"Whoever said money doesn't buy friendship obviously never bought a puppy." --- Unknown

My post-count over the past couple of months is positively shameful, I know.

I wrote a while back that we were looking to get a puppy in the spring. This past Saturday, this little guy entered our lives:

We have not officially decided on a name, but for all intents and purposes, I'm going to be calling him "Ruff Ruffman" here. I think it's fitting. And, in the "There are no warnings, only signs" meme, the L.L. Bean adjustable collar we got for him yesterday prominently reads, "RUFFWEAR." I've had designs on the name for quite a while, courtesy of the PBS kids show, "Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman" where a cartoon dog sends human kids on challenges in order to earn points toward a great ... or not-so-great ... prize. There are others here who want to come up with something stuffy like Otto von Brustenfield or something. After having named many of our dogs Sammy Whoopka over the years, venturing something different seems a challenge to some in this house. I like "Ruff." It's playful, fun, short. And it gives an instant intro-conversation piece. One can pitch right in with, "Life was missing its mystique / my squeaky toys had lost their squeak. / When BAM! outta the blue... / I pitched my vision for a show, they loved it --- thought I was a pro! / They got the contract back to find, to their alarm a dog had signed! / Fetch! (It's very catchy!) with Ruff Ruffman! ..." I could go on, but I'll just stop there to avoid completely embarrassing myself.

After so many years of having German shorthaired pointers --- including raising three litters ourselves --- I suppose there is a certain comfort level with the breed. We basically know what we're getting. But even still, for any breed, a slightly chubby male has always seemed to have the best temperament, and following from that, take best to training.

But puppies arrive in this world like a rough-hewn board. Training often only puts a fine sanding to them. Ruff arrived white with black ticking. I've read that GSPs can have black coating, but I'd never seen it. We always had some combination of the chocolate/liver color. The genes make the difference, tho, and I must say with some relief that Ruff sheds exponentially less than our previous GSPs. As someone who is a little compulsive about keeping the house clean, it would be hard to make me happier. It doesn't look like his tail was docked much, and for some reason, still has his dew claws, which are usually removed in the first few days. He's exhibiting the classic separation anxiety of this breed and its close cousins (Weimaraners, Dalmatians), barking and carrying on when they're left in a crate. I'm trying my best to break him of it. After he's firmly house-broken and out of the chewing stage (there have been a few mishaps in the former category) I don't imagine we'll need the crate very often. Ruff also seems to have a medium-sized frame, so he may be close to the breed average of 55-60 pounds when fully grown. Not like our large-pawed, thick-legged Mack and Sammy, who tipped the scaled at about 90 pounds (and not much of it fat). I hate to think so much in terms of comparing Ruff to his predecessors, but there it is.

So, here we are, about to do this again....

14 April 2010

After the stump chipper did its violence to an old pine stump yesterday, I am to dig out the chippings and deliver them to someone who will use them as mulch. Then, filling in the stump-less hole with dirt, then topsoil. Will then be cutting out a chunk of the yard to make the garden bigger, and re-sodding as much as I can from that to the freshly-turned soil where the stump once sat. There's my general orders for the day.