Puppy love

There's been requests for the puppy story...

But there is not much to tell!

I'd been giving Rachel puppy eyes when it comes to pets ever since we came to China. (remember the near-bunny experience, anyone?) But, the dogs at the pet markets are all disease-infested (close living quarters, dirty living conditions). So, the opportunity was never really there. But also, we figured the 5th floor made dog life difficult. Too high to go outside, not high enough to have a rooftop garden. So, the dog question was ruled out.

But Rachel's 8th grade student brought in 3 puppies to sell as a fundraiser for a local orphanage. They were the talk of the school for a few hours, as all the kids wanted to hold and pet them. They were legitimately cute, and fairly well behaved for being handled by so many. One got sold, and many kids showed interest - so the pressure was on. Neither Rachel or I wanted to be the first to say yes, but in the end we both caved and bought him before we could talk ourselves out of it (like I talked myself out of the bunny). So we sent him home in the school van, and stuck him in the spare bedroom that night.

The next day (parent-teacher conferences) we took him to school (on Rachel's scooter, believe it or not!) because it was going to be a long day. Other than biting some parents' toes and pooping beneath some coworkers' desks, it went pretty well.

So in the week since then, the puppy has found his home on the enclosed porch - which has morphed quickly from rarely-used clothes drying space that it formerly was. (though we still have clothes out there, which I am guessing won't help their smell too much) He seems happy and healthy - a few fleas when we got him, but those have cleared up - and eager to chew whatever we give him. He's mostly living life out there for now, until we get some training done and can trust him in other quadrants of the house.

Now, there is just the matter of reading the dog training book we got from our friends and figure out how this pet thing really works!!

alan