Tuesday

Sorry about not posting yesterday. Here’s what happened:

Monday night Pete and I brought Cosmo to the vet for a check-up and to get his puppy shots. It was the first time he rode in the car since we brought him home. He wasn’t shaking like last time, but he was very quiet and still, the way he gets when he’s scared. The vet techs at the office all fawned over Cosmo: “Well hello, Handsome!” “You’re a sweet one, aren’t you?” “Oh! What a little baby!” Then we met our vet. Love her! She was so nice and informative—knew a lot about the breed—and had a great way of interacting with Cosmo. 

Rather than freak him out by putting him on the cold table, she had Pete keep Cosmo in his arms and she examined him there. Everything checked out and Cosmo behaved wonderfully. He really took a shining to the cookies the vet fed him. We discovered that he weighs 4 pounds, 4 ounces, which is an average puppy weight for Shibas. We picked her brain about feeding schedules, puppy pad training, nipping, walking, socialization…the list goes on. Then she had me hold Cosmo while she gave him a shot. I held him because he loves me so much and I figured that if he’s a little mad at me for the shot instead of Pete, it would be OK. Maybe he’d nip me less! He didn’t even notice the shot, he was so focused on the cookie. 

The vet told us that now is the time to start socializing Cosmo to everything—pets, people, and kids. So we’re thinking we’ll probably start out by introducing him to Lafite this weekend. We’re also thinking about exposing him to some children. Pete’s cousins have a 1-year-old, but the vet said that older babies and toddlers can be rough with dogs, so we might wait until May when we can introduce him to Aubrie (my cousin Christie’s daughter). With a sweet little honey-chil’ like that, we’re supposed to start off holding him near her feet so he can smell her. Then when he’s proved that he’ll be gentle, we can bring him closer to her, but we still shouldn’t let him near her face, just in case. I don’t think Cosmo will be too terribly interested because he’s kind of an antisocial dog, but I’m still going to watch him very carefully as we introduce him to smaller people!

Anyway, after talking to the vet about his feeding and pooping schedule, we figured it would be a good idea to try to have someone let Cosmo out in the middle of the day while he’s still so young. At about 3-4 months he should be able to go the whole day. Apparently older Shibas have bladders of steel! So, since my brother Geoff checked in on Cosmo on Monday and it went so well, we asked him if he’d be willing to pay Cosmo a daily visit for a few weeks. Being the totally amazing brother he is, he agreed. They’ve been getting along famously and it sounds like Cosmo behaves for Geoff (whew!). On days when Geoff can’t make it, we’ll probably ask Pete’s Mom to stop by. Or, if it’s the summer, we’ll have my sister Abbie act as Cosmo’s governess. J

OK, moving on. Yesterday (Tuesday), I did not want to run in the morning. I woke up to the sound of rain at 5:30am and thought, “yeah, there’s no way this is happening.” I mean, it was the weather’s fault. I think. I’m not actually sure if it was still raining at 6:00am, but I do know that sleeping in until 7:30am was amazing. Then, after work, I trained Cosmo a bit, trying to teach him “Down” (he’s very, very slowly catching on). Then I put Cosmo outside so he could help Daddy re-landscape the backyard.

I had planned on running after work, but it was cool and windy and I just didn’t feel like it, so I went upstairs to blog. But before I began typing a post, I checked out this blog and I felt guilty. I had no good excuse for not running. Earlier I had told myself, “I’ll run on Wednesday,” but at that moment, I realized that I could run on Wednesday…or I could run on Tuesday and Wednesday. So that’s what I did. It was 6:45pm, and we still hadn’t even started dinner, but I got on my running gear, went downstairs and apologized to Pete. Then I ran.

Then I came home and ate the dinner Pete cooked while I was out (best husband ever) and then I cooked our dinner for tonight. It’s a curry chicken salad that I’ve made a hundred times, but this time I reduced the amount of chicken (by a lot) and subbed in a small apple and some grapes. This move was inspired by a documentary we just watched called “Forks Over Knives.” I’m not saying I’m vegan or anything, but it definitely makes you rethink the amount of animal protein you consume! Moderation in everything, I guess.

Tonight you probably won’t see another post from me because after we eat the delicious salad and play with Cosmo, Pete’s taking me to see the Hunger Games! We’re also stopping at Fleet Farm to pick up some puppy food for Cosmo (since the first stuff we bought had corn in it and apparently Shibas don’t do well with corn. Awesome.), some more training treats, and some (flavorful) chew sticks.

And that’s what’s up in my boring life. How are things for you?

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