Of course, the title of this post is only referring to Charlie's personality.
It's been 45 days since my last post. Today marks 194 days that Charlie has been part of our family. That breaks down to 28 weeks and 1 day, or 5 months and two weeks.
A lot of things have happened since my last post. The most noticeable change is that Charlie is much more comfortable around us and around others. When we have people over, he is welcoming and accepting. He will take treats from them and let them pet him (just like a normal dog! But we still think he's a Cylon.)
He's the proud wearer of the
Thunder Shirt! A few weeks ago, I came home from a Christmas shopping trip to find a note on our door from a neighbor (see below). The next day we went to PetCo and bought him one. It was $40, but it's doing it's job! He gets kind of mopey when he's wearing it, but he's definitely more calm. When we first put it on him he wouldn't move. He slumped in the ground and gave us the sad eyes, but with some treats and coaxing using our excited voices, he will walk around a bit in it. He's still very hesitant after having it for two weeks.
Although its winter here, we have no snow so we've been able to go on hikes every single weekend for the past few months. We usually go on Sundays but sometimes we squeeze one in on Saturdays as well before Mark goes to work.
We can't keep him off the bed. This is laughable because it's totally our fault that he thinks it's his bed too. He will get down when we tell him to (and more often than not, we need to nudge him off with our feet) and he lays on his bed on the floor just fine. "On your bed" is a command we've been working on with him for a few months now. He basically knows it but doesn't always want to obey. He always jumps back up onto the bed at least once a night. Most nights he will wake me up when he jumps up, but sometimes it's a pleasant surprise to wake up to him laying on my feet in the morning :) And he's the perfect little warm body to snuggle up with on nights when Mark is working and it's chilly in the apartment.
We were planning on getting/making him a bed for Christmas, but we are still trying to figure out our plans for how to put it together. I was thinking of using white PVC pipes and joints and sewing a canvas hammock to velcro over the edges. Home Depot will cut the pipes down to size and it's relatively light to carry home. We just haven't finalized any plans yet.
He got a lot of toys for Christmas! My mom got him a small orange rubber fire hydrant with a hole in the bottom for peanut butter and other yummy treats. He loves it so much whether or not it's got treats in it. It's actually a lot like his other orange toy that I use to trick him into eating. He also god a nice sweater but it's a little too small on him. He's so difficult to buy clothes for because he's a weird little (big?) size. Mark and I got him a squeaking squirrel and he loved that so much he already chewed the squeaker out of it... now it's not so much fun. Mark's sister got him a skunk! It's by far the coolest toy he has. The long flat tail has a noisy plastic inside so it makes a crinkly noise, the body has a squeeze noise-maker that reminds me of a duck call, and each of the paws have squeakers in them! He already chewed one of its legs off. He's so funny carrying that thing around. It's a nice big size for him. He shakes it all around and when he runs to get it, he gets all wiley and he gallaphunks over to it.
He. Loves. The. Snow.
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| I saw this little guy at a doggie day care. How SWEET!! |
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| Note from Neighbor. |
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| That handsome little face. |
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| Cuddling on the couch. |
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| A little doggie waddling around. I saw it on my way to work. |
