Bringing Home Puppy

"What time is it?" one of us would say.
"Puppy time" was the answer.

We picked up Kimber yesterday at about 4:30pm. She was the first of her litter to get picked up and as soon as the car started up, all eleven of her siblings' heads came up as if to say, "Hey, wait a minute!"

Because our Passat was kind enough to blow out a tire on Saturday, we were stuck driving the soft-top Jeep on the freeway. Conversations in that car go something like this:

"HTOHOIHDIHOSDFGIH...."
"WHAT?"
"I SAID HTOHOIHDIHOSDFGIH..."
"I STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

Yeah....all the way there, and all the way home. Kimber and I have come to a group decision: we don't like riding in the Jeep. As soon as the car started up, she curled into me as far as she could go. She only whined a little, but her body was shaking and her tail was tucked in between her legs. Poor thing!

We didn't take her directly home at first, having been invited to dinner at Jefferson's parent's house. We had to put her in the bathroom for the meal and she whined and howled throughout the entire ordeal. After the dishes were done, we let her out and she came running at me with this big smile on her face and when I scooped her up she licked my face. So many kisses!

Then we took her to see my family, too. My mother died. She has this thing with animals: if they aren't dead or fake, they don't come into her house. We brought Kimber in and Mom grabbed an old pull-up from back when there were babies in her house and made me put it on the puppy. There was no way in you-know-the-place that she was letting "that dog" pee on her carpet. She did however, still kiss my cheek when we left, so I guess we're forgiven.

My cousin, Jewels, was in town with her sister-in-law and their babies. Jewelyn was the only person who had her camera handy (I swear, mine is always dead and I hardly use the darn thing!). She snapped some cute pics!



Mama's and their babies!




This is Charlie (Jewelyn's Siter-in-law's Baby). She's scared of puppies, but she was so brave
 and gave Kimber a good pet or two. She kept asking me
the cutest questions, like, "Does she eat peoples?" Darling!

The last stop before we took the puppy home, was to our old apartment to grab a couple more things to bring to the new one. While Jefferson loaded things up, I let Kimber down to go potty and then she dove for the shade under one of the bushes in the lawn. (Did I fail to mention that Jefferson's Jeep has no air conditioning? Poor puppy was panting and trying to find a breeze but still stay close and safe with me.) She immediatley fell asleep and stayed that way all the way home!

We got her into our new apartment and showed her her new bed and toys. She dove for the stuffed elephant and the bed. So cute! We started to train her a little ("Siiit. No Kimber. Siiiit. Good Girl.) and took her for a walk around the apartment building.

She already has such an attitude. She hates her leash and refuses to walk once it's clipped to her collar. So when I say "we took her for a walk" I mean "we dragged her around until she got the idea."

Around 9, 9:30, Kimber was out, sleeping in her bed, curled up and snoring soundly.

I've heard from every source imagineable that puppies whine and howl that first night, that they don't sleep for more than a couple of hours, etc. Well we must have done something right because Kimber slept til around 3:30 am. She started to whimper and Jefferson hurried and took her outside to potty. Whew, one more accident narrowly escaped.

After that, she was not happy sleeping in her bed. She crawled onto ours (my mother would die) and started to lick Jefferson's face and hair. After rubbing her tummy and giving her ears a sound scratching, she was totally content to sleep between our legs all snuggled up.

6:30 came and I jumped into the shower while Jefferson took her potty again. She really is so good about letting us know when she needs to go.

We had time before I had to go to work and so we introduced a new toy: the rope. Kimber was adorable! Jumping and chewing on it. Turning her back and then pouncing on it. We got quite a few laughs, especially when she got turned around and couldn't see the rope behind her. She started to whimper, then saw it out of the corner of her eye. She growled and jumped on it!

Jefferson didn't have to come into work until later, so he dropped me off at work, and then took Kimber with him to run a few errands.

It was so funny this morning, though, when we tried to walk her to the car. With the leash on, she would not take one step out the door. But as soon as the leash is off, call her name and start walking and she's more than happy to follow or stay to your side the entire time. She really is such a good little puppy....so far.