After our seventeen-year-old dog, Willow, passed on to doggy heaven this past spring, I thought I'd wait and see how things went. We've had a dog in the family since my son was five and he's now forty.  So, a long time. I knew I'd probably be lonely without my shadow following me all around the house, but I thought I could handle it since I also have my granddaughters over quite a bit and they tend to make me plenty busy. 

After just a few weeks I was already scrolling the internet for puppy sites. Sad, I know. Not long after that I talked my husband into driving two hours away to look at puppies. Of course, you can't waste two hours there and two hours back and not come home with a puppy to make it worthwhile. So, we chose a six month old Black Cavapoo. We had a black and white Cavapoo (Cavalier/poodle mix) about ten years ago. Rugby was the model for my publishing logo, Lapdog Books. He was the sweetest dog and never passed up a chance to sit on my lap.

I named our new dog, Jack. My husband thinks it was because we stopped at a gas station on the way home called Jack's. I won't argue. Perhaps I was a victim of subliminal gas station messaging, I don't know. Whatever the reason, he is definitely a blackjack. A twenty pound, compact assault weapon. 

Jack is a chewer. He has chewed up shoes, furniture, Barbies, toy cars, plastic containers, blankets, pillows, metal zippers on sweatshirts, cucumber plants, crayons, markers., sticks, books, paper. Anything and everything he can get into his mouth. I gave him a container of dog toys to chew. He chose to chew up the container. He's 9 1/2 months now and has not slowed down on his plan to destroy everything that doesn't belong to him. I'm running out of high places to hide things from him.

Jack is also terrified of the groomer, so now I have to learn to groom him as well as keep him from turning our home into a heap of ruin. He's like a stealth plane. If he gets really quiet, you know he's up to no good. He's sneaky.

I went to visit my folks in Nebraska this past weekend and while I was gone he cried, then he went to work chewing to show his displeasure with my desertion. I was definitely sorry I'd left him all alone with my husband. Leon apparently didn't understand the depth of his separation anxiety and ignored him to work on his computer. Jack decided to destroy the pillows and blankets on our bed.

Now that I'm home, he's much happier. He's not chewing things up in anger anymore. Now he's chewing things up out of sheer joy.

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Barbara