boxofdelights

That is, I have adopted kalmn's dog Newton. Aiko looooves him. Newt does not love Aiko back, not yet, and sometimes needs to tell him so. My German Shepherd accepting a rebuke from a dog the size of his head is hilarious.

I've never had a little dog before. He seems so vulnerable. Much more so than a cat.

He's smart, though. In the house and the back yard, he stays next to me, but when we went out the front door, he trotted out ahead, ears and tail high, to the sidewalk, then right, then, two doors down, into the street where the van that brought him here had been parked. His ears were flat to his head and his tail to his belly when I scooped him up. I don't think he was afraid of me, since he didn't back away; I think it was just the overwhelm of the situation, realizing that he couldn't retrace his steps any further and he had no idea how to get home.

He will get home though. He'll come home to Aiko and me. You were wearing the ruby slippers all along, Newt.

I dreamed I had agreed to take care of a friend's dogs during the workday, so my dog would have someone to play with and her dogs wouldn't eat her house. They were pit-bull mixes, but not inclined to the slam-dance play that pit bulls often do, so I thought it would work. The great thing about this dream was the dogs' names, which were Boney and Parallelepiped.

Aiko is doing okay as an only dog. The woman who gave him to me was sure that he was a nervous wreck because she had no other dogs, and I think she was right, but while he was living with Tai Aiko also became securely attached to me. My husband said, "When you first got him I thought you were nuts-- well, I still think you're nuts, but you've done really good work with him."

My two old dogs weren't young when I got them. I had them for seven and eight years, which was as much as was reasonable to expect. When they died barely a month apart, I was determined that my next dog would be a puppy, but I'm mostly over that now. I'll take whoever the universe sends me. Hey, universe! I'm open!

+ Aiko slipped out the front door tonight. He dashed hither and thither, afraid to stay where he was, afraid to go anywhere, very afraid to be caught. Hugh kept his intimidating figure between Aiko and the road. I followed him, sweet-talking. Nixie let Tai out. Tai obeys me, and Aiko feels safe with Tai, so with everyone's help I caught him and brought him back inside.

+ Finals week is over.

+ Hugh and Mungo painted Nixie's designated bedroom with yellow walls and sky-blue ceiling. It is lovely.

- Nixie won't use her bedroom until I deal with the floor.

+ I pulled up the horrible carpet in Nixie's bedroom without much trouble, to find

- horribler stained, stinking carpet pad stapled to disintegrating linoleum over unfinished hardwood.

- Don't know what to do next.

+ Have dog fud. + Have shower. + Have new mask for CPAP.

- Aiko's going to freak when I turn on the CPAP.