The end of week two

We brought Levi home exactly two weeks ago today. That very morning Patsy, of My Life and Times, wrote a really funny post in which she predicted the outcome of my new puppy adventure. I hope Patsy won't mind that I've copied and pasted it here, exactly as she wrote it, just in case you missed it:

"...I went on the whorl wind to see velvet down Louisiana way. Velvet has two old Big dogs she lives with and velvet loves her dogs more than I see as a option but it's her life after all. Well she said she was getting a new PUPPY cause her dogs were getting old and did I mention one is blind? It is A Goldendoodle and will weigh about 50 pounds! Oh yeah she is driving to Texas to get this bundle of Joy. A goldendoodle is a cross of a poodle and a golden retriever that is a bird dog folks.

"She going to be sorry This is what I said to her, we have a pup here, Sammy has one he is 7 months old and I tell you are going to be sorry and you old dogs are going to pack up and leave home. Sam's pup gathers all the stuff he can find in the neighborhood and bring the stuff to the front porch step. then I have to pick the crap up and take it to the trash can. some of his treasures of late included torn pink woman's panties, US army cap and dirty baby diapers.
I know Velvet will say I wont leave him out side to roam the neighborhood, she will before he is there long. Her old blind dog will learn to open the door and say come on puppy lets go play then SLAM the door as soon as puppy is out side.

"I can see it now Velvet will go looking every where saying where is puppy? the old blind dog says, Don't ask me, He's not my dog!"

That post cracked me up so much, but even as I laughed, I knew there might be some truth to it, so I've used Patsy's predictions to measure the success of our first two weeks with Levi.

First of all, my yard is completely fenced in, so there's no way Levi could gather "all the stuff he can find in the neighborhood and bring the stuff to the front porch step." So, you see, Patsy, all the stuff Levi has gathered on my patio was dragged right out of my very own house. Except for the 18-inches-long, four-inches-in-diameter chunk of tree limb. He must have found that way back behind the garden shed, where maybe it had fallen from the neighbor's pecan tree. And, to give him credit, he's learning quickly that when he takes a toy outside, he has to pick it up and bring it with him when he's ready to come back inside. Except I have to stop him at the door each time and check out the toy to make sure he didn't accidentally pee on it. (He hasn't yet learned how to lift his leg.)

My old lab, Kadi, has actually taken a liking to Levi. If he goes outside, she goes, too, and she doesn't come back in until he does. Butch, blind as he is, "keeps an eye" on Levi. Butch goes outside only when he really needs to, certainly not just to be companionable,  but when Levi and Kadi go out, Butch likes to stand in the doorway--with the door wide open--and wait for them. If I touch him in any way that makes him think I'm encouraging him to go outside, too, he jerks back abruptly, turns tail, and moves a few feet further back inside the house. Butch pulls this stunt so frequently that it makes me wonder if he really is waiting for the right moment to slam the door as Patsy suggested.

For the most part it's been sheer joy to have this "young blood" around. Yes, he's a little opportunistic (see yesterday's banana incident), but his kind of ingenuity is exactly what Lassie would have demonstrated as she opened the doors to the burning barn and saved all the livestock. And yes, I do have to bend over and pick up hundreds of white puffs of stuffed-animal innards every day, but think about the health benefits of all that reaching and bending. Who needs Jazzercise when there's a very busy puppy in the house?

While we're speaking of exercise, I don't even have to worry about taking Levi for walks. He expends plenty of energy on his own, racing an imaginary zigzag track through every inch of the backyard.

He runs flat out, as fast as he can go, then leaps up and grabs a branch of the gardenia bush.

Can you imagine the time we'll save by having to trim only the top half of that overgrown shrub?

Usually, after he has played hard, Levi is ready to nap. That's when he reminds me how young he really is: a sweet, sleeping baby who steals my heart by trusting me to take good care of him. He likes to sleep near me in tiny, den-like spaces. Right now he's under my desk:

Even when I'm in the bathroom, he finds a quiet corner:

And then, when I leave the bathroom and walk into my bedroom, my faithful new companion rises and follows me.

I have to ask you, Patsy, could it be any more fun than this?