Adventures in Puppy Parenting

Stephen and I are puppy parents to a 5 1/2 month old yorkie named Oliver. I found Oliver on a Website for Imperial Puppy Palace back at the beginning of January. The breeder was just a few minutes from where I work, so I couldn't resist going and having a look at the puppies. All it took was seeing that cute little guy, and I knew that he had to be ours. I used my emergency $50 bill that my granddaddy gave me years ago to keep in my wallet and never spend as the down payment. Then I sent Stephen a text with a picture and begged forgiveness.

Oliver's Baby Picture

Oliver had to stay at the breeder for a whole month after we ( I ) bought him. We got to go visit him a lot, and pretty soon Stephen thought he was cute as ever too. I brought him home the second week of February. He was great the first night we had him. On the second night, I had to stay really late at work for a Homecoming event. Stephen probably texted me 20 times something to the effect of "He's peeing and pooping everywhere, and he just won't stop." That night started about a month long period of us not knowing if we were fit to be puppy parents or not. It was a lot more challenging than we ever thought it could be. I was glad we started with a puppy and not a child. :) We got through it though, and now we couldn't imagine giving Oliver back.

He lost his first tooth playing with that ball yesterday.

There have been some challenging moments. We made the decision early on to let Oliver sleep in our bed. This was probably crazy, but I couldn't bear the thought of locking him in his pen after he'd spent the day in there while we were at work. There was one night when he was still really small that Stephen woke up to a horrible smell. Then I woke up to Stephen saying, "Oh my gosh he pooped!" Stephen had stuck his hand right into it too. Luckily the dry cleaners were able to get that out of our bedspread. We made some adjustments with Oliver's food, and we've had no more accidents in the bed.

We have sacrificed our carpet (he eats it), our coffee table (he's chewed it), and numerous other edges of furniture. The worst thing he's done was last week when he stole Stephen's glasses off of the coffee table while Stephen was napping. Stephen woke up to the horrible crunching sound of Oliver crunching on the lens he popped out of the glasses. They were pretty scratched up but salvageable. Stephen needs new glasses any way. :) Hopefully once Oliver gets through his teething stage, the chewing on things will subside.

I promise he's not choking him!

We love our little yorkie, but he's about all we can handle right now. Much to my Mom's dismay, I don't think we'll be rushing into having kids any time soon. Puppy parenting is the best we can do for now.