Pit bull pairings update

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Sweet CarlyAs most of you know, Jim and I were contemplating adopting Carly, a three-legged Boston Terrier/Pit bull mix, to be a buddy to our sweet pit bull, Mickey. We met the incredible bundle of energy Saturday and loved her to pieces -- and she loved us, it seems.

But after some serious soul-searching, we've decided it's not the best thing for Mickey ... or for Carly.

It was a difficult decision and a difficult e-mail to write the foster parent. Because I just wrote that e-mail, it makes more sense to just post a copy of it here, rather than rehash it for those I promised an update.

(Note: When you local readers have finished reading it, if you're interested in adopting the little gal or know of someone who may be, please let me know.)

Good morning, XXX and XXX:

We had discussed my getting back to you by the end of this week with our decision regarding adopting Carly, but I think it's only fair to give you as much notice as possible that Jim and I, after some serious contemplation, have decided it's not the best thing for either Carly or Mickey.

Carly is an amazing bundle of energy and is so sweet and so smart, but I don't think she and Mickey will meld at this point. She needs a buddy who will happily participate in the puppy tussling and such, and Jim and I honestly can't see that being something Mickey will allow. He loves to have a friend, but he definitely enjoys parallel play more than true physical interaction with another dog.

As part of our considering Carly, I had my mom bring over her (hyper) Shiba Inu on Sunday to see how Mickey would do meeting an unfamiliar dog. Although he did surprisingly great, that dog didn't spend much time tussling with Mickey; they each did their own thing and that was sufficient "play" time for both. I can't see that happening with Carly as I think she needs a friend who will be just as into wrestling together as she is.

I think with some proper training, Mickey and Carly *could* be mates, but at this point, Jim and I just don't have the money to cover the obedience training that would require. So we're going to make a concentrated effort to socialize Mickey better without having to pay a trainer, then look at bringing in another dog in a few months -- one that is a bit more like his last pal, Moses. It's probably not fair to replace Moses so quickly anyway, especially when Mickey (and we) have not sufficiently mourned him, I think, since putting him down just last month. Carly just seemed so wonderful when we heard about her and saw her photo, that we may have gotten ahead of ourselves a bit.

Jim and I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to meet Carly, and we hope you understand our reasons for choosing not to take her. If we had no other dogs, there'd be no hesitation whatsoever. She's a great little gal and we hope you have no problems finding new parents for her.

Again, thank you for letting us meet Carly and giving us the time to seriously consider how she might fit in our family. I wish you the best in finding someone for her -- I think once folks meet her, they'll fall in love with her.

Sincerely,

Lisa

Any takers? I feel really bad about this ...

If you're happy and ya know it

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August is National Happiness Happens Month, sponsored by the Secret Society of Happy People. Yeah, it sounds a little weird, but it's truly an innocent undertaking by a group of cheery folks, and I decided to follow their lead and spread a little happiness myself.

So I sent Bubby maracas. Not generic maracas like the ones I have (and love to shake around the patio, freaking out the dogs) as their long handles would surely poke out either his or his dog's eye at some point. No, what I found Bubby were educational maracas, with a "counting" mode and a "music" mode. It's the music mode I was most interested in though, as counting normally does nothing for me and I don't think recitation of numbers puts much of a smile on Bubby's face at this point either.

So I shipped the Happiness Happens gift to Bubby in hopes he'd smile ... and be happy.

At first he was not quite sure what to do with the oversized rattles.

Then the "aha" moment kicked in and Bubby clearly got it! And I got the exact reaction I was hoping for: happy smiles from my Bubby!

Happiness DOES happen!

The Saturday Post

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Megan e-mailed yesterday afternoon to let me know how terribly wrong I was in saying in yesterday's post that Bubby knows five words. No, no, no, she said. He knows way more than that.

Per Megan:

Bubby's official word list 8/21

1. Buh-bye

2. All Done (he thinks it's one word)

3. Mama

4. Dada

5. Uh-oh

6. Baba

7. Num-Num

8. Diaper

9. More

10. Bird

11. Ow (he says this one really whiny sounding and usually when he's rolling around on the floor throwing a fit)

12. Mmmmm (okay, I know that's a stretch but every time he eats something he REALLY likes that's what he says)

I stand corrected. And I expect this word list to be twice as long by the time I visit Bubby in October! (I did tell you he's a genius, didn't I?)

Time out

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Bubby got his "first official time out" yesterday. Megan called, rather upset, to tell me that their houseguest had left the bathroom door open, Bubby got in there, and he made a mess. I imagined lotion squirted everywhere, maybe some lipstick drawings on the cabinets, garbage strewn across the room.

Nope. None of the above. It was the age-old toilet paper unrolling.

Kids have been fascinated by toilet paper since its invention, I believe. Andrea was our biggest toilet paper fan when the girls were little. It prompted me to purchase this picture that hung in our main bathroom for years:

Andie was caught in a similarly red-handed fashion many times. Apparently we mentioned it so often as she grew older that she honestly believed that was a picture of her—something I learned only after hearing her point out the picture to a friend she was showing around the house. Many years and bathrooms later, I don't have the heart to get rid of Andie's potty picture so it now hangs in a spare bathroom downstairs.

For Bubby's first hands-on toilet paper unrolling, he was more organized about his chaos: He placed all the unrolled sheets directly into the toilet. (At least he understands a small portion of the potty process! I'm tellin' ya, the kid's a genius.)

Megan busted him fairly quickly, prevented a clogged toilet and placed Bubby in a time out. Being the ever-conscientious pre-K teacher that she is, Megan followed the timeout rules and Bubby's punishment lasted one minute. (For the unenlightened, the rule is one minute per year in age.)

It was a very traumatic minute—for Megan. Other than minor admonishments when Bubby tries to climb as high as he can possibly find a foothold or when he's making a diaper change a difficult and dirty time, Megan hasn't had to do much disciplining of her baby.

So that one minute was about 59 seconds too long for Megan. Bubby, on the other hand, survived it without major psychological harm, it seems. He may have even learned something ("No play!" as Megan firmly stated in her best stern-teacher tone).

When the time was up, Bubby wrapped his arms around his mommy and gave her three big kisses; a sincere apology, I'd say, coming from a kiddo with a vocabulary of fewer than five (very unclear) words.

Still, Megan needed assurance from her mom that she did the right thing, and she was on the phone with me before the slobbery kisses from Bubby had dried.

You did the right thing, Megan. I promise.

(But I'd make sure the bathroom door stays shut going forward, if I were you.)

Great Grandma Idea #23: I'm thinking I need to make our longtime bathroom picture a traveling display, bestowing it on each of the girls' households as the grandkids take turns mimicking their Auntie Andie. With Bubby being the only grandchild so far, it's a pretty safe bet Megan's house will be the first awarded such an honor.