. And curly! Here Cash is checking his email and deciding what to have for dinner...

And here is a picture of his relationship with Hannah. Hannah LOVES to just cuddle with him, so she's the go-to girl when he wants to chill. (And Aunt Anonymous, you don't have to leave a comment about letting the dog on the furniture ...)

Or when he wants to be groomed. Hannah's the only one he'll let brush him:

Hannah, however, gets VERY MAD when I don't let her do whatever she wants with Cash. This note was precipitated by my not allowing her to walk him outside for a potty run. In case you can't read it, it says: Mom, I do not love you. I love the dog beter (better). He is my pale (pal) your (you're) not.
So, there you have it...


And here you have a picture of how I responded to getting that note... ;)