Puppy update

Several people have asked me how the puppy’s doing, so here’s an update:

In the four weeks we’ve had her, she’s just about doubled in size, from 5 ½ pounds to 9, and that was last week at the vet, so she’s probably closer to double now. Life is really difficult for Sadie, as she is now called. Here’s what a typical afternoon looks like (taken with my phone, so excuse the quality):

She’s proving to be both a cuddly companion and a crazy, manic puppy, as suits her age. She’s figuring out some basic commands, but still doesn’t get the notion that using the great outdoors for a bathroom is the thing for dogs to do. She’ll happily run around outside for ages, long after we know she badly has to go, but she’ll hold it until she comes in and her feet hit the newspaper on the kitchen tiles. And yes, we’ve tried newspapers, even stinky, used ones, outside on the patio and on the lawn, but apparently that doesn’t feel the same as the paper does on the tiles, so she’s having none of that idea. We’ll get there eventually. Or so we keep telling ourselves.

She has also carried on the great puppy tradition in our family of biting my husband’s ears. Every single puppy in our extended family has made a habit of trying to do that. They don’t bite anyone else’s ears, just his. He can think of ways he’d rather be singled out, but tradition must be upheld.