When we last left our intrepid heroine…. oh wait, this is a true story, no extra drama needed. Sorry, where was I… Oh, right. A puppy. For five months. A Belgian Malinoise puppy on loan from the Department of Defense. Right. No reason to be worried, right? RIGHT?!?!? But I was, horribly.
See, I’ve never actually HAD a puppy before. I’ve always rescued dogs and they arrived in my home at nine months or older, very grateful, needing a refresher course in potty training and maybe some assistance with some emotional baggage, but overall pretty easy. But this was a PUPPY puppy and a Belgian Malinois – known for its high prey drive and strong powerful bite. However, when we left puppy training, as I mentioned in my introductory post on this topic, we agreed to foster a puppy from the Z litter and pick her up on the following Friday at 10 weeks old. GULP.
I imagined what it was going to be like and I thought I had a pretty good idea. But, you know, before I became a mom, I imagined what it was going to be like and thought I had a pretty good idea – AND I FOUND OUT I WAS A COMPLETE IDIOT. Oy. But my daughter and I headed back to Lackland Air Force Base on July 22nd to pick up Zzulu our foster puppy and bring her home.
We were met outside the gates by Jimmy who released a wriggling mass of puppy flesh from the crate in the back of the vehicle. Zzulu collapsed at my feet and cried as she bared her tummy for all to rub. Jimmy looked down at this wriggling mess, shook his head, and smiled. “HARDLY behavior fitting an officer of the military!” he said. He may have been right, but I was already planning to bury my face in that tummy and zerbert it so I wasn’t really too concerned.
My daughter and I walked around a bit to try and get Zzulu to potty before getting in the car, but no luck. So we carefully placed her in the military-provided crate in the back of the car and headed toward home. Not a minute had passed before the crying had started. Crying doesn’t seem quite the right word though. The below video is the only way I can explain it:
That was taken from the first time we crated her at home.
A few minutes into the drive, the crying stopped. The silence was brief. Then, “Mom, Zzulu’s throwing up.” Well, not a whole lot you can do with that one, is there. So the rest of the drive was spent mentally planning, “Operation: Clean Puppy.” And the plan worked, too. As soon as we got home, I put Zzulu in our fenced-in area, hosed her off, grabbed the crate, hosed it out, and discovered that the puppy had this wonderfully short coat that dries in SECONDS. Score! My senior dog takes at least two days to dry fully, so this was a nice discovery.
Ah, yes. The senior dog. Age: 13 years old. Name: Bella. Breed: mixed. Size: large. Disposition with people: sweet as pie. Disposition with dogs: ALPHA TERROR. It was time for Zzulu and Bella to meet. I had also spent some time planning this one. I had my daughter wait outside with the puppy while I went inside to leash Bella. I had also cut up some ham and put it in a little baggie just for the occasion. My plan was to introduce the dogs outside the house and then immediately take them both for a walk while I offered up the bits of ham to Bella to distract her and give her a happy feeling about the puppy. I’ve obviously been watching WAY too much Animal Planet…
But you know what? It kinda worked. Bella ran out, sniffed the puppy aggressively, I pulled out the ham, we went for a walk and life was good. Even better than I expected. Then we got back home and into the house. Zzulu tried out all her puppy charms on Bella. And failed. Miserably. To Bella’s credit, she didn’t try to eat Zzulu, but she did kinda turn away everytime Zzulu came near her. And Zzulu got PISSED. So she started attacking Bella and has since kicked her off her doggie bed, stolen her treats, and played tug with the white tip of her fluffy tail. Bella has handled herself beautifully – Zzulu takes “alpha female” to a new level.
Okay, enough rambling for now. Stay tuned for the next issue where I answer such common questions such as:
- What’s up with the name Zzulu?
- How destroyed is your house?
- How’s the potty training going?
- How does the whole rent-a-puppy thing work?
[…] her name with one Z and not two. You can learn the details of her arrival into our family here and here (well, and also here) but she has come back to us because she failed. If this photo is one of […]