Life with Sammy

It has now been a week and a day since Sammy arrived and we are settling in. Phoebe and Amos are adjusting, albeit slowly and Amos has actually turned into his prime babysitter. He spends a lot of time herding Sammy who has figured out that his role in this game is to lie down and roll over. Amos feels like he finally has someone to boss around and amazingly his limping has basically stopped. Today when I soaked his feet, he pulled them out as if to say, "OK--we're done now." Who knew?

Phoebe, on the other hand, is not thrilled--actually that's putting it nicely. She is miffed. There are times when she refuses to come inside if the puppy is anywhere near the door and then there are times when she refuses to go outside if he is bounding around. Today we did a little planting and she did rally when it was watering time (the hose is her absolute favorite thing except for food) and now she is curled up at my feet, her usual position when I work, but most of the time she has her nose out of joint. This may not improve--this may just be Queen Phoebe exerting her dominance over all of us.

As for Sammy, well he has grown and now lumbers around like a polar bear. He also has managed to make a place for himself in the hierarchy without stepping on too many literal and figurative toes. What can I say? His mellow disposition makes him a perfect third dog--he truly gets it--and he is smart, good and a charmer. He's figured out the house breaking rules pretty quickly and he sleeps through the night on his own enormous Orvis bed surrounded by a bevy of toys that he gathers together. He is hard to resist.

We did discover that the pet food he was on, Nutro, has been recalled which is very interesting since he never really liked it. We are switching him slowly to the brand inhaled by the other two and he seems to like that better. If you feed your pets Nutro you might want to take a look at this and contact your vet.

Otherwise, we're smitten. There is truly nothing like a puppy to make your heart sing.