Cast of Characters: Increased
Welcome home!
Something my husband and I have been talking about for months now has been the idea of getting another dog. We lost the most wonderful Tricksy a couple of years ago, and there’s no replacing a dog. You mourn, and know that no matter how much you wish otherwise, dogs just don’t live as long as humans. I’ve always loved that internet tale of humans-as-elves to the dog’s life. However, for us the consideration has been with his health, my level of overwork, well, it didn’t seem to be a good idea. Finally this year we lined up some goals, and I said we’d start to look at the Humane society for a dog after his mouth recovered from oral surgery and I’d gotten back from LibertyCon. We had in mind that we’d go visit dogs, maybe do the one-day trial period… I wanted a nice senior dog, good with cats, content to sleep on my husband’s feet all day.
Enter… my mother. (love you, Mom!)
Mom got wind of our plan to start potentially working towards adopting a dog. Mom has puppies. Well, they aren’t strictly speaking puppies any longer, as they were born in October 2024, making them a year and a half old now. Mom sent my husband a photo of Tux, the smallest of her pack, and I saw the look on my curmudgeon’s face. Tux looks a lot like Tricksy, only he’s less than half our old girl’s size.
Everyone, meet Tux.
All during LibertyCon, I couldn’t help myself, I kept talking about how I was going to head up to Kentucky to see Sanford’s Mom and then to my Mom to meet this little dog and evaluate him to see if I were going to bring him home with me. One of my friends looked at me with laughing eyes and said “that’s an awfully weak if!”
They weren’t wrong. My husband had melted when he’d seen that little face. The problem was, and I knew it was going to be a whole bundle of problems, that Tux was a farm dog. My youngest sister wouldn’t tolerate the puppies living indoors1 so Tux and his siblings have been living outside their entire lives. Tux, being the smallest of the pack, has been relentlessly bullied by his brothers, with even his father Bear and mother Charlotte joining the dog pile at times. The competition for affection from Humans was fierce, and because of this, Mom had allowed Tux freedom beyond the half-acre fenced yard for a very long time. Tux had never been on a leash, why would he when he’d always come when called? He’d been for short car rides a few times while my aunt was alive, because she really liked the little puppy. He had lived with a barn cat having free roam of the farm, so at least he knew what a cat was?
So here I am, showing up with ideas of bringing him home to live in a house, after a long road trip I normally make in two days, and of course he’s going to be on a leash constantly… Not just on the trip. One of the people at LibertyCon who graciously allowed me to pick his brains over this decision is a dog trainer. His wise words were to keep the dog on a leash for two weeks after bringing him home, unless the pup were in his crate. This immediately made sense to me, because I’d know where he was, would be able to provide instant corrections, and take him out for potty times rather than risk him slipping into another room out of sight to do his business.
At Mom’s house we brought him in, I put a harness on him, and he proved himself to be very relaxed once indoors away from the rest of the pack. Charlotte, his mother and Mom’s snuggly Rat Terrier, was with us, but indoors she reverted to mothering him. Mom and I worked at getting Tux to accept that I was ok, and for the several hours he was loose inside he didn’t make a mess in the house. He slept in a crate that night with minimal fuss, and I knew we were going to be all right.
I opted to leave before dawn the next morning, and leverage the long midsummer day to get us home before full dark. Tux rode in his crate and was very well-behaved, although clearly unhappy with Truck Stop potty breaks, so I switched to finding quieter rest areas where we were a little further from all the zooming traffic. Tux, living far off the beaten path his entire life, had never seen more than a car at a time in motion! After seventeen hours straight travel, he’s certainly familiar with car travel now. He refused to drink for a long time, and I finally got him to consume a spoonful of melted vanilla ice cream, then he drank a little water. He’s the least food-motivated dog I’ve ever met.
Once home he has slept really well in his crate at the end of our bed, but he’s deeply unhappy if we go away and leave him in it, as we must do for things like groceries and such. He’s timid of my husband, even though he knew and loved my uncle, so we’re working on that. He’s absolutely petrified of the cats, so Bubbles2 the barn cat taught the puppies well!
I’m adjusting somewhat to having a constant shadow on the leash with me. It slows me down trying to get housework done, for sure. We’re learning that the Schipperke X Rat Terrier is not a high-energy dog at all, he’s happy to flop down and snooze between the two of us while we’re both on the computers in the office. The cats are using my studio as a sanctuary so I haven’t been taking him in there to give them some space. The two weeks on a leash indoors and out will be good for adjustments all around.
After all his vet visits to get him up to date with his vaccinations and his neuter done, we plan to figure out how to install a doggie door for him. This is complicated by having two doors to the backyard —one into the unheated (or cooled, more importantly) utility room— then another to get outside. For the door from the kitchen to utility, we can put a flap. I don’t care if the cats can get into the utility. However, the cats cannot go out with impunity, nor do we wish to allow any old opossum or racoon access to our home. The exterior dog door then, must be either keyed to his microchip (the solution I think will work best) or a collar sensor.
Anyone have experience with those kinds of dog doors and care to give me tips? Thanks!
My sister is profoundly handicapped. When she’s unhappy, she screams bloody murder.
Bubbles was named by the Junior Mad Scientist after Cobra Bubbles in the family favorite movie Lilo and Stitch.
I am so glad that Cedar took Tux home with her! He really needed to be the only dog in a family. And if anyone falls in love with him and would like to meet one of his two brothers that I still have, let Cedar know! I only ever intended to keep one of the puppies (and yes, their mother has been spayed). There was a lot of interest in them when they were little - I put ads up on Craigslist, thinking, small dogs with two purebred parents, both really nice little dogs, should be easy to find homes for them, right? Well, someone decided to repeatedly block my ads, even though there are dogs and puppies listed on Craigslist all the time. We tried posters in various locations, and those didn't help, either. So. The one female in the litter went to live with another relative in Alaska, and I still had all of the boys here. And now have two boys left. And that's fine - Skip and Mr. Darcy (a persistent attention hog) get along well. Mr. Darcy loves to chase anything that moves (like the water coming out of the hose), but as soon as it stops moving, he loses interest. My very first Rat Terrier used to chase a laser pointer like a cat, and I think this silly little fellow would do the same. They are sweet, affectionate, smart, and fairly easy to train, too.
Welcome to the new family member! Hope you guys settle in as well as the start seems to be going.