Here's a peek at our Christmas decorations for Darwin's first Christmas!
I went to a couple stores looking for a cute stocking for Darwin. Couldn't find one that didn't have a brown or white puppy on it, and that just wouldn't do. I was torn on what to do and then I saw the perfect stocking hanger!
A silver Christmas doggy! The only one left on the shelf! It was meant to be! Here's the end result:
And here's our tiny tree! So far Darwin has been pretty good about leaving it alone. She makes attempts at taking a snowflake off, but for the most part leaves it be. During the days shes contained to the kitchen, but at night she has access to the whole house, and yet once we say it's bedtime she usually just sleeps... on the couch where she's not supposed to. But the tree is always in one piece in the morning! Knock on wood that it stays that way!
An update on the doggy day care: We took her last week, and she was much better about going in, but again when we picked her up she was in a kennel because she was getting anxious when other dogs started leaving. Come to yesterday. We dropped her off, and she was pretty good about getting dropped off. When we picked her up though, the staff said she had a "bad" day. Apparently she seemed stressed out so they tried to get her to go to into a kennel for a rest time, but they would call her over and she'd bark at them and then run away. Not horrible bad, but she is not listening to commands as well. Is this part of her 10month old adolescent phase? She was also very hyper and anxious when we picked her up, and was jumping up and putting her feet on their counter, and she doesn't usually jump up like that. We're going to try this place out a few more times, but if things don't improve I may look into trying some place new.
I put Darwin to a test this weekend. I was going out Saturday night and decided to see if Darwin would behave if I left her out in the living room rather than lock her in the kitchen. I left a light on for her and headed out hoping and praying that she'd be good. When I got home, she was on her bed (not the couch surprisingly) and everything seemed in order. Woo hoo! Aunty Aileen won a stuffed puppy from a crane machine while we were out and so Darwin got it for passing her test. I gave it to her Saturday night. Sunday morning he was eyeball-less.
She still loved him though, and carried him around in her mouth.
Sunday afternoon, I noticed he was tail-less and couldn't remember if he had a tail before Darwin got a hold of him or not. A little while later I got my answer....
That's his tail down there... and his stuffing. At some point last night, she made a hole in its back and decided to unstuff him.
Darwin's grandma and grandpa (Jason's parents) sent Darwin a Halloween package yesterday. She got some yummy treats and her very first bandana!
It says, "I'm the princess that's why."
After we got it on her she went a little nutty trying to reach it to bite it. Of course by the time I got my camera out to record her, she stopped and accepted the fact that she was going to be a dog that wore a bandana. Jason and I couldn't agree on if the bandana is supposed to sit on her back, or hang down her front... any help for bandana newbies?
Then I went to take a shower, came out, and found her CHEWING ON A PAIR OF MY SHOES!!!!!! Terrible two's strike again! My second shoe casualty, the first to chewing though (the other to explosive diarrhea during Harry Potter night). At least they were "cheap" pair of heels, though I really did like them, and not an expensive pair of boots. Oi.
So maybe Darwin is approaching her terrible two's... or her rebellious adolescent phase... what age do puppies go through that? It must be Darwin's time being 8.5 months old and all. She's never been one to really destroy a toy... a few have worn out after playing, but nothing that she's sat and just killed. Tonight changes that. I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and I turn around and see this:
Even as I'm sitting a few inches from her face taking pictures she continues de-stuffing the poor hippo.
The other morning we found a pair of plastic toy eyeballs on the floor, and I couldn't think of where they came from. I found out tonight, they were the hippos eyeballs and she was de-stuffing him through his eye sockets.
Poor Hippo. He was one of her toys from when she was a tiny puppy too. {De-stuffing takes a lot out of a girl... I need a break}
{You're gonna tell everyone about this aren't you...}
On a happier note, Darwin now has new puppy cousins down in California! My cousin and his girlfriend just got a brother and sister pair of golden retriever black lab puppies. World, meet Kava and Pele:
