Going with the flow

 

In the corner of the yard, during Ember's "last call" backyard time on Thursday, The Prisoner crouches on the corner of the fence.  Look out squirrels, the mighty hunter is close to where you chatter!

Prisoner is good at this "going with the flow" thing.  He will take his breakfast downstairs in the laundry room suite, or outside al fresco on the deck, even at times with mom holding the dish while he perches on the rail.  As long as he gets fed, he's OK.

Mom got up for the "middle of the night" potty break for Ember a little too early, because by the time mom woke to check in the 3 a.m. hour, a familiar not so pleasant odor was invading the senses.  

Mom was tempted to go rush and take care of it right that second but opted instead to take her shower and dress before going down.  It gave her the little extra edge to keep her calm as we started the day with a puppy who had earned her first (at my house) bath... maybe even first in her life, I don't know.

We went outside to give her a chance to finish the job before that, and to also check and see how dirty she was.  Then clean out the crate while she played, feed her breakfast, and interrupt breakfast once the edge of hunger was off to have that bath.  

Mom has some bath gloves for the purpose, and they worked well.  Puppy did not strip them off of mom. She was polite about letting go when asked.

In fact, puppy did pretty well.  She did not panic over the bath, and now the towels used in the process of all the cleanup have been laundered.  

It was over an hour earlier than our normal time, but we went on with the routine.  The Prisoner had to "go with the flow" and let Ember have her breakfast first.  We had some indoor play time, since the sun was not yet up.  Then mom enticed Emmy into her crate, not just to test that it had been adequately cleaned but for "safe passage for kitty".

That turned into a puppy nap time, and started typing this blog!

Here's the puppy drying off after her bath.

She smelled so good, and when she dried off, her coat was so soft!

After puppy nap #1, we went out on a "big girl leash walk" around the block.  During this walk we encountered a neighbor named Chad.  He had just finished walking his two dogs, Husker and _____.  He has seeded his backyard, so is having to leash walk them until the grass gets a good start.

Barnaby (rough coated collie) and Bill (human) came by as Chad and I were chatting about dogs and their rearing and quirks.  Barnaby and Ember greeted one another nicely.  I took note that Barnaby doesn't rough-house with Ember, he tolerates her licks and licks her back.  Carl is a great believer in the rough housing.  And once you get Ember going, it takes an effort to calm her down.  I shall be keeping a close eye on that in future / ongoing visits.

Puppy nap #2 followed the walk.  During puppy nap #2 I nodded off for a few minutes myself.  I figured I needed that worse than I needed to weed.  The result was that I tried to pull sticky William after Ember got up from her nap.  When I do yard work, it gets the puppy worked up.  If I let her pick part of the weeds or branches to play with while I put the rest in the trash cans, it seems to work better.  Puppy:  distract!

Once calmed down, I got out the harness, and surprise:  with the sizing adjustments I had made, and it being attempt #3 over 3 separate days, successfully buckled it on without her mouth being clamped on the chest strap!

We took the new vest on a test drive around the big block, The obligatory selfie in the car, with disheveled dog-mom and puppy looking attentive.  You really can't see the pretty pink, but you can see the reflective chest strap.

I left the harness on for a while just being around at home after we got back.  She proved that bodily functions work without interference.  

Before puppy nap #3 (now in progress), I took it off her.  We'll see if it's less of a big deal to get it on next time.

And now I'm headed to have mini-human nap #2!

Life is good!  Spark on!