My Official Foot Warmer

It's official. Bentley is my office dog. In the few brief moments (or the longer ones when I get up at 4:30am and the household is still) I get to steal at my computer, Bentley gets to work. He comes in, sniffs my arm, gets a scratch behind the ear, and then slips under the desk and curls up on my feet. Sometimes he brings a bone, which I've had to talk to him about, because the jostling from the bone chewing makes me feel seasick as I read or type. So, we've had to implement a "no bones" office rule. He seems to like his job. He's well qualified and he has pretty good job security...

Puppyhood - The Teenager

Here we are...the teenager puppy. Alot has happened over the last six months.

Even though we had a pretty rough start, having an older dog makes puppyhood so much more tolerable. Bentley and Scarlett are inseparable now. (Now that Bentley FINALLY has gotten the fact that Scarlett is the Queen and always will be). They have so much fun together.

Well, the little Southern Belle and Gent (or butler if you ask Scarlett) are now Midwesterners. They handled the trek in the horse trailer from NC to MO just fine. Had plenty of room to move around plus their kennels with doors tied open for when they wanted to rest. Once arriving, they spent a few nights at the dog spa before we got into our new house.

Now, not my ideal situation, but our yard has no fence. It has an electric dog fence but neither of our dogs are trained on one. If you have been anywhere near a TV or weather radio in the past weeks you know Antarctica uprooted and replanted itself right on the US (at least the temperatures are reflecting that theory). It is downright FREEZING. Well, since we moved around Thanksgiving, and there has been no tropical heat wave, the idea of training anything, anywhere, outside is not an option. So, the indoor/outdoor doggies, have become strictly indoor...which they are not opposed to. Bentley has turned into my office dog. In the few minutes I get to steal at my computer, he curls up under the desk and sleeps.

When I first met Bentley with his mama, I thought to myself, if this dog turns out to be half as sweet as her, he's going to be one special dog. Guess what...he's at least that sweet.

And of course, there is a special connection between puppies and little boys. This is so true. Emerson and Bentley have truly bonded. Bentley is honing his Star Wars skills and is great at chasing X-wing fighters through the house. Emerson works on walking on all fours and barking. (I think this is a little confusing to Bentley, but he plays along). It was fun watching them run and play in our first real snow here.

Turns out, puppyhood is thankfully flying by fast. (They're cute at 6 weeks when they curl up and sleep by your neck...but if I could go from that step to 2 year old, that would be great..)

Bentley is a healthy, happy, puppy. Scarlett's health is good. Having half of her teeth removed hasn't slowed her down a bit. She is still Miss Scarlett. Bentley has just surpassed her in height. He's probably about 45 pounds or so and still growing. Puppies are good!

Happy Birthday to Miss Scarlett

Happy 6th Birthday to Miss Scarlett! Our sweet girl...and the only other housemate that I can rely on to help balance our testosterone heavy household.

Happy Birthday!

Puppyhood - The First Month

Here we are...a month or so into our life with Bentley. We have settled into a pretty good routine. Still very cautious when it comes to Scarlett and together time, but that is getting better too.

Bentley took his first trip to the beach...He was pretty cute in the sand. Clearly the soft, diggable, ground was the cats meow. In true Boxer fashion he was more of a landlubber than a water dog. This suited me just fine as clean up at the house consisted of wiping a bit of loose sand off his paws and belly instead of a full blown bath (that you would require if he was a Lab or other water lovin' pooch).

Bentley is doing great with his crate training and his potty training. We've got our "I need to potty" signal down pretty good. He sits on my feet...

Bentley is growing like a weed. Its amazing how much he's grown already. I'm going out on a limb here, but if I had to guess, I think he's going to be 80-85 pounds. It's funny, how small Scarlett used to look next to Bandit at her 50 pounds to his 90. Now, she seems so big compared to Bentley...it's hard to imagine he's probably going to be close to twice her size!

That's it from my puppy corner today.

Nothin' Like A Boy and His Dog

Bentley is settling in. His new "sister" is still adjusting and delivering some low growls when he bounces around her, but in time they should do great. Today, Scarlett even waggled her nub at him while sniffing his face that's still buried in the cone collar. Poor thing.

Boy does Bentley love his boys! Tonight we read books in Emerson's bed as usual. Bentley was locked in the room with us to minimize any unsupervised destruction. He kept hopping and whining to get up on the bed. Finally, I caved in and brought him up anticipating a full on puppy attack. Surprisingly, he curled up in a ball at our feet and fell asleep.

I finished stories and prayers and Dalton and I snuck out of the room so not to disturb the sleeping mound. I tucked Dalton in and returned to Emerson's room to find Bentley still sound asleep. I took him out, knowing there was NO chance Emerson would willingly get up in the night to let him out to potty, and closed the door. I walked into the kitchen and Bentley wasn't behind me. I heard a scratching sound and Bentley was at Emerson's door trying to let himself in. I opened the door to see what he would do and he ran over the the bed and starting hopping and whining. I placed him up on the bed and he curled up and laid down.

