This is such a busy week for me, and I should be studying right now but I somehow have a hard time really focusing on my schoolwork unless I have other little things taken care of. And I just wanted to check in.
At this moment Cleo is sitting on the floor at my feet IN MY ROOM. This is a huge deal. It is the first time since I’ve had her that she has come into my room on her own and hung out in here. She is kind of weird in that she is afraid of new rooms. For the longest time she wouldn’t go down any halls, into any rooms, or the kitchen. If I tried to walk her in there on a leash she would refuse. So my answer to this was to carry her into the room, make her sit there with me for awhile, and then let her go. Then I waited a few days and I caught her exploring, cautiously, on her own. And now she’s apparently feeling comfortable with it.
Furthermore, I no longer have to push her up the second set of stairs leading to our apartment. She will walk up on her own, though slowly. And she’s eating completely dry dog food, from her bowl, in her room. Also a huge accomplishment.
Over the weekend my roommates and I went out of town, so I left Cleo with Boyfriend David. He has two dogs at his house already, Eddie and Sydney, and boy were they excited to see Cleo. The only other time I’ve seen Cleo so scared is when I took her to the vet. But by the time I came to pick her up the next day, she had two new best friends and I don’t think she wanted to come home.
Boyfriend David has a poster of The Kramer up on the wall in his living room. It is the ONLY wall decoration that he has up. Apparently, Cleo caught sight of it through the window from outside and began to bark at it. Then she crept up toward it slowly, growling all the way, before crouching in front of it and barking for about twenty minutes. Cleo hates Kramer!
She also picked up the habit of jumping up onto couches during her sleepover weekend. My roommate Amanda doesn’t appreciate that because it’s her couch and we’ve caught her on it several times since last weekend. Yesterday Cleo was left alone for a short time while Amanda went to Starbucks, and when she came home Cleo had shredded some mail.
When I saw it I thought it was the cutest thing. Her first tear-up! If this is as bad as it’s going to get, then I think we’ve got it pretty good. After having owned a dog for exactly 10 days (even though she’s Amanda’s dog too, I do pretty much everything for her besides feed her in the morning), I can say that it definitely puts limitations on my life but it is completely worth it.
From Nicole:
Our dog never really ate or tore anything up when she was little, but once last year she ate our entire stack of bills. I had them clipped together on the kitchen table and while we were gone, she just gobbled them all up. I felt silly when I had to call and actually request for new bills because my dog ate it. It was true, though!
From Megan:
She probably heard about Michael Richard’s racist rant and wants the world to know that she, too, disapproves of such behavior.
At least, that’s why I bark for twenty minutes whenever I see The Kramer.
From Megan:
Or is it Richards’s? Richards’? I am royally sucking with my grammar on blog comments lately.
From Katy:
Oh, man. I love the team T-shirts idea. I think we need a name first, though.
For Hood to Coast last year in Portland, Matt and Dave’s team was called the Champons because there is no I in Champon. I don’t get it either.
From Scott:
I think Strunk and White say it should be “Richards’s”, but I don’t have my copy at work.
And I’m a personal believer in dogs being allowed on couches. Then again, I’ve never had a dog on any couch I actually paid for….