Smalls Sunday: Fin
It’s hard to believe it’s been an entire year since we drove to Kansas and adopted Smalls, and at the same time it’s hard to believe we’ve only had her for a year. She’s learned a lot in the last year — how not to pee in the house, how to drive her brother crazy, and how to avoid getting caught when she’s up to no good. Likewise, we’ve learned a lot from her — how much puppy snuggling is too much (answer: it’s never too much), how to live with a dog who can’t be trusted (thank goodness for the baby gate), and how living with two dogs is twice as much fun as living with one dog (usually).
It’s been a great year, but the time has come to say goodbye to Smalls Sundays. Don’t worry, though — you can still get your weekly fix of both Smalls and Ben on Wednesdays. I’m sure Smalls will do her best to hog all the attention, as usual.
Don’t forget to check in with Kaya, Rufus, Bailey, and Daisy!
Smalls Sunday: Super Ball Dilemma
One of Smalls’s favorite games is Couch Fetch. To play this game, at least one person must be hanging out on the couch, preferably trying to take a nap, so she can jump up on the back of the couch, drop a ball on us, and impatiently wait for the ball to be thrown over a shoulder. The ball then bounces down the stairs into the basement, and Smalls tears after it and retrieves it so she can start the game all over again. It’s super fun for everyone involved.
Sometimes, though, the game gets complicated. Since whoever is throwing the ball over his or her shoulder doesn’t bother to look where the ball goes, a lot of times the ball will just hit a wall and not bounce down the stairs at all. Sometimes Ben interferes and tries to steal the ball away from Smalls. And sometimes, the ball ends up somewhere very puzzling indeed.
Don’t worry — after several minutes of contemplating the Ball in the Shoe, she eventually got it out and was able to resume the game.
Don’t forget to check in with Kaya, Rufus, Bailey, and Daisy!
Smalls Sunday: Crazy for Kibble
One of the many changes that took place when we got Smalls is the way we feed our dogs. Ben doesn’t typically get too excited over a bowl of kibble, and he was perfectly content to munch a few bites whenever it suited him throughout the day. For us, this meant we had to put effort into feeding him about once every three days — which is roughly how long it took him to finish off a full bowl of food. It was easy as can be. No remembering to feed him twice a day, no guilty feeling that we needed to cut our evenings short so we could go home and rescue our starving dog, no stress whatsoever.
And then Smalls showed up and all that easy-peasy, low-maintenance dog ownership stuff went right out the window. Not only does Smalls get excited over a bowl of kibble, but she is not one to let her regular breakfast or dinner time slip by without giving us a stern talking to. She has gotten into the habit of eating at 7 am and 7 pm, and typically around 6:45 she’ll start giving us her sob story about how she’s starving to death, wasting away into nothing, oh my goodness she might just fall over and die if she doesn’t get some food right this second. It’s a very sad story she tells, filled with lots of crying and shameless belly displays.
When I finally get around to feeding her rescuing her from the brink of starvation, it’s very exciting. There is a lot of jumping, tail wagging, and standing up to see if there’s any food in the bowl yet.
How she has energy for this pre-meal party when she was obviously about to keel over and die just moments before, I will never know.
Ben has adapted to the new feeding schedule, too. Much as he’d prefer to graze on his kibble all day, he knows that if he doesn’t get in there and get a few bites as soon as the bowl hits the floor, Smalls will gobble it all up with no consideration whatsoever for how hungry her brother might be. She’s a little bit selfish, that Small Dog.
Don’t forget to check in with Kaya, Rufus, Bailey, and Daisy!
Smalls Sunday: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
Last night while I worked out in the basement, Tim was hanging out upstairs, apparently completely oblivious to what the dogs were up to. Shortly after I finished my workout, we discovered this:
That’s the bottom of one of our living room curtains. Hint: the corner of the curtain is not supposed to be wet and shredded.
Now, since nobody saw it happen, we can’t say for sure who the guilty party is. But if I had to guess…
Looks to me like someone’s trying to hide from her guilty conscience.
Don’t forget to check in with Kaya, Rufus, Bailey, and Daisy!
Smalls Sunday: The Spider Shirt Incident
Every night when we go to bed, Ben settles in at my feet, and Smalls snuggles up right between Tim and me, making sure she’s able to achieve maximum snuggle contact with both of us. Tim likes to joke that she’s our little chaperone, there to make sure we don’t get up to any funny business at night (little does she know, she’s small and easily removed from the bed).
A couple weeks ago, Tim dreamed that something under his shirt was tickling him. In his dream, he took of his shirt and saw his back and chest were covered with spiders. He quickly brushed the spiders off and put his shirt back on, only to have the same tickling sensation return. He ripped off his shirt again, and — you guessed it — more spiders!
It was about this time Tim woke up and realized that Smalls was having a dream of her own. In her dream she was running; in bed, snuggled up between Tim and me, Smalls was twitching her little puppy feet, tickling Tim’s back and making him dream about spiders under his shirt.
Tim rolled her over to get her feet off his back and slept peacefully the rest of the night.
