Eleven Months Old Today!

Boney in his bed in our room 4-13

Bonaparte turned 11 months old today! Almost a full year old. Wow. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. We found Bonaparte and invited him into our lives when he was ten weeks old, so we still have some time to go before he’s been with us for a full year. But even so it feels like we’ve had him for only a little while, not almost a full year!

With me

He’s grown, probably to his full size which is now 7.6 pounds. He might be a bit more than that, but not more than eight pounds. He is still scruffy looking, but soft and full of life. Appropriately named Bonaparte, a little body with a big ego, we’ve finished with our “intermediate” training classes and are debating if we’ll do anymore. Mostly my goal for us is for him to come EVERY time I call, and to stay beside me when we walk, oh, and to stop barking when it’s inappropriate. I don’t really care for him to do tricks. He sits, waits, leaves it, drops it, “go get it” meaning he fetches and brings whatever he fetches back to me. So he’s doing really well. Every day when we go to get the mail, he knows to stay with me, and where we are going. He doesn’t run off, and comes when I call him back to the house. Now if we can get that good while on walks around the neighborhood, I’ll be happy.

He loves to go and play at Frank and Ruben’s house and was so happy we house sat them this weekend. He and Ruben especially love to rollick and pounce on one another. We’re glad Boney likes other dogs.

With Geoffrey, his favorite man

Before Christmas 2012 in my father's room with his hat on

The rest of this will be photos of the little one. Hope you enjoy!

Sleeping in my Dad's car waiting for me

My scruffy men!!

Yes, I love you too, Bonaparte

Chez Giles and Susan, with Chantal, Giles and Papa

I know you're leaving so I'm hiding

On a boat ride! 4-13

On the porch with Papa

It's raining. I'm sleepy

Frank, Ruben and Boney played hard today 4-13

Bonaparte's First Christmas Holiday

It's COLD up here! With Sue

Boney boy has gotten even more cute! How, you ask, is this possible? I don’t know but it is so true. He had a raucous and exciting first Christmas! We went up to North Carolina to spend time with the family and had a wonderful time. Boney was happy to reacquaint with his pal Louis and to meet new people. So this post will mostly be photos to "show-not-tell" about his first Christmas holiday and the folks he visited and those who came to see him!

Great gift from Ruben & Frank, and Brad & Nancy

Louis! (Looie, like the french say)

With Dorian

Wth Tristan on Christmas Day

Too cute!

With Cat, my sister

With Geoffrey, Archie & Greg Christmas Day at the Laurels

Heading home on Christmas day with Devon

Keeping warm with me

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.

So Much Happening In The Life of a Puppy

Makes you wonder what they're planning...

Rubin pleading, enough already Bonaparte!

Bonaparte had his first sleep over and it lasted almost four days! I had a writer's conference to go to. My husband had work, school, and then he joined me in Florida for the last two days of the conference, so Boney spent those days with his friends Rubin and Frank, the schnauzers. He did quite well, and the human in charge, Brad, didn't lose any (more) hair over the extended duties of three instead of two dogs.
Not only did Boney do well and not send Brad over the edge, but he came home and went right back to our usual routine with little or no fuss. What a puppy! I do SO love this animal.

Graduation at PetsMart, how silly is that hat!

Bonaparte has graduated from Beginning Puppy Training. We start the Intermediate level at the end of November. I work with him every day to try and keep up the good habits we've started, could do a bit better, so will make an effort there.
I'm sure he's over five pounds now, but haven't been in to the vets to weigh. Bonaparte is longer, as is his hair/fur, and he's starting to have white hair/fur grow in places like his head and back. He's already a bit blond on his legs and feet, so we wonder what he's going to look like when he's a year old. That's the age we were told he will more or less look like he's going to look, without baby hair/fur.

Brad sure makes a good pillow/bed.

Frank keeps an eye on Bonaparte.

Life is full with this bundle of energy speeding around the house. He's well into being fully house broken, but still having an issue telling us WHEN he needs to go, before he goes! I take him out regularly and that's why he's doing so well. I'm also trying to train him to go out to his little fenced in area to do his business instead of me having to take him out front. We have a door we leave open that allows him to come and go as he pleases, and since he's been home from Rubin and Franks, he goes out alone a lot more. Luckily I can see him from the kitchen window so I can still, as my niece used to say "watch an eye" on him!
That's our update for this week. Until the next here's some more-than-cute photos to hold you over.

Looking all kingly on the porch in the sun.

Mom just loves to photograph me, ho hum.

I love to sleep. I have little beds all over the place.

Bonaparte’s Hat

A few days ago a friend mentioned that she thought Boney’s name fit him perfectly, as his ears were like Napoleon’s hat. I looked online to see if this might actually be true or just a funny, and, in some instances one can see, if one tries very hard, that Boney’s ears are doing the whole stick-out-on-the-side thing that Napoleon’s hat does. I included a few photos here so you can see what I mean.

 We have signed up for puppy training classes and will start in September! I’m looking forward to these as I want to do right by our pup and have both of us well trained. He is doing great on the housebreaking front, considering he is three months old and we’ve had him, tomorrow, for a whole month (4 weeks)! Celebration! Yea! He is still sleeping through the night and responding to his routine.

Boney continues to relish his visits to his friends’ Frank and Ruben’s house and their yard. They all get along better each time we go and Boney is starting to feel quite at home there. I’m glad, as their “mom and dad” have offered to “puppy sit” if we need them to. Frank and Ruben’s house is fast becoming his second home.

Boney will take his first LONG trip this weekend (eight hours) as we head north to North Carolina for Labor Day weekend. I hope he’ll travel well for that long of a distance. Wish us luck! I’m looking forward to him meeting the rest of the family and hopefully finding a new friend in my sister’s family dog, Louis, who is a Shih Tzu and adorable too.

Okay, I’m going to go steam some broccoli and see if Mr. Bonaparte wants something to eat. He’s been sleeping most of the day after a wild time with Frank and Ruben!

 

Images of Bonaparte from:

http://thesuperabridgedcountofmontecristo.blogspot.com/2012/03/chapter-1-ship-of-ghostly-dreams.html

mennonitedreams.blogspot.com