Chili (7 weeks)

Last Friday (May 26) we got a puppy. She is a rambunctious little golden retriever (at least when she is awake). She has joined our family with reckless abandon. She is the youngest member of the family and has two older "siblings," Secant (1 1/2 year) and Sigma (a little over 3 years). Both of the cats have accepted her (sort of), at least when she is asleep. They tend not to be too fond of her barking at them.

Chili, short for Chili Dog, does four things really well: sleep, chewing (on anything or anybody), peeing (both outside :) and on the floor :(....thank god for wood floors), and eating (right now she puts down a cup and 1/2 of food per day). In fact, if she had one of those grade-school report cards, she would get a SUPERIOR rating in each of those four categories. If she was graded on sleeping through the night, entering her crate without crying, not barking/chasing the cats, not using arms/legs/noses as rawhide chews, she would get a big red "X" in the NEEDS IMPROVEMENT section.

What does Chili do for fun, aside from chasing the cats? We have been to the dog park a couple times. She seems to really enjoy running around and playing with the other dogs. Last night she got run over by a giant poodle. No lie. She got broad sided by this huge, white, curly imitation of a bad 80's hairdo. Then she got slobbered on by another very large dog that looked like it had perma-saliva attached to and dripping from his jowls.

She also seems to enjoy TV and movies. She has seen a couple Twins games, two episodes of Northern Exposure (the finale from Season 3 and the first episode from Season 4), Intolerable Cruelty, two minutes of The Matrix, and the first third of Best in Show. She has mostly slept through all of these, but she did perk up when one of the dogs barked during the opening seconds of Best in Show. Don't believe that because she watches TV that she is a Philistine. Not at all. She has "helped" me read parts of three different books in the last week (Fargo Rock City, 10th Grade, and Marley and Me). Sometimes she does sit with indifference during these literate moments, but usually she wants to take a more active role in her education.