OK...despite my best judgment, I decided we'd give this a try. I left him there and when I returned a half hour later, Emerson and Bentley were curled up together both sound asleep. So sweet! Bentley has his boys...because as everyone knows...every puppy needs a boy.

Puppy Life - The First Week

After trying on many names for our new puppy, we finally found the perfect name...

Welcome, Bentley...

It just fits him. Plus, with his vet bills already, we can almost afford one...(a Bentley that is). ; )

Things are going great. Bentley is healing fine. I did take him back up to the vet school on Saturday because it looked like he had popped a stitch, which he did, but it had healed enough and was on the smaller cut that is closer to his tear duct. The Chief of Opthomology even concurred that all looked good and there was no cause for concern over the popped stitch. We go back this Thursday to get the stitches out and they will reevaluate it then.

Scarlett is adjusting to the new ankle biter in our home. I know she never intentionally meant to hurt Bentley. She is amazingly patient with him but certainly delivers a low warning growl when his razor sharp puppy teeth have made contact or his jumping and barking trying to get her attention has grown old. I wouldn't leave them alone yet, but we certainly have made lots of progress. Clearly an adjustment for all household members.

Potty training is coming along. Actually, as most puppy owners (and potty training parents) know, its more about training the parents about good timing and watching for the tell-tale signs. Sniffing the ground and turning in a circle is usually a pretty obvious one. He's doing pretty good considering he's only 9 weeks old now. The race is on...who can I get potty trained first? Bentley or Dalton?

Bentley has commandeered Dalton's chair. It really is the perfect dog perch. Sadly for him, he'll only fit in it another couple of weeks and then he'll be way too big. He's squished in there, but is also elevated so he can see what all is going on and not risk being stepped on. Sat on maybe...but not stepped on.

Aaaaaa...there's nothing like puppy breath and watching the innocence of a new baby. Yesterday, Bentley barked and growled at Emerson's camouflage shoes for a good 15 minutes. It was pretty funny.

So, all in all, after our rocky start, puppyhood is going well here. It's worth every nighttime wake up and every sponged up puddle. Simple sweetness. Wouldn't trade if for the world.

Day 2 - Not Quite the Mother's Day I Had Planned

It's Mother's Day. A day for sleeping in and breakfast in bed for mommies around the world. I was no different. After being up 3 times in the night with our new arrival, our two legged children started their day right on cue....at 6AM. Today was the one day of the year when my elbow poke could not go ignored. J got up, took the puppy, and went to go feed everyone. I was thrilled to roll over and stretch out, comforted in the thought of sleeping until 9AM.

Not even 5 minutes later Emerson came running back in..."Mommy! Mommy! Scarlett ate the puppy!" All I could think was, she probably licked him and why can't they survive without me for 3 hours...I'd take one...
Then, I heard the panic in J's voice and immediately knew this was serious. "It's his eye". Long story short, Scarlett "boxed" the puppy, which resulted in a freakish accident. Her nail caught his eyelid, and not to go into too many details for the faint of heart, ripped the lower lid. We'd had our pup for less than 24 hours...

So, it's 6:20AM and I'm throwing on clothes and heading off to NC State Vet School. They are the best...
Got to the vet school just prior to shift change at 7:45. A vet on call took a quick look at him while I was filling in paper work for "Pirate". The name just seemed to fit after his battle...although "Rhett" would have worked too since Scarlett is the reason he was battle weary...I figured he needed a name other than "puppy". She came back out and said she concurred with another vet and they both agreed he should be seen by Opthomology. They paged Dr. G. and I sat waiting for 45 minutes for him to come in.
Dr. G came in and conducted a full eye exam to be sure there was no damage other than just tissue. All was good. Not even the hint of a scratch. He did need stitches through two layers which would require minor surgery. He left to work up the estimate. I called J.

So, within the next hour, while I held onto "Pirate" and he slept in my arms, and I assured him his new home would be the best in the world, anesthesia was called in and Dr. G. prepped for surgery. Remember...this is a Sunday...and all emergency fees apply.

They came in and shaved his little paw, I gave him a kiss, and they said he'd be ready to come home later that night. I was so sad to leave him.

I drove home and celebrated Mother's Day with the boys, got a shower, and then loaded everyone back up to return to Raleigh. We played at a Raleigh park for a bit and then drove over to the vet hospital to pick up "Pirate".
I talked with the vet about our home care that mostly consisted of antibiotics and his "E" collar (the cone shaped collar to protect his injury) which he said puppies do the best at because they don't know any better. He also said he should heal up great especially because of his age.
So, we took our dear puppy home to start his perfect new home life...over...