Monday Bulliness

I am hanging out with the two bullies on our porch amid the construction vestiges feeling the cool breeze this Monday morning. Boss and Daisy are enjoying their time outside, hanging out. Boss is scratching his back on the rough carpet on the porch while Daisy chews on a old rope toy of Boss's she found out here. Oops. She dropped in on the grass off the porch so off they went--Boss first to retrieve it. They have their leashes tied together so I can easily get to them--Boss has some issues with recall, and Daisy is still an unknown factor--and we live off a main highway. This morning I took them somewhat off leash (at least I wasn't holding the leashes) right next to the lake across from our house. There is a volleyball court area that they played in, playing fetch. Daisy is much better at the game, partly with puppy stamina and female focus. Boss plays for awhile and then sort of meanders off--almost to say, I know this game, it seems pointless, but this patch of grass is very interesting. Daisy seems to be a little better at the not pottying in the house--I am being VERY strict about the crate training but I am also being big on outside time, play-time and long walks. Probably Daisy is feeling spoiled by having all this attention and outside time and certainly it is breaking her out of her old routine. I keep reminding myself, remember when Boss was almost a year old. Two kids are on skateboards going down the hill in front of our house, making the dogs very curious...Boss more so, Daisy is back to the chew toy. It will be nice when this room gets closed in and the dogs have a nice room to sun in (and the cats too!)

Boss Babyness

Thinking about all the baby moments of Boss, keeping Daisy's babyness in perspective.

Boss Nostalgia

Not wanting to forget Bossness with the new entrance of Daisyness...

Learning to potty-train all over again

Supposedly she is crate trained. Supposedly house trained. But that doesn't mean, I am finding, in my house. Back to basics, and I pulling out the potty training I learned from Boss and a step-son. It even makes me want to go back on birth control and NOT try for another baby until we get Daisy integrated into our household.

Anyways...here is the aftermath of the latest potty disaster in photos (nothing yucky, I promise):

Introducing Daisy and Boss Hog Hurley

Otherwise known as Lazy Daizy, Hog Dog, Daisy Duke, The Boss, and other cute bully names as , deemed needed at the time. First there was Boss Hog Hurley, partly named after Boss Hog from the Dukes of Hazzards and after the lovable and witty character Hurley on our favorite show Lost. Boss came into our lives almost two years ago from a local family breeder in Michigan where we lived at 5 months old. He had his 1 year birthday party in Houston, TX on July 23, 2008. He is a an unusually colored bulldog with brindle spots that make him look cow-like--which is exactly the type of bulldog my step-son requested. He is sweet natured, pretty docile, and very cuddly. Over the time he has adapted to us quite well, hardly needing to use his crate very often anymore. However, he was a big chewer and probably chewed over 2000 dollars worth of stuff (including pairs of glasses) -- this taught us lessons very quickly. (I.e. never leave anything around we don't want chewed--for example, all our shoes must be higher than dog level when left out)

We have been looking for a friend for Boss for about a year now--we loved Boss so much and yet we really wanted him to have a pal. Of course, we had mixed feelings about this--what if Boss's lovable nature was unique to him and not indicative of the breed like we had been told. What if we never loved another bully as much as Boss? Or, what if Boss loved his friend more than us--or god forbid, what if we enjoyed the other bully more, perhaps making Boss jealous, and upsetting our household emotional balance?

Of course, a little bit of each were bound to happen, but not in the paranoid dosage we had feared...and even more so, we were in for increasing our love potential exponentially and opening our hearts even more than we thought possible. My step-son asked recently, why do you love pets and I said because they give unconditional love. What I should have said was, because it allows us to feel unconditional love.

Daisy came to our family this past week--we had hoped for an all white girl, had looked at many bulldogs, and finally we found a fit. We will have some growing pains with her--she is somewhat dominant, likes to be a bully, unlike Boss who goes along with the flow, and is somewhat love starved having been in a crate daily for 15 hours at a time. She is 11 months old and it is like going back in time and reliving some of the bad and good aspects of puppyhood we experienced with Boss.

Their relationship is funny to watch--it reminded us how much of Boss really is an English Bulldog and they play so funnily--I took some video and will post it soon because words will not do their playing justice. What inspires me and I hope inspires this blog is that their relationship with each other and us as a family seems to have so much potential...for humor, for heartwarmingness, and for healing.

Having lost our infant daughter Maddy, having a puppy has been a healing experience for us--in a way, having a female bulldog does so even more. It is so cute seeing Matt talk to Daisy as if she is a little girl (very different from how he talks to Boss) and it is similar how he treated Maddy, so it brings up feelings for us both. Loving is the best way to heal and having the dogs (and don't forget out two kitties) really helps us to do that....

So, I plan on posting pictures and thoughts for others to see and for us to remember--especially for my step-son Britin when he gets older. I think of the book/movie, Marley, and how everyone loves a dog story, how loving a dog is so universal...now I imagine that loving two dogs at one time might be even more entertaining, relatable and enjoyable, for me and anyone else who happens to read this...