Act II

 

Act II: Not the Beginning

I am sitting on my front porch watching my puppy, Benny, chew on a toy.  Last night was the first time he spent the entire night, all alone, in the kennel. Well, almost alone: his kennel is less than forty feet from the fenced enclosure where Thunder and Nico, our other two Malamutes sleep. So at three in the morning when they decided they wanted to comfort the puppy with a rousing rendition of “We are Malamutes," little Benny had no trouble at all taking comfort from the lullaby, and even joining in!



Benny, who told me he'd like to be known by his full name “Benny Coldfoot” is now five months old. He has been here since Sept.12, so it's almost two weeks, since he left his brother and the big dogs he's spent his life with to date. Because we knew he'd be lonely, Benny spent his first few nights here sleeping inside the house, with me nearby. He was in the crate, out of the crate, outside, and woops - diarrhea! Oh no! Talk about a crash course in house training, as in the dog trains the human in the signs that mean "I need to go out. NOW!"



Unless you have been in personal correspondence with me for at least the last two years you will likely feel like you are coming in the middle of Act II. That is because you are.  So if you wonder why I am writing about a puppy named "Benny" when this blog is running under the title "Nico's Story"  I refer you to  "The Sun  Also Rises" and the other pages under "Back Story" for the "Nico Blog Prequel."  That is where I intend to tell the stories that led to the introduction of a puppy in our home at this time. Similarly, the updates that follow regarding the Nico- Benny integration project will also make a lot more sense to you if you know a little bit about where Nico came from, and his life here with us to date.



Meanwhile, back to the puppy! The second night the poor little guy  was so sick -- had to go out just about every hour.  He finally moved to a place near to the door to sleep.  My husband, at around 2 a.m., came downstairs from our comfortable bed where he had been sleeping alone to find me curled up on the floor with the puppy. I told him that Benny was doing what you do when you are so sick you just want to lie down on the bathroom floor because you can't bear to get up and down from the bed anymore to do what has to be done on time. Smart puppy -- he got out the door on time every time.  Of course come morning, I was most painfully reminded that I am too old to be sleeping on cement floors!



That was a week ago. Puppy is coming along fine now.  Day by day he has learned to enjoy his outdoor kennel as a place where he can relax from the demands of learning house manners, leash manners, and all the things we ask of puppies destined to be companion dogs. It's all pretty usual puppy stuff and if I were to itemize the details it would serve only to remind us all of what puppy training is all about.



My next entry however will be about play time in the yard. You might think "ho hum, also how normal." But play time for Benny involves training Nico not to run him into the the ground and what we are doing in the yard would likely not be considered “normal” by anybody, except, perhaps of course, other people who adopt and raise and live with Malamutes! Stay tuned! Nico's Story is far from predicable, easy or dull.  If you have Malamutes – you know and expect something different. And if you don't have Malamutes, well, hang on for the ride!