17 Days

Wow. This has been a steep learning curve for me. I've lived with cats for 30 years. A puppy requires so much more energy. Fortunately, this beautiful dog is sweet tempered and mostly very calm. She does some puppy stuff that's a bit challenging but overall, I think she's going to be a wonderful dog if I don't mess things up.

She had her first "play date" today with a giant blue poodle named Ivan. I ran into Ivan's master at the Westside Bend Pet Express. She was charmed by how cute my soft little Birdy is. She said I could call her and make a play date. It was great for me to get some advice about caring for a poodle puppy and it was wonderful for Birdy to meet a big 3 year old male who was really quite gentle with her. At first he made her nervous but his master, Rebecca, held Birdy on her lap and Birdy and Ivan sniffed noses. After awhile they romped a bit, with Birdy running underneath the bigger dog. They were just a bit too mismatched in size, however, so Rebecca made Ivan lay down and Birdy sniffed and romped a bit more.

Rebecca said that she has Ivan groomed. I've bought this grooming equipment but I didn't realize that one needed to pull hairs out of the dog's butt and ears! That seems a bit intrusive! So I'm not sure what I'll be doing about grooming at this point. There is still so much I need to learn!

I hope to get her into a puppy class next week after her next round of shots.

Statistics: 13 lbs, 14 inches at the shoulder, 11 weeks old