Merry Christmas Part 1

This weekend we had the first of several Christmas parties.  Of course what better way to introduce new dogs to living indoors and housetraining than with a house full of people.  My cousin has a son about a year old, an eight year old girl and a five year old boy.  My other cousin has a daughter who just turned 17 on Saturday and an almost twelve year old daughter.  My niece and nephew are six and eight.  Not to mention my own kids, all the moms and dads and grandma and grandpa.  Whew!!

All the dogs, foster and permanent residents are toast and ready for a long restful week.

I'm always worried about how a foster is going to react to strangers, kids, toddlers, loving on it.  For those of you who are here for Cocoa - Will, he was amazing.  He was great.  He didn't beg too much food but rather helped himself to the Chocolate Mousse Bars on the card table.  Juuuust the right height for a big ol' labraboy.  He took it all in, letting everybody, including my nephew, who is not a dog person, love on him like there was noooo tomorrow.  About two hours before the party broke up, I could see that between all of the human activity, the physical exertion of getting over kennel cough and the general mayhem of life here at The Lodge, he laid down in the middle of the dining room floor and went to sleep.  Yep, right there.  Good boy, that Cocoa-Will.

For those of you who are here to read about our little Missy -Mischief, she was wonderful too.  The little girls got a little possessive about who would get to hold her and carry her around.  After a turn a piece, Aunti Shelly said, Ok, time for puppy to take a little rest and I whisked her off to her kennel.  After a several hour nap, she came back down and just sat on laps.  She and Cocoa-Will took turns sitting on the birthday girl's lap.  I think they were trying to convince her that one of them should be her birthday gift.  Missy is still struggling with the housetraining concept.  I just tried to take everybody outside, in the near full moon, and before I could leash up dear Cocoa-Will, Missy squatted on the rug.  I may get a cat box tomorrow and attempt that as Missy is NOT a big fan of the cold weather.

Like I said earlier, everybody is a bit sleepy, including me.  Last week was a pretty busy week around here.  What with Missy arriving via airplane and poor Cocoa-Will trying to recover from the dreaded - honk - kennel cough.  Hopefully this week will be pretty low key.

At least until Thursday, when the kids start their Winter Break.

Thanks for Reading!!

PS - Hello to all our new readers who are friends of Missy's who helped out with her rescue and care!  Thank you, thank you, thank you for what you do.  As foster parents, we have hard jobs, but you are in the front lines, you see the poor sad little creatures who come in, bleeding and neglected.  Thank you for what you do.  You're making this a Merry Merry Christmas for some very lucky people and animals!