Seven Months Old and Still Adorable

First pitiful photo with the dreaded cone.

Oh we’re having so much fun! Well, at least most of the time… So many things have happened this last month or more. A drastic change in Bonaparte’s life happened when we took him in to have him “fixed.” But first the news!

Boney is seven months old and weighs 6.6 pounds! He is longer, as is his fur in some places and it is growing in white on his head. So now he has more of an apricot look to him than red.

On our trip back from Thanksgiving in North Carolina we stopped in to visit Boney’s original household, our friends who live near Atlanta who gave us our lovely little pup. He was able to play with both brothers and we all had a great time comparing the three. Boney is most assuredly the fuzziest, while Winston is the shyest and Livingston a great mix of them all, a bit fuzzy and starting to get white also, while still having the shorter-haired look of Winston.

Helping "papa" with electricals

Used to it now.

Almost as big as he is!

Now on to the biggest event. While visiting our near-Atlanta friends we humans talked about the fact that none of them, at 6 months, seem to have their testicles.  Upon our return home I called the vet and talked to her about that. When she heard that NONE of them had “dropped,” she said it could be hereditary, or not, but probably because of their age and the no-shows all round, best to get them out while Boney is young. So we did. Took him in, picked him up in the afternoon to find they’d had to do major surgery on the little guy. His two little no-shows had chosen to tuck themselves way up by his kidneys and there wasn’t a chance in you-know-where that they’d come down this late on their own. So we had a cone-headed puppy for almost two weeks! He adapted. He wasn’t happy, but didn’t really understand what was going on or why he had to wear the cone, which is called an “E-Collar” by the way. And for those of you who love trivia, it’s called an “E-Collar” because….? Did you guess? I never would have. Because the “real” name for them is “Elizabethan Collar.” Really? Yes! So of course it’s easier to say “E-Collar.” Why not cone? Which is what it actually looks like.

He had puppy drugs for pain and anti-bi’s. I overdosed him the first night at 3 in the morning, called the vet in a panic, but he didn’t die! Thank goodness. He didn’t need any drugs after the first two days. He was hilarious to watch walking. He had to bob his head from side to side. He kept trying to sniff the ground and couldn’t. He had to learn to back up a lot at first because he couldn’t judge how big the cone was. By the time it came off he was almost his usual little masterly self again.

After first bath in 10 days!

So anyway, Boney couldn’t fit in his crate to sleep with the cone around his neck. We tried one night of it and he was a more-than-usual miserable puppy. So he slept in the bed with me in the guest room. Then we migrated back to the communal bed and he still slept like an angel.  So, I bet you can guess what comes next, yes. He is still sleeping with us a week later! Oh well. We’ll see how it goes. The ONLY part that’s a pain is he is better than any alarm clock. Right around 7 am he is wide awake, alert and enthusiastic about going out to pee. Even on the weekends! It is better than him doing it in the bed, but I DO miss sleeping in.

Now this is more like it!!!

Enough on this post! So long compared to the last one, but like I said, so much has happened! We all wish you ALL Merry Holidays, Happy Christmas, and Peace and Compassion in the new year to come.