Nights Like These
Nights Like These
I was warned and I didn’t listen. “Don’t do it,” they said, but I did it anyway. I got a puppy and she’s driving me nuts! This week has been one of the most challenging of my life.
It all started the day we brought Bailey home. She lulled us into a false sense of ‘this will be easy.’ After her first meal in her new home, our ‘highly active’ puppy fell asleep in her bed. And she stayed that way for most of the evening. She ate, she went outside and she slept. There was absolutely no difference between her and our cats. Until bedtime. Then all hell broke loose.
We put her into her crate and she cried and cried and cried. It was awful listening to her. She cried for most of the night. We barely got any sleep. The next morning she was so excited to see us! We let her out of the crate and brought her outside. She was very nervous. The dog next door began to bark and Bailey froze. Her new surroundings were very overwhelming for her. She went from a house with her sister, another dog, chickens and a cat, to a home with 2 cats and strange sounds everywhere.
The cats, Velcro and Smokie were very wary of Bailey. Bailey, on the other hand was very nosey. Inside the house she wanted to explore and sniff everything including the cats. Bailey sniffed and sniffed, Smokie hissed and hissed and Velcro watched from atop the fridge. In the end Smokie retreated to the bedroom, clearly being sniffed was not her thing. While Smokie hid, Velcro came to inspect the new creature. Bailey was overly enthusiastic in her sniffing of this matriarch and got a swift paw in the nose for her troubles. Cue more crying.
Bailey retreated to the sitting room, to the safety of her crate. However, Velcro followed her. Now it was her turn to do the sniffing. She investigated the food bowl, the toys and finally the crate, where a shivering Bailey huddled in the corner. Velcro turned to look at us, carefully following behind, ready to intercept any further scuffle, gave us her best ‘We are not amused’ face and returned to the top of the fridge.
A few days later, Bailey who had found her voice, received swipe number two. This time it was from Smokie. In her defence, Bailey was only trying to get Smokie to play with her. In Smokie’s defence, Bailey had made the mistake of trapping her in a corner while barking enthusiastically. Bailey barked and pranced, Smokie hissed and swiped and that was the end of that. Bailey once again retreated, this time to the safety of BB, to whom she howled and howled.
I couldn’t make up my mind about her. One day she was the worst in the world, peeing everywhere and terrorising my poor cats. The next, she was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. While I flip-flopped Husband and BB were totally enamoured. In their eyes, Bailey could do no wrong. They had started to train her and she was very quick to pick up what they taught her. In no time at all, Bailey was able to sit, give the paw, knew her name and came when called.
Word began to get around that we had gotten a dog and it wasn’t long before the visitors started pouring in. All BB’s friend came to visit, in fact, it was hard to get rid of them, but then what kid doesn’t love a puppy. My aunt called one day, without knowing we had a dog and exclaimed, “What lives in that?!” when she saw the crate. Bailey was only thrilled to have a visitor and threw herself at my aunt. Of course, that could have had something to do with the dog biscuits she sometimes kept in her pockets.
In other news, Bailey seemed to have settled in well. It took the full week but she became more than comfortable in her new home. But the barking, the crying and the little accidents were driving me up the wall. So much so that one day, they sent me into a tailspin. I admit I lost it one morning. Logically, I knew that she was only a puppy and that accidents would happen. She was only 9 weeks old, her bladder was teeny tiny. As for the barking, she was only trying to get the cats to play. But to my completely illogical mind, Bailey was doing it on purpose. She knew it was getting to me and she did it anyway. Later on I was able to see things slightly more clearly, but at the time it was world ending.
Then one night it happened. We went through our night time routine and got ready to say goodnight. I brought Bailey outside to do a ‘busy, busy’. Next door’s dog started to bark but this time Bailey just sniffed and went about her business. Back inside I gave her a treat and put her into the crate. I turned off the light and went to our room and waited. Nothing happened. It was completely silent. No crying, no whining, no howling, no barking, just silence. I had adjusted to falling asleep to her crying, so now falling asleep to silence wasn’t easy. It was the same the following night, the night after that and every night since.
When she first arrived she used to gobble her food down so quick, it would make her sick. As the week went on she ate slower and slower, confident in the fact that she would be fed 3 times a day. There was also no one to share her food with, the cats had no interest in her food.
Bailey still tries to get the cats to play by barking at them. Although one day, Smokie forgot herself and tried to play with her. I don’t know who had the bigger fear, me watching what was happening, or Smokie when she realised what she was doing. Velcro still watches very carefully from afar but she gets close enough to have a sniff every now and again.
Bailey hasn’t been out for walkies yet because she is still learning about her new home and siblings. She is also waiting on her next vaccinations, which are booked for next week. So until she gets those and adjusts completely she’s grounded. After her vaccinations her next big adventure is puppy training classes. Husband keeps telling me she will be a me she will be a medium sized doggo but in my head she is going to be a big ass doggo!! We will never agree on that but we do agree on the training classes. Medium or big, she is going to be a strong, protective doggie so she needs to be properly trained. The training classes are for us too, we also need to be trained how to command such an active, intelligent breed.
As I said before a puppy is not just for Christmas, it is a 15 year commitment and I truly believe that there is no such thing as a bad dog only bad owners. So while I am now cautiously optimistic about owning a big (medium) doggo, I am determined that we will not be bad owners and we will be the family that Bailey deserves.
