Puppy Power!

Trevor and I are very excited to introduce the newest and furriest addition to our family, Roo!

Hello!

We adopted Roo from One Tail at a Time, a terrific no-kill rescue organization, and it's been eight days since she first came into our home.

Our first day with Roo: Saturday, January 12, 2013

You might notice that there's something a little...shaved about Roo. And a little missing, too. That's because she had surgery a few weeks ago to remove her back right leg. She was picked up by Chicago Animal Control a few days before Christmas, and she had a fractured leg when they found her. Animal Control set the fracture, but when One Tail at a Time rescued her (on Christmas Day!), they brought her to a vet who felt that the fracture was either more serious than originally assessed, or wasn't set correctly (we're not quite sure), and that Roo's little leg had to go.

Roo with the OTAT people, standing on her cast

Post surgery, sans leg

She spend her post-op in a foster home, which is where we first met her. Trevor had been eye-balling her ever since her pictures started showing up on the OTAT Facebook page (like them!), and once he saw her three-leggedness, he fell for her pretty hard. And once we met her in person, it was a done deal.

Jeff, one of the OTAT fellas, dropped her off last Saturday afternoon. We went shopping first, of course, to prepare. She couldn't come into a house without any toys, for god's sake. We're not heathens.

Toys! Treats!

And then we realized very, very quickly, that she's a bit of a lazy bones. She's even better at napping than I am, and I'm the Midwest Champion for 36 years running.

Cuddddddling.

Tucked In

Snuggling up to Cliff

Car napping

Dreaming of D. Becks (we were watching the United game this morning, so it was appropriate...sort of)

What you can't tell from the pictures, alone, though, is that Roo is a snore-er. She sounds like an old man with no nose. She saws more logs than a manic lumberjack.

She does have a good dose of puppy in her, though, so don't worry. In fact, on Monday, her first day alone while we went to work, she escaped from her canvas crate and did a bit of damage. Nothing serious, but this was what Trevor found when he came home from work at lunchtime.

She knocked over a mini flatfile that weighs a good forty pounds

Table and lamp knocked over, but neither one broken. She didn't even eat the chapstick that landed on the floor

She probably took a nap on the pillows, but didn't eat Wedgehead, which is good

She's not too crazy about being left alone. We borrowed a metal crate from our friend Sarah, and Trevor set up a webcam so we can spy on her at work (guess who got almost no work done this past week because she was watching her new puppy sleep? This girl!) and we've found that when she's not sleeping (which is most of the time), she's barking. Not a great combination. Our neighbor Sarah is very kind and patient, but we hope that Roo will knock this off soon so Sarah doesn't lose it on us. She'd be justified. I think Roo will get used to the situation in the next few days. It's only been a week, after all.

Here's what else she's been up to:

Being a blur

Showing off her fashionable new jacket

Waiting for treats (or heartworm pills, but they're treats to her)

Meeting Sadie

Giving Sadie kisses

Wondering if she's as cute as Sadie (this is a really, really, really tough call. impossible, even)

Sniffing Sadie to see if she's carrying any treats

She also got to meet Bosco and the girls, although it was a bit overwhelming. Peanut and Tequila were not thrilled to meet her, but we weren't surprised about that. Pepper played with her for about twenty minutes and then got tired of her. And Bosco barely noticed that there was a fourth dog in the house. He was a lot more interested in showing me and Trevor his cars.

We also started Roo in a training class, and we'll have the second meeting tonight. It's at Anything is Pawsible, which is the place we took Henry when he was a little guy. It was started by Rendy Schwartz, the wife of a former co-worker of mine, and she and all of the trainers are terrific.

Trevor, practicing a "settle" on Roo

Roo's classmates

I also started classes this week, and have a terrific group of students to meet with every day. We'll have a lot more about Roo and school (mostly Roo...) in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!