house guest

About a month ago, my brother moved down to the bay area. It's been about 15 years since I've lived close to family (mine anyway, G's family is all here in the bay), so I of course immediately thought about getting together on weekends, holiday visits, driving up to my parents together . .. Before he was even down here, my brother jumped on the other time honored benefit of having family close by: taking advantage of my presence to babysit his puppy for ten days. Being the masochist that I am (and thinking of how nice it would be to have my brother owe me big time), I said yes.

So meet our adorable but pesky house guest, Porter.

He's a total doll, but (and I say this with love), he's a puppy. And it's been a while since I've had a puppy. Actually, I've never quite had a puppy like this one. Mia, for all her faults, was never hyper. Tucker was in some ways but he was mostly G's problem for a long time, although I'd like to believe that I was the first to begin to calm him down (with lots of exercise, which I had all sorts of time for back in those days).

Porter on the other hand has lots of energy, and I definitely don't have the time that I used to. He plays like there's no tomorrow, particularly in the mornings. Our guys like to lay around for as long as possible, he's ready to go the moment G gets up for work. G lets him out but it's usually a while before I'm done nursing and getting the baby back to sleep. So he wanders around listlessly during that hour or so after G takes off for work and before I'm ready to give the dogs any attention. The first morning, G left him outside with the dog door open. When he was bored outside, I suddenly started hearing scratching and pawing at the glass door, with the evidence of paw prints found later that were much higher than any of our guys can jump. I was in the middle of nursing so had to just sit there and listen to him for another 20 minutes or so. When the pawing didn't work, he moved on to whimpering and barking. While he seems to be just fine using the dog door when he wants (like when all 4 dogs get crazy for something outside and rush out there like mad men, with the dog door clanging loudly behind each one -- that happens most often when the baby is asleep and I've forgotten to lock the door. That's been a fun one cuz it almost always wakes the DZ up, and I think it's happened at least once a day this week. To be fair, that happens when it's just our guys too, so that's not Porter's fault), when I can't get to the door is when he forgets how the dog door works, it seems.

Yesterday, G just left the back door open and he raced in and out every so often to see if any of us had changed our minds about going out. Plus, I think he managed to get Mia to finally play with him a bit, but of course they did it inside instead of out. So imagine two decent sized dogs running around, banging into the stereo system and coffee table with their tails. And of course me being in the bedroom feeding the kid, so I couldn't do any more than yell at them from a distance. Today, I thought went reasonably well as Porter mostly hung out either in one of the dog beds or on our bed all morning watching me nurse. I'm still not entirely sure when he found the time to get into our bathroom trash and leave pieces of tissue lying around all over the house. Since I've had a runny nose the last few days, there were lots of tissues in there and I'm not convinced I've found all the pieces he's left around yet.

And I guess that's the other thing I'm not used to anymore -- having to keep an eye on a dog. Our guys all take off now to their various corners and I see it as a blessing (because they can't fight). With Porter, it makes me nervous. Most of the time, when I go looking for him, he's perfectly fine: sleeping in the guest bed, his crate, the dog bed outside, our bed, or in one of the other dog beds strewn about the house. Another favorite spot seems to be just behind the living room couch in front of the entry way table. And several times, when I've called his name, he's jumped up and looked at me, standing on his back legs, his front paws on the back of the couch (TOTALLY cute, by the way). The problem is that the rest of the time, I find him quietly digging in our trash, stealing the baby's laundry (he seems to love her onesies and burp cloth), or chewing on G's wool sheepskin slippers. And since I never know when those times will be, I'm always trying to keep an eye out and trying to remember to make sure these items are out of reach, the bathroom doors closed, the laundry covered with an extra basket.

He's a barker. And he's a bit crazy when he plays. He's gotten me several times with his teeth when we've been tugging. He tries to jump all over me when I'm done. When I am finally ready in the morning, the other 3 are thinking of just one thing: food. But he's trying to run circles around the yard and jump on me because he's finally happy to be let out and surrounded by company.

But despite the fact that he's a little bit of a punk, he's also a doll. Mia loves playing with him (for about 5 minutes a stretch maybe 2-3 times a day) and seems pretty good at telling him when she's done. He's also pretty good at listening to her eventually, though he's not above some extra attempted persuasion. In this particular video, Mia was waiting for her food, so she was into it but keeping her eye on me to make sure I wasn't serving breakfast just yet. I had a better one I shot yesterday, but it must have been too big for Blogger because it wouldn't upload.

Plus, he's great around the baby. I try to keep him from getting too close and I know it kills him because he sits there staring and trying to inch closer. When he has been closer, all he's done is sniff. Which is awesome because several times when I've gone looking for him, I've also found him standing on our bed, peering over into the bassinet while the DZ is asleep. Now that I've realized he doesn't do much more than smell, I'm not freaked out about it. The first day, I wondered if he was scared by her crying because I'd keep finding him in his crate when she got too loud. But he must have gotten over that quickly because he comes running now whenever she fusses.

Here, he and Mia were guarding her while she napped in the bassinet in our room. Granted, Mia seems a bit more alert in her guarding than he does, but I'm sure he would have stepped up if necessary. :)

I think he's doing his job much better in this one.

Plus, he's a bit of a snuggle bunny which I can never resist. Though he's been banned from our bed when G's around due to his propensity to get right on G's pillow and fart (and his farts are particularly frequent and foul, coming from some one with 3 dogs who definitely don't smell like roses). He seems to know it too (about the banning, not sure he realizes how stinky he is) because this morning, he waited until G had hopped into the shower before jumping into bed with me.

So overall, although he's been a bit more work, he's mostly been a pretty good house guest. Our guys spent at least 90% of each day lazing around the house, and he's taken quite well to that though I imagine he'd prefer a bit more exercise if he could get it.

The only real complaint I've got, I must say, is that you guys, he EATS POOP!!!! I caught him taking a bite out of Mia's fresh turd this morning about 5 minutes after she laid it. Not cool. And totally disgusting. I'll keep my eyes peeled if I can, but that's going to be a hard one to monitor, especially with 4 dogs pooping in our yard 2x a day. EW.