Weezie’s pupdate

Since I’m in charge of canine acquisition and well-being in this household, and since it’s been a while since you’ve heard from Louis and even longer since you’ve heard from Meg, I thought you might like to hear how they’re doing.

Meg had a rough winter. In late January, her tranquil home was invaded by a 5-pound monster (Louis) who liked to bite her ears and disturb her naps. She went from getting 23.5 hours of sleep a day to only 23.25 hours. Then in early February, she was bitten by a rheumy-eyed Boston terrier and developed a lip abscess. About two weeks later, we got heat. That same day, she was so overjoyed that she took a frolick in a nearby field and tore her other ACL. For those of you who don’t believe Meg can frolick, here’s proof from back in January:

All the antibiotics she received for the abscess and the ACL surgery, not to mention the piece of rawhide she ate whole, led to a six-week bout of GI distress from which we are only just emerging. On the bright side, the ACL tear did mean that we had to separate her from Louis, so she’s now much better-rested. Reid thinks she tore her ACL on purpose for this very reason. She does like her sleep. She’s completed her rehab now and even frolicked (cautiously) a couple of weeks ago. Here’s hoping she has an uneventful summer.

Louis is thriving. Up to 17 pounds from 5 when we got him less than four months ago, he enjoys chewing just about everything: cigarette butts, dead baby snakes, rocks, dead squirrels (he’s found two), Meg’s ears, pants legs, stairs, doors, books, fingers – you get the idea. He’s mostly potty-trained. Meg’s ACL tear, and the fact that we came home to a puddle and a pile every day for a month, meant that we finally stopped ignoring everyone’s advice and crate-trained him; it really worked. Training in other ways has not gone as well, and he thinks the word “no” means “let’s keep playing this super-fun game.” He also loves doing figure-of-eights around the yard and fighting with rakes:

He loves everyone he meets. (I apologize to those of you whom we’ve encountered on our walks whose fingers he’s chewed. He seems to be growing out of it now that his adult teeth are in.) Over the last few weeks, he’s started turning orange. I wonder if that’s a sign that Jacques approves of him. I hope so.