pet connection

I think we had forgotten how puppies find everything. Harper was walking around with a nail in her mouth last night. Who knows where that came from.

In the two weeks since we picked her up from the breeder, she’s made herself quite at home. I had hoped for a puppy with enough strength of character to stand up to a couple of older dogs who might not welcome her with open paws, and I got her. She just keeps thrusting herself at them, and now I often see them all sleeping together. When they want to get away from her, Bella and Twyla jump up into the recliner, which Harper isn’t big enough to do yet. I’m sure their escape hatch is only temporary, though.

The name Harper attracts a lot of interest, and people put their own spin on it. Our vet’s wife, who trained as a librarian, immediately thought of Harper Lee, of course. Our Canadian neighbors call her “the prime minister,” a reference to Canada’s Stephen Harper. And since we’re all hockey fans, they’re also the ones who told us about Canadian ice hockey defenceman Terry Harper.

She turned 4 months old on Friday. I was meeting a friend for lunch at a Mexican place with outdoor seating, so I took Harper along. Ginny, who has a young golden retriever, couldn’t get over how mellow Harper was. She was even more impressed when we decided to go check out Loehmann’s and I popped Harper into the EBD (Everything But the Dog) tote. It should be called the Everything And the Dog tote. She rode around in it quite contentedly.

She’s been to two puppy classes so far. “Don’t you already know how to do all that stuff?” my friend Tamela asked. I rolled my eyes. “It’s for the socialization.” Dog knows she’s getting tons of socialization to everything I can think of. She loves people, but in puppy class she seems a little hesitant about playing with the other puppies, even the smaller ones. It seems odd to me, given how hard she tries to get Twyla and Bella to play. Maybe it’s because they’re already familiar with each other and she’s the new kid in class. I can empathize, since I was usually that new kid every year or two.

Harper gets a lot more freedom than I normally would recommend to new puppy owners. She’s very good about lying under my desk with Bella while I work so it’s easy to keep an eye on her. She loves her toys and willingly gives up chewing on books and other forbidden objects when they’re presented to her as an alternative. Our only downfall has been potty training. She’s pretty good about using the litter box, but not 100 percent, so we’ve redoubled our efforts to take her out every two hours and to watch her more closely. It will help when the old carpet, with the scent of years of dog and cat accidents, comes out of the office this week.

Like any puppy, she’s just plain fun to be around. Even better, she’s helping to heal the wound in my heart left by Darcy’s departure. Puppies are good at that.