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- Hampshire, U.K.
I thought it’d be nice to have a Pets thread on here, any species.
Well, we collected Pippin two days ago, and he was very good in the car on the long motorway journey from Stafford to Whitchurch, Hants. He’s 9 weeks old today, eating well, sleeping all night and dry in the morning, and enjoying exploring the kitchen and living room to find good places to chew. We’ve had to tidy up, especially trailing electric flex. He’s like a little fluffy Duracell-powered teddy bear, keeps going at full power until suddenly he switches off and drops asleep for a couple of hours. Simply delightful little dog, - I’ve had to become his social secretary, timetabling in friends and neighbours with their children, who all want to meet and play with him, so I’m keeping it to one family per day to spread out the socialisation and try not to overwhelm him. Yesterday we watched the refuse lorry go past our house, dayglow men racing around banging bins for the monster to eat, and he trembled in my arms, wide-eyed. Later on we drove down to Whitchurch for car practice, and I carried him along the Main Street, watching the traffic go by and greeting people, then into our dog-friendly coffee shop for lots of oohs and ahhs. He’s sleeping atm, after the family he met this morning, and when he wakes up, we are going out into the garden, wearing his unaccustomed collar and on a lead so he doesn’t fall into the pond, to meet the chickens. It’s all go! On Monday we go to the vet for his second vaccination, and then he needs 10-14 days to develop full immunity before putting feet on the ground outside or meeting other dogs. However, there are big advantages to a puppy weighing less than 2 kilos - I can carry him around easily, let him see scary things, like traffic especially, from the reassurance of being held out of the way.
Our darling Poppy would have loved him, she was always very gentle with puppies, although most of them were bigger than she was. It doesn’t seem possible that she died only two weeks ago. It’s such a long journey, to teach a puppy to speak English As A Second Language and to just fit in, the way Poppy did. But little Pippin is helping to pull us out of the dark place, and all our memories of Poppy are good ones.
Well, we collected Pippin two days ago, and he was very good in the car on the long motorway journey from Stafford to Whitchurch, Hants. He’s 9 weeks old today, eating well, sleeping all night and dry in the morning, and enjoying exploring the kitchen and living room to find good places to chew. We’ve had to tidy up, especially trailing electric flex. He’s like a little fluffy Duracell-powered teddy bear, keeps going at full power until suddenly he switches off and drops asleep for a couple of hours. Simply delightful little dog, - I’ve had to become his social secretary, timetabling in friends and neighbours with their children, who all want to meet and play with him, so I’m keeping it to one family per day to spread out the socialisation and try not to overwhelm him. Yesterday we watched the refuse lorry go past our house, dayglow men racing around banging bins for the monster to eat, and he trembled in my arms, wide-eyed. Later on we drove down to Whitchurch for car practice, and I carried him along the Main Street, watching the traffic go by and greeting people, then into our dog-friendly coffee shop for lots of oohs and ahhs. He’s sleeping atm, after the family he met this morning, and when he wakes up, we are going out into the garden, wearing his unaccustomed collar and on a lead so he doesn’t fall into the pond, to meet the chickens. It’s all go! On Monday we go to the vet for his second vaccination, and then he needs 10-14 days to develop full immunity before putting feet on the ground outside or meeting other dogs. However, there are big advantages to a puppy weighing less than 2 kilos - I can carry him around easily, let him see scary things, like traffic especially, from the reassurance of being held out of the way.
Our darling Poppy would have loved him, she was always very gentle with puppies, although most of them were bigger than she was. It doesn’t seem possible that she died only two weeks ago. It’s such a long journey, to teach a puppy to speak English As A Second Language and to just fit in, the way Poppy did. But little Pippin is helping to pull us out of the dark place, and all our memories of Poppy are good ones.