Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Mia Puppia



It feels so right to have a dog in my life again. Stella is a perfect companion for running errands or driving up to visit my mother. She goes everywhere I go most of the time. I’ve never had a dog that loves to ride in the car as much as this one. Sometimes, when she’s all hyped up with puppy energy, I take her for a quick turn around the block to mellow her out.
Stella also likes to sniff more than any dog I’ve ever had. It’s all about sniffing, every time we go outside. I am wondering what she’ll do when we have the Christmas tree in the house. Pepper used to crawl up next to the stand and sleep underneath it, and I always thought that she dreamed about the forest. We called it “Pepper’s tree” each year. Now, it’s time for new doggie rituals for the holidays.

When Stella was really little, we got her a soft harness that had “Puppia” written on the front. I nicknamed Stella “mia puppia”. My daughter calls her “Guppy”, which also seems to suit her. She is so goofy and sweet.

Silk is very jealous, and acts totally disgusted each time the door from the house opens and the little black creature emerges with me in tow. She is used to getting my undivided attention. Now, I have to tie Stella to the post at the cross-ties and make sure she has a stick to chew on before I can dispense carrots to the horses. And speaking of chewing wood, when we came back from buying hay on Sunday, our dear pup had shredded and eaten a log that was on the woodpile next to the fireplace in the living room. I was really worried that she was going to get blocked by a chunk of wood in her stomach. I kept recalling how a puppy that belongs to a friend of ours ate the elbow off her sweater and had a $3000 surgery to remove it from her tummy. Luckily, Stella threw up twice and seems to have gotten over it. I’m looking for an attractive covered box to store our logs this winter.

When I’m playing with Stella and she’s racing around, leaping happily, people who stop to talk to me sometimes comment on how wild she is. It makes me laugh since Stella is only six months old and one of the reasons that I’m standing there encouraging her to be a crazy dog is so that when I get home, I’ll have a calm one. Soon enough, she’ll be old and lazy like the rest of us.

5 comments:

Lori Skoog said...

Stella travels in comfort...as a sweet puppy should! Our dogs love rides in the car too.

Have a great Thanksgiving, and thanks for checking in.

Anonymous said...

Very sweet!

Be sure to have a happy Thanksgiving!

Grey Horse Matters said...

Stella is adorable and she has lots of puppy energy. We had a black lab once that needed surgery to remove a hunting sock he swallowed whole. Not fun. He also ate a chess piece that I found outside in the spring, a washcloth (passed with some mineral oil) etc. Hope she gets over that phase soon, they can really hurt themselves.

I'll bet Silk is a just a tad jealous because some other little cutie has got your attention. After a while I think they'll all learn how to share you.

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving. Say hello to everyone for me. Just had a thought that I should have gotten some of the pumpkin ice cream, dang, too late now.

Calm, Forward, Straight said...

Stella is adorable :)

My Jack Russell is stinkin' jealous of Valentino, and they're all jealous of Seven, the new kitten. After a while it works itself out :)

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, human and non!

Deejbrown said...

It's both fun and challenging to have a pup with so much energy but they bring a measure of comfort and company to our lives. It would be a less hair raising though if they did not have such a penchant for eating sticks, socks, underwear and random plastic bags. (Toby has recently learned the "Leave it!" command which has come in handy for these situations).
Love your nicknames for Stella. It's surprising how they pop out of our mouths and stick! Love reading about our parallel puppy worlds!