The puppy chronicles: 12 Weeks Old and Looking for Trouble

The Calm before the storm

Luna has reached the 12 week mark and has been with us for 5 1/2 weeks. She is getting bolder by the day. Her confidence is growing and she's developing into one spunky little doggie. And we all know spunky puppies have a propensity for finding trouble.

Out on the prowl....

Cleo and Luna's yard adventures have officially grown from the "explore together" phase to the "let's see how much trouble we can get ourselves" into stage. For instance, earlier in the week Jim had the pups out to do their business and immediately they ran to the woodpile in the back to hunt for chipmunks. Upon finishing their hunting escapade Cleo army crawled under the shed through a small opening in a woodpile. And of course whatever big dog does, little dog does. Before Jim could do anything Luna was under the shed with Cleo. After about 6 or 7 minutes it became clear they had no intention of returning. Jim called Cleo with the come command and Cleo responding by giving him the paw. Jim eventually had to remove a large section of the woodpile and partially climb under and manually remove the two of them. There's nothing like dragging two spotted dogs out of a small space against their will, in your work clothes when you are now running late.  Lets just say Jim was not a happy camper.

Cleo with her head jammed into a hollow rail road tie used to stack wood back by the shed. She's hunting critters.

She sticks her dog snout in there and huffs as loud as she can

And when all else fails digs at it while screaming like a banshee.

Or like last night at 4:30am when I took Luna out to do her business and she darted under the deck refusing to come out. She would pop out in prairie dog fashion and then would immediately retreat upon me trying to catch her. I'm pretty sure she even laughed at me when I tried to gently call her out, walk the other direction or bribe her with treats. Sleep deprivation and barefeet on cold wet grass in the middle of the night will make anyone feel desperate. And during my attempts to lasso her Cleo took advantage of me and trotted off into the dark edges of our property probably to hunt rabbits. They double teamed me. Needless to say I joined rank with Jim and became an unhappy camper. Moral of this story....Spotted dogs at 4:30 in the morning are not to be trusted. Ever.

Warning: Do Not and I mean Do Not be fooled by this cuteness.

Luna has also turned into quite the digger. She needs constant supervision when near our mulch beds. I find myself counting the days till we put the fence up around the garden so I don't have to go through the fight of wiping mud from her paws. Because of course this puppy can't stand to have it's front feet touched. Wiping wet paws turns into an all outright melt down baby fit. My heart goes out to parents who have had their kids melt down in super markets and toys stores. Last week at the vets they cut her nails and she basically flipped out. You know its bad when the staff brings up three days later. We touch and play with her feet everyday to try and desensitize her with little to no effect. And of course I'm sure the feet thing will be even more fun when she's 55 pounds.

Someone is having entirely too much fun digging in the sand

Sandy dog snout

The silver lining to this troublesome cloud is that Luna is still the sweetest puppy ever. She loves to nap on your chest when sleeping on the couch. She would rather be laying snug as a bug in your lap when sitting outside as opposed to lounging on the deck. She loves to be touched and petted and coos loudly the entire time. All of this loviness makes it hard to stay mad at her and if anything it makes her and Cleo's antics all the more humorous. But I find myself lamenting a bit at the quick rate of her growth. She's getting big so fast that soon my puppy will be gone along with that scent of puppy breath. I find Jim and I holding onto that sentiment and doing our best to make every little puppy moment with her count good or troublesome.

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