Puppy Love

So a couple of weeks before Easter, we took Judah out to our friends little hobby farm in a neighboring rural community to 'see their animals'. Their kids are in 4H and they have pigs, goats, horses, chickens, dogs and cats.

Such a thing is always a treat for little Judah, as mama isn't ready we aren't yet set up for our own goats and chickens.

What Judah didn't pick up on right away was that this was really a covert mission for him to select his very own puppy from their almost-ready litter. He has been yearning for his very own puppy for ages.

I regret to say I have no pictures of that day, as my trusty, seven year old camera was on the fritz.

The mama dog is a papered, purebred Golden retriever whose owners had high hopes of breeding her next year and selling the puppies.

Unfortunately, the gate was left open one night, and half of the puppies in her littler bear a striking resemblance to a neighbors black lab.

It mattered not to us. They were all roly-poly, cuddly and adorable, and in the end, one of the pups chose Judah.

Here is our adorable little puppy Ticker.

Judah named her all by himself, saying, "Don't 'ticker' off or she'll bite ya!"

Just his kind of pup, apparently.

She can take it just as well as she can dish it out. Judah has got scratches all over his arms and legs to prove it (though he is known for using every possible excuse to get to wear a band-aid).

Ticker is an adorable but wily little thing, sneaking indoors at every opportunity.

Her cuteness is in her favor, because after my bulb bed was decimated, the tops strewn about the back patio like discarded green onions...well, Ticker really ticked ME off.

She has since buried and unburied the remaining few bulbs a half-dozen times, each time coming to the back porch looking very dusty and oh-so-guilty.

It's really hard to discipline and train such a cute little thing.

The day after the decimation of my bulb bed and her subsequent trampling to death of all the bean sprouts and young squash plants in another of my garden beds, I was seriously reconsidering the whole idea of puppy ownership.

Wouldn't you know that was the very morning that Judah's Sunday School teacher told Jeff she was glad to hear Judah had finally gotten a puppy of his own. Apparently that had been our boy's heartfelt prayer request each week for months.

The choice was clear...we simply HAD to keep her.

She continues to dig up the backyard, has chewed the basketwork off the leg of one of my wicker chairs out back, gives Raisin a real run for her money and consistently attempts to play tug-of-war with any loose article of clothing on anyone entering the backyard. I had forgotten all about the damage that a puppy's milk teeth will do to kids clothing.

But then, I see my boy holding his beloved puppy and my heart melts into a puddle.

And I find myself crooning, "Oh, my little Ticker-Wicker-Woo" (a name that stuck long before she began teething on my wicker chairs) to her all over again, all her past offenses forgiven.

It probably helps that when the boy 'sneaks' her inside, she always finds her way to me.

Isn't that how it always is? The one member of the family that wasn't keen on the whole idea of a new puppy to begin with, and she makes it her mission to win me over?

Napping under my desk

or on my foot

or in my hands

She's pretty much wriggled her way into all our hearts.

Well, except for our older dog Raisin.

"You have usurped my throne...you will pay!"

It's not all sunshine and roses around here.

In fact, the advent of a new puppy has resulted in some rather strange behavior from Raisin.

In an apparent bid to be as endearing as possible, the old girl has suddenly reverted back to puppy-like antics, gnawing on every puppy toy or bone she finds, frolicking in the yard, and racing for the glass sliding door every time it's opened lest she miss out on some offered treat.

When she thinks we're not looking or listening, she also growls possessively when the back door opens, as though to say, "Get away, Ticker...they were my people first!"

It's shameful, really, to see such overtly jealous behavior in a dog of her years and supposed maturity.

Being 49 (in dog years), we had recently begun giving her a Glucosamine Chondroiton supplement to help with the stiffness she seemed to have after sleeping curled up all night in her dog house. We even went so far as to bring her indoors on nights when the desert temperatures dipped into the teens over the winter.

Judging by all the exercise Raisin has been getting since the puppy joined our family, I'm beginning to suspect that either the supplements have worked a miracle or the 'arthritis' was all a big ploy from day one.

I am such a sucker!

Little Ticker, sensing Raisin's disdain of her, has turned her cute puppy charm on the old girl and I believe has finally begun to wear her down.

Begrudgingly, but they're sharing nonetheless.

It's a start, I suppose.