Puppy Fever

Two puppies will be easier...they play together...comfort each other at night...less crying and whining.  That's what they told me at the rescue so I plucked two puppies up and took them home.  "They" were wrong.  Two puppies are exponentially more evil active.  This is how things go in the Fullone Home:

Gena wakes up from her nap first.  I can usually distract her from biting me with a bone, Sadie, or the myriad other toys.  For about 5 seconds.  Then Maggie clues in to the puppy being awake and gets psyched for her favorite new game - Steal the Toy.  It goes something like this. 

Puppy bites the crap out of Mommy...Mommy grabs nearest toy in desperate attempt to distract the puppy from the yumminess of her socks and waves toy in front of puppy's mouth.  Puppy takes the bait and pounces on the new toy.  Maggie, who has been lurking over the puppy the entire time, promptly snatches toy from puppy's mouth...Puppy returns to biting, tugging, pulling and otherwise terrorizing Mom.  Repeat. It's a really awesome game.  The game can be fun for all involved....by which I mean me...until JoJo wakes up.  Then it becomes a circus and I'm pretty sure I've been cast as the clown.  When two puppies are involved, Steal the Toy becomes a juggling match.  Juggling to keep a toy in all 3 dogs' mouths while keeping myself, my clothes and especially my toes out of the reach of sharp puppy teeth.  Like I said, a truly awesome game.

But then moments like this happen.  When the pups tire of Steal the Toy game, they curl up on the nearest body...most times this is my lap but sometimes Sadie gets the tired puppy action too.  She loves it.  So does Maggie.  I mean, who doesn't love puppies when they're all tired and snuggly??

TJ has been spectacular with the two puppy thing.  I kind of forgot to officially clear the more than one foster dog scenario with him but he takes a few nights with them to give me sleep and sometimes naps with them himself.

It hasn't been all fun torment Mom games...the puppies have been busy growing - they've nearly doubled in size in the two weeks we've had them.  They can now successfully navigate the stairs though Gena usually demands requests a little help going down them.  They are starting to learn not to bite hard on flesh though all bets are off when said flesh is covered by yummy socks or sweaters.  And Gena is starting to signal when she needs to go potty by whining at the bottom of the stairs.  But JoJo has her beat - she actually tackles the stairs and does her whining at the back door.  Sometimes...okay...like once in five accidents.  Hey, that's progress!

Puppies are definitely going to stay in the foster rotation.  Even with all the work they are, there is still nothing sweeter than puppy cuddling.  They were a good way to enter the world of fostering and I've enjoyed seeing them grow and start to develop their personalities.  But I'm looking forward to helping a less adoptable adult dog next time around.  Just need to get these rambunctious sweeties adopted out first!