Puppy's First Christmas – Part Three

The final round of Christmas gifts increased Forest's inventory of Iowa Hawkeye stuff from zero to four items. I know what you're thinking, we're terrible parents for not having provided Forest with Hawkeye apparel before now, and I totally agree with you. I could try to use the excuse that none of the stores around here sell Hawkeye stuff, especially Hawkeye stuff for dogs, but the fact that almost every room in our house contains a computer that could be easily used to order Hawkeye stuff online kinda screws me. 

My favorite, the Hawkeye collar. Now Forest can strut his stuff in style.

Matching Hawkeye leash.

Sometimes his hair gets so long that it hides the collar (several of the pics in my previous post illustrate how long hair can transform him into Hippie puppy) so this leash helps reaffirm that this is in fact, a Hawkeye puppy.

Portable, collapsible, waterproof Hawkeye bowl.

When traveling with the puppy, we no longer have to waste paper bowls or ask our nice hosts if Forest can drink out of their dinnerware.

And finally, the Hawkeye blanket.

Actually this was a present to me from Nick's mom, but Forest has been hogging it. Puppy needs to learn to share.

Puppy's First Christmas – Part Three

Puppy's First Christmas – Part Two

Nick and I went our separate ways over Christmas and his family got to spoil the puppy first. My family couldn't pamper Forest in person, so they gave me a special Christmas present to bring home….

Mr. Octopus!

Forest almost won the staring contest.

Puppy's First Christmas – Part Two

Puppy's First Christmas – Part One

My lack of recent activity on this blog is proof that I haven't had much success with one of my New Year's resolutions: stop procrastinating and just focus. So I finally downloaded all of the photos off my camera and now have some cute pics of Forest’s first Christmas.

While I visited my folks in Colorado, Nick and Forest visited more family in Iowa.

Forest’s first Christmas present.

Obviously he didn’t understand the concept of a wrapped present...

…or a taped box.

So while Forest remained distracted by the box, Nick finished unwrapping.

It’s a puppy cookie!

“Oh, so that’s why the box smelled so good.”

Starts with a few licks…

..then chows down.

Nom nom nom

Up next, a present imported from Colorado…

Puppy's First Christmas – Part One

Forest’s got a leak

Wow, the past month was crazy! We had three straight weekends full of Thanksgiving festivities. Our little puppy was introduced to a lot of new people and new places and, well, it sometimes overwhelmed him.

For example, we visited Nick’s family the weekend before Thanksgiving. We hopped in the car right after work and drove for about three hours to Iowa. Forest was in the backseat the whole time and overall was pretty well-behaved. We laid a blanket across the seats and put some toys back there for him. He freaked out a little when the car was stopped, like “Holy shit, what’s going on, is someone getting out, getting in, do I have to get out, what’s that over there?” but on the highway he fell right to sleep.

We stayed at Jason’s house that night (Nick’s brother) and he happened to be taking out the garbage as we pulled up to his house. As soon as Forest jumped out of the car I tried to steer him towards the yard to do his business, but no, Forest wanted to go say hi and get a belly rub from Jason. The puppy ran up to our host and jumped on him a little before settling down at his feet with his tail going a mile a minute. We all thought it was really cute until I noticed the growing puddle. “Uh Jason, the dog’s peeing on you.” Yep, little Forest was so excited that he pissed all over Jason’s white Pumas.

Unfortunately this is not like a one-time thing. Sometimes Forest gets so worked up that he can’t help but let a little go. We call those his “happy squirts”. We were actually lucky that only one shoe was victimized this time. When Forest was a few months old, I was waiting in line at doggy day care to pick him up and bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen in awhile. I was so excited to introduce her to our new little furball that as soon as they brought Forest out I picked him up and started gushing over what a sweet doggy he was and how cute he was, bla bla bla. Suddenly my arm felt a little wet, and me in my innocence thought that Forest had licked me or maybe even drooled. But no, as I lifted him a little higher I saw that Forest had just piddled on me, the floor and the doggy carrier at my feet. Not the best first impression he could have made, but I guess I should be happy he didn’t puke or poop on me (no, he was going to save those for later, damn dog). Now when I pick Forest up at doggy day care, I have a strict policy of going straight out the door, no chit chat. Live and learn I guess.

Forest’s got a leak