In which I lost my mind and woke up with a new (used) dog.

So last night I was on a walk with Rachel, Maddy and Ash, when I got a phone call from Rachel's friend Kat. She was driving back from Chicago, where she had gone to her aunt's house to pick up a dog.

Kat loves animals and she has three dogs, and now this aunt, who seems to be a little nutty, is moving to Montana to live with her daughter, and she wanted Kat to take her dog - supposedly this is temporary. So Kat and her mother went to pick up the dog in Chicago, and ended up coming home with the dog, a cat, and an extra dog! She said her aunt was keeping this other dog in a crate and that it has been staying in the crate for hours at a time, and also seemed to be afraid of the aunt!

So Kat said she had to take the dog, because the aunt was just going to take it to the pound, but Kat couldn't bear to let her do that, so she brought the dog home with her, but since she already has 3 dogs of her own, plus now her aunt's dog and a cat, she wanted to know if I could take the dog. That's when I temporarily lost my mind and said yes, and now I have a dog at my house.

Oh man. This dog is not housebroken at all! And he's three years old! He is very friendly, and is having a great time playing with a squeaky rubber duck that used to be Maddy's but it is the dog's toy now. It was a set of three ducks, a Momma and two babies, and Maddy only played with the babies because they are small. The Momma was too big for her to hold, but it's just right for a smallish dog to squeak the heck out of!

I shut the dog in the bathroom last night so he wouldn't pee all over the house while we were sleeping, and he was fine. He is used to being in a crate, so I imagine the bathroom was like a castle to him! I'm going to look for a crate for him at Walmart today, just to sleep in or to stay in when we aren't home, until he is housebroken. When he's housebroken, we'll just use the crate for traveling or for when we are going to be gone from home for a few hours.

The cats hate him, of course. They are avoiding him like crazy, and I put a baby gate across the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen, and closed the french doors between the living room and the dining room, so the cats have the dining room and the downstairs bathroom to themselves - a dog-free zone!

My new dog's name is Sonny. Rich says he is too old to change his name, so I guess it will stay Sonny. Kat's Aunt said he was a Lhasa Apso, but he isn't. Rich took a look at him and says he is a Cockapoo, which is better, since they have a good temperament and are smart, like poodles. Also, they don't shed much, so that's good! He's laying by my feet now, chewing his squeaky duck.

In other news, Maddy crawled last night! She was trying to get a little cracker that was just a bit farther than she can reach, and she crawled two steps to get it! Rachel immediately laid a little trail of crackers for her, and she crawled again, twice, to get the crackers! So apparently when properly motivated, Maddy can do new things! Just like Kung Fu Panda!