More from phone: At the park, just me, Vinnie, and Vinnie's smile. -- he keeps looking back from his sprints to see if I am still there. The clouds are above, lit up marshmallows and fluffy pillows. Vinnie is still tentative about the water, but splashes around in the shallow end, biting the waves.

Vampire dog

This is the first time I am trying the mobile-to-blog, so here it goes!
When I first got Vinnie, I thought he was a vampire. He seemed to love biting me, and even drew blood at times. He had his razor-sharp baby teeth (speaking of the phrase razor-sharp, I think his teeth were sharper than any razor. He drew blood more times than I have ever cut myself shaving). He chewed my fingers, he chewed my arms, and he even gave me too little puncture wounds, slightly to the left of my belly button. Needless to say, I couldn't wait for his baby teeth to fall out.

And then one day, I found a shiny canine tooth stuck in the carpet. Besides the fact that this means Vinnie had been trying to pull up the carpet with his teeth, it was also a sign that the vampire days (nights?) were coming to a close. Over the next few days, I kept looking for stray teeth. I found the 2nd tooth just sitting inconspicuously on my knee, as Vinnie and I were wrestling one night. The 3rd tooth, the last one that I found, was also stuck in the carpet. And I found out that, not only were Vinnie's playful bites much softer now, but I also found out that I am the type of mom who saves her kids' baby teeth. Who knew. :)

Quiet Mornings

You'd think that having a 7-month old puppy would mean restless nights, getting up every few hours to take him outside, waking up way too early every morning... but no. Somehow, from the 2nd or 3rd week of Vinnie's adoption, I started getting the same amount of sleep that I have always gotten. This puppy is so quiet in the mornings.

Sometimes I will open my eyes and just see him staring at me. His gentle brown eyes just gaze at me. Not demanding anything... He is not looking at me urgently, like "Let me out of here so I can go potty!" or, "Isn't it time to play yet, mom?" But just a curious, inobtrusive, "Hey. I'm up. Let me know when you are ready to get outta bed. I can wait." It is unbelievably sweet. Sometimes, if I don't feel like being stared at right at that moment (and who does at 7am?!), I'll say, "Lie down, sweetheart. It's not time to get up yet." He will then tread a few circles in his bed go back to sleep. It's very common that he will be up again in 10 minutes, and I will feel his soft gaze returning, but by that time I am usually ready to get up.

It is just a really good, wonderful, comforting way to wake up. Much better than those annoying alarm clocks. :)

Telling dreams

I had a very funny dream last night. I was in it, of course, and so were 2 of my friends and my little puppy. We went out to a club, and let me tell you, all of us made complete asses of ourselves. We really were an embarrassment.

One of my friends got totally drunk. One of my friends kept kissing everyone in sight. I was ignoring everyone, being really irritated and cold for some reason. And Vinnie... well, Vinnie had an accident. Poor little guy. Can't take him anywhere.

I told one of my friends about this, one of the friends from the dream, and the first thing she said was how she loved how Vinnie had an accident. Not that I took him to a bar, but that he felt it was fitting to pee right on the floor.

Dreams are so entertaining. And often, somewhat based in truth. :)

My mischievous dog and his blue monkey

Vinnie jumps. Vinnie nips. Vinnie's fur is coarse (except on his ears and under his chin). Vinnie, being part beagle, will be a small dog, even though I wanted a large dog. Vinnie still has the occasional accident. Vinnie barks when he gets excited. Vinnie swallows socks. And yet I have so much love for him, it overwhelms me and brings tears to my eyes. He is the perfect dog. Ah, motherhood...

I love just watching him sometimes. Last night, as we were each in our respective beds, I watched as he moved form chewing on his monkey to his sock to his hot dog toy to his bed. He knows I don't like him chewing on his bed. The reason I won't let him chew on his bed is because the bottom part is made out of a spongy material, and he rips it apart and eats the pieces of sponge with no problem. If he keeps doing this, there will soon be no bed! Anyway, so last night I started saying, "Uh-uh!" when I saw him chewing on his bed, and he immediately, without even looking at me, started licking it. What a cutie. Like, "Oh, mom, I was just giving my bed kisses! I wasn't tearing it apart!" A few seconds later, he started chewing it again, and when I voiced my disapproval, he again started with the licking.

Let's go back to the monkey. A few weeks ago, as we were crusing through PetSmart, he spotted this bright blue stuffed monkey on the shelf. The blue monkey was surrounded by yellow monkeys, red monkeys, neon pink monkeys, ... you get the point. But Vinnie made a beeline for the blue one. At that point, I hadn't decided whether or not we were going to buy anything on this particular shopping trip, so I put it back up on the shelf and gave Vinnie a commiserative pat on the head. We continued shopping (and by "shopping," I mean, letting Vinnie run around and socialize with other dogs), and he pulled a few more things off the shelf. When we were finished, we headed back to the front of the store, and again he lunged for the blue monkey. Well, that's all I needed to give in and decide to buy it for him. I did make him carry it to the checkstand, though. :) The checker thought it was adorable.

This poor monkey. Sure, I have a dozen photos of the 2 of them cuddled up, Vinnie's arm around him all sweet and innocent-like. However. I do have, not on camera but in my memory, have many instances where Vinnie is chewing away at him like nobody's business. This dog is methodically dismembering his monkey limb by limb. He started with the tail, working on it for weeks, chewing it up, swallowing it, slowly pulling it out of his mouth again, and then repeating. After a few weeks, the tail had become so battered and withered and weak, and it snapped off. Before I could stop him, Vinnie swallowed it. He sighed with satisfaction, looked around, sniffed, and then started in on the monkey's left arm. After a week or so of that (he is getting faster, the little masticator!), half of the arm, the end, was only attached by a thread or 2. I quickly distracted Vinnie, and as soon as he turned his head, I snapped off what was left of the arm and chucked it under the bed (now that I mention it, it's probably still there... I need to go home and dispose of it before Vinnie discovers what I did). I'm sure the little guy was confused, but I did not want him to consume another monkey limb.

I'll keep you all updated on the dismemberment of his poor little friend...