Don’t forget to check in with Kaya, Rufus, Bailey, and Daisy!
Smalls Sunday: A Very Puppy Christmas
Hi guys, Smalls here. I don’t know if you guys know this, but this whole “Christmas” thing is pretty great. At first I thought my parents were crazy for putting a tree inside my house, but then we went to visit my friend Tasha and she had a tree in her house, too! What a weird coincidence!
Not only did Tasha have a tree in her house, but there were other people besides the usual ones there, too. And two of them brought something very confusing with them. It was small, and it smelled interesting, but sometimes it made really frightening noises that made me and Ben and Tasha worry a lot.
Once we got a closer look at this “baby” thing, we decided she was alright. One time, Ben wanted to wrestle with her, but my mom told him he’s not allowed to play with her the same way us dogs play together. Something about how the “baby” doesn’t like wrestling. Who doesn’t like wrestling? I was allowed to give her lots of kisses, though, which kinda makes up for the wrestling thing, I guess.
So anyway, we stayed at Tasha’s house and played for a couple of days, and then one morning when we woke up, all the people gathered in the room with the tree. This was okay with me since it meant some of them sat on the floor, which is Prime Snuggle Area. They weren’t interested in snuggling, though — they just stared pulling the stuff out from under the tree. The same stuff I’d been told I wasn’t allowed to take out from under the tree. Stupid humans and their double standards.
But then — and this is where it starts to get really good, you guys — then they started taking the paper off of the stuff under the tree. Most of it was boring stuff and I had no idea why they were so excited about it, but some of it was for me! Can you believe it?!
I got new chew toys, some ribbon (which got taken away, but that’s okay because it didn’t taste very good), lots of treats, and the biggest bone I’ve ever seen in my life! I’m still chewing on it to this day! By the end of it all, i was pretty tuckered out, but it was worth it. It was pretty much the most exciting morning of my life.
This Christmas thing is amazing, you guys. I can’t wait until we get to do it again!
Did Kaya, Rufus, Bailey, and Daisy get to enjoy Christmas, too? I sure hope so!
Smalls Sunday: Big Stick
Smalls is a very good finder of things. She is constantly finding things on the floor or in the yard and then bringing them to us so that we may throw them and she may chase them. Often, after being outside for a bit, she’ll try to bring the things she finds — sticks, usually — inside with her. If chasing a stick is fun outside, think how fun it would be inside!
Sadly for Smalls, we don’t allow sticks in the house, and she often finds herself being told to put her stick down before coming inside. No matter how many times we tell her this, though, she still keeps on bringing the sticks she finds to the door in hopes of being able to bring them inside.
The other night, Smalls found a particularly impressive stick that she really thought she should get to bring inside with her.
Impressive as it was, we still made her leave it outside. We’re mean like that.
Are Kaya, Rufus, Bailey, and Daisy good thing-finders, too? Don’t forget to go give them some puppy love!
Smalls Sunday: Teacher’s Pet
Smalls would like it to be known that Rufus and Kaya are not the only helpful dogs on the Internet. She, too, is a very good helper to her parents. When I work from home, she is sure to snuggle up close and help me find misplaced commas and re-word awkward sentences. And when Tim has a stack of papers to grade or a classroom website to update, she is right there with him, offering lots of support and kisses to help him out.
Are the other internet puppies good little helpers, too? Be sure to check in with Kaya, Rufus, Bailey, and Daisy!
Smalls Sunday: Smalls Meets Christmas
We put up the Christmas decorations this weekend, and Smalls was all at once confused, suspicious, and inquisitive. The thoughts that worked their way across her expression included, “What’s that tree doing in my house?” “What are all these things under the tree?” “Why are you wrapping up that toy instead of giving it to me?” “Hey, can I eat this?”
I couldn’t help but notice that the ornament Smalls chose to investigate with her mouth was the ornament Tim’s parents gave us to commemorate our first Christmas with Ben back in 2004. Think someone’s a little jealous that there’s no ornament with her name anywhere on the tree?
How are Kaya, Rufus, Bailey, and Daisy welcoming the holiday season? Check in with them to find out!
Smalls Sunday: Still Not a Snow Dog
It’s been snowing for about 24 hours, which I am loving for many reasons: (1) It’s the first big snow of the season, and therefore I am enchanted by the prettiness rather than being tired of snow and angry about the cold; (2) Thanksgiving is over, which means it’s officially acceptable to get into Christmas mode, and the snow is definitely putting me in the mood to sip hot chocolate with a candy cane in it and listen to jazzy Christmas music; and (3) Ben loves the snow, and maybe, just maybe, Smalls will have gotten over her previous dislike for that cold, white stuff and will romp adorably alongside her brother across the snow-covered yard.
Or maybe she’ll run straight to the dryest, least-snowiest, most-sheltered area of the yard and hang out there while Ben romps around adorably all by his lonesome.
Are Kaya, Rufus, Bailey, and Daisy snow lovers or snow haters? Check in with them to find out!
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