A Gathering Storm

His name is Flash. In this picture, he is sleeping. Puppies look so peaceful and innocent when they are asleep. If you dig deeper, there is more going on here. I like to think that he's recharging, saving potential energy to be later unleashed as a kinetic firestorm. In his little brain, there is plotting going on. He is asking himself, "How can I be the most disruptive little ball of cuteness this planet has ever seen?" Most of the time - mission accomplished.

This is not to say I don't love almost every minute spent with him. His little face stops traffic better than a tire changing on the 405. Literally. I had somebody pull over in their car just to take a picture with him. He takes more pictures than a Kardashian. We cannot take five steps in a Petco without drawing a crowd. Fathers bring their daughters over to pet him. Jon says he must be the best wingman ever - whatever that means.

I sorta knew the attention he would bring. Before, when we'd see a bullie on the street, we'd pet it and talk to the owners. Luckily, bullie owners are nice and not meatheads at all. What I wasn't prepared for is the attention he'd need from us. The little bugger barks for our attention all the time. We've managed to let him know that the tactic doesn't work, but every once in a while he'd test it out again - just to make sure.

Potty training means three hour rotations at night to let him out of his crate. At 11 weeks, he's quite good at it except for two instances: when the pad is too far for him to bother and when we're not home. When we're not home to watch, sometimes he just says, "screw this pad nonsense, this corner right here looks good." At least he's penned up so it not like an Easter egg hunt for the humans.

There are other things he does that I personally would not do, like chew on furniture or step on my poop. Although I underestimated the work of raising a puppy, I also underestimated how adorable his little antics and sounds are. We are so happy to have Flash, sometimes it's us that has separation anxiety.