Suddenly *Not So* Single Journey

Visiting Baby Bishop…

Author: thenicknick

One of our main happy thoughts for the week was that on Saturday, we’d get to go visit Baby Bishop.  When bad things or sad things or anything happened, we’d turn to each other and say, “At least on Saturday we get to see Bishop.”

Our one regret was that the kids wouldn’t be able to go with is.  Rumor had it, their father was taking them out of town that day to go to a concert, so they wouldn’t be able to join us.  And Rachel had shown a wee bit of bitterness about that.  It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go to the concert, it was simply that she wanted a chance to bond with the new baby.

Imagine our delight when we discovered that the concert was a no go, so they would be able to join us.  So, here are some updated photos of the hour or so we spent playing with the newest family member.  The little guy now weighs in at 15.6 pounds at six weeks old.  Yup, he’s practically anorexic.

Look at that face.  (Bishop’s, not Rachel’s.)  He looks cute and sweet and innocent, right?  Well, according to his current mama, he’s the bully of the bunch.  (S was DELIGHTED at this news.  He wants a gentle giant.)  And he’s the biggest of the litter of ten.  Yup.  We know how to pick ‘em.

Have I mentioned that we suffer from the Clifford Complex?  We have a gift for growing the largest dwarf and toy breeds EVER.  I can, and have, picked the runt of the litter, only to have it turn out to be HUGE.  (Or at least way larger than expected.)

So, to hear that he’s already the biggest one…I shudder to think what will become of him.  I think we just love them too much and they have to grow larger to contain the love they have for us in their hearts.  (Oh, mush mush!)

Or, it could be the feeding.  I can never let an animal or human in my presence go without food.  You’d think I was one of those Italian grandmothers.  (Mangia! Mangia!)  I’m not Italian…I don’t think.  (I’m imported, so my family history is something of a family mystery…)

Anyway, Bishop and the kids bonded.  Of all the puppies in the litter, they agreed we had made the best choice.  And imagine, we did it all by ourselves without their interference help.  We’re so big!

Well, after all that playing, which mostly involved a lot of us snuggling him and petting him.  Then after the snuggling and petting, he grew…heavy…so, we let him play on the floor.

And that’s when the real fun began.  He was a lot more active and alert than he had been the previous week.  So, we spent a significant amount of time trying to keep him from teething on everything he came in contact with.

Baby dogs will chew on anything you value, like shoe laces, flip flops, and whatever item of clothing you happen to have nearest its mouth at the time.  S and I tend to be on the same page.  We looked at each other…

me: I’m just thinking about all the stuff he’s going to ruin.

S: Luckily, I’m not that attached to the coffee table and end tables.

me: Just as well.

(Another puppy walked three feet past me and took the largest baby poo I have ever seen.)

me: How do you feel about the carpet?

S: It makes a good training carpet.  Better now than when we finish remodeling.

The little guy takes after me.  Once he was done playing, he wanted to eat.  At first he was hovering, not wanting his butt to touch the floor, then it was too much for him and he just laid there eating with his head in the bowl.  (I admit there have been mornings when I would have liked to do that.)

The funny thing was, while he was eating, one of his sisters walked over, squatted and peed right next to him.  Really?  So, our baby ended up eating while his tail soaked in her pee puddle.

We were talking and draining all Dane knowledge we could from the breeder.  It was a little quiet.  And that’s when we realized that Bishop had fallen asleep with his face in his food.

Go on.  I can almost hear the collective “awww, that’s so cute!”  It was cute.  And what was even more cute was when S realized that as Bishop’s father, he couldn’t let him sleep there with his face in the food bowl and his tail soaking in pee.  So he climbed into the pen and picked up his baby boy.

As he lifted Bishop, his eye fluttered, food fell off his face, and he roused a little.  (Too cute.)  Then S laid him down on his bedding.  Bishop opened his eyes briefly, saw that it was S leaning over him, and fell swiftly back to sleep.  Given what we how, how rough the puppies were beginning to play with each other, we knew that he was probably used to sleeping with one eye open.

It was hard saying goodbye to him.  More than anything, we wanted to bring him home with us.  We knew that he needed to stay and have his first shots on Friday.  And we knew that we had a week of fence building and preparations to make before we were truly ready for his arrival.

Still, what can I say?  The heart wants what the heart wants.

We have agreed that we will not return until he’s ready to go home next weekend.  It’s too hard seeing him and spending a week talking about him.

The excitement is mounting.  We’ve warned the kitty-cows.  And I’m not sure there is high enough ground in the house for Sophie to escape Bishop once he’s full grown.  So, we’d better train him right.

I’ll look forward to updating you as he grows.  S said I can measure him on the garage wall just like I do the kids.  Yay!

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 at 12:02 am and is filed under Bishop tales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.