Dogs

This morning I came down the stairs to a scene that nobody should have to witness before coffee. The carnage was incredible. Polyester fiberfill from one end of the family room to the other…except…all the stuffed toys have already been gutted…so where did it all come from…?

Noooooo! Not the throw pillows! Bad, bad, dogs!

The worst part was, Molly had some tell-tale signs of fluff bits around her mouth, meaning that she took part in the kill – although I’m sure Murphy started it. Well, it’s not that that was the worst part. It was this: I said, “Molly, you’re old enough to know better!”. Oh. My. God. I’m turning into my parents and I don’t even have children yet.

Maybe we should have named the puppy Houdini? Murphy jumps over baby gates. He doesn’t climb them, or even need a running start. He just puts his front paws over the gate and pushes off with his back legs…and lands on the other side. He has also figured out how to open the swing-type gates. Now the careful system of baby gates we had all set up to keep Molly out of places like my craft room is useless! Taller gates would probably work, but then I won’t be able to get over them…

…and to think, we were planning on innocently fencing in our backyard this spring. Now I wonder if a 4-foot fence would keep him in – especially if he were faced with the temptation of a C.A.T.

The verdict is in. Thanks everyone for your votes here and on ljc’s blog! We had pretty much made up our minds already, but the popular vote just confirmed it…

Murphy O. Reilly it is.

(What does the “O” stand for? Why, Bailey, of course! :D)

Here’s an interesting coincidence: Murphy is Gaelic for “Warrior of the Sea”…and Molly is Latin for “Star of the Sea”. So we have a couple of sea monsters living with us. That explains Molly’s love of the pool – we’ll have to see how Murphy likes it this summer!

I look into this puppy’s eyes, and can’t understand how anyone could have abandoned him. He must have lived in a house for the first part of his young life – he is mostly housebroken, and is in much too good condition to have been on the streets for very long. The people who found him tried for three weeks to find his owner before dropping him off at the shelter.

It makes me so sad to think about someone just leaving a puppy by the side of the road – not even having the guts to bring him to a shelter. It makes me sad to think about the uncertainty and instability his life has been. It makes me sad…until I realize that if he hadn’t been abandoned, I wouldn’t have this wonderful, sweet puppy in my life.

We’re having a naming crisis… Bailey is a cute name – it’s not that we don’t like it. It just hasn’t seemed to “stick” yet. We can’t remember to call him that, and it’s not as though he responds to it, anyway. Plus, it sounds very close to “Molly”, which might be adding some confusion. So, we’re thinking of changing his name.

Now the question is, does this dog look more like a “Bailey”, or a “Murphy”?

Bailey Reilly?
Murphy O. Reilly?

We need to make a decision soon – or he’ll never respond to anything except “puppy”, “buddy” or “dog”.

Help!

Bailey has an official clean bill of health from the vet. Which surprised me, since he has kind of a wheezy cough occasionally…the vet says it’s definitely not kennel cough, and that his lungs sound clear, so it might be a touch of post nasal drip. I didn’t know dogs could get that…

I’m still working on getting some good pictures of Molly and Bailey together – maybe tonight they’ll sit still long enough.

In other news, due to Bailey’s unfortunate attraction to shoes, we re-arranged the front hall closet to actually allow us to put our shoes in the closet. Coats, too! I wish I’d taken before and after pictures, since the difference is absolutely amazing. It’s the little things in life. :)

Whatever anybody says, 5 months old is still very much a puppy! As long as we can get past the expected sibling rivalry – mostly the fact that Molly is an attention hog and Bailey is turning out to be a toy hog – we ought to be just fine. The furniture, woodwork and shoes, however, had better be careful! One of Denis’ boots is now sporting a lovely new hole. :)

Bailey isn’t so happy with the crate solution, but for our own sanity and his safety (he tried to chew on one of our outlet covers!) we’re going to insist. Since he was picked up as a stray, it’s hard to know if his dislike of the crate is just normal separation anxiety or if he was punished with one in the past…

I haven’t tried to pull out the knitting yet – it could be interesting!

As though there haven’t been enough changes in my life lately…

Please welcome Bailey, the newest addition to the Reilly household:

Bailey is a 5-month-old lab mix we adopted from Lollypop Farm today. He and Molly seem to be getting along just fine.

There’s no need for the TV anymore – the dogs are providing endless hours of amusement. Besides, you can’t hear the TV half the time – the two of them play this game where they’ll bark at each other for a while, chase each other, stop, bark, chase, stop, bark, chase…you get the idea.

Anyway, just so you can see the amusing size difference between them:

(Poor Oscar thought he was going to get to chew on Molly’s favorite bone. Never mind that it’s as big as he is!)

It’s also a little hard to knit when you have a dog in your lap. So, not much progress lately on my purple sweater. Let me get a few more rows done and I’ll post pictures.

This week we’re puppy sitting Jenny’s pug, Oscar. It’s quite amusing to watch a 10 lb. puppy interact with a 60 lb. dog. So far, the only conflicts we’ve seen have mainly involved the fact that Oscar is a lap-dog and Molly wishes she was. :)

This should at least alleviate my puppy-itis for a little while…