Thumper

I've mentioned before that I picked up a stray on the fourth of July. Cody has been with us for over a month and it seems like he was never not here. He's somehow fallen nicely into the void that Cisco left. He's an all around good dog but recently I'm picking up on some "quarks" that he has. For one, the dog is obsessed with me. If he's in the same room with me, he'll be sitting or standing within a six foot radius. If I get up, he gets up. If we are outside he is stuck to my side like super glue. I found this endearing in the beginning. Now it's just a little annoying. When I walk around outside he's so close to me that he steps on the backs of my flip flops. I don't know if it's because I took him in or "rescued" him if you will, but the dog loves me. I've heard some animals respond to pregnancy in different ways. I've never experienced this with our dogs before so I can't say for sure, but it might be an answer as to why he sticks to me like velcro.

We kennel our dogs at night. The two big ones sleep in their kennels in the basement. This arrangement has worked out just fine until about two weeks ago. One night Cody decided he didn't care for this kennel sleeping stuff and started barking. I assumed he needed to go outside so, at one in the morning, I took him out. We stood out there, Cody glued to my side, and he just looked at me like "what are we doing out here?". So after several repeat nights of doing this I just left him out in the house. He sleeps on the rug in front of the couch in the exact place and position that Cisco used to sleep. And at 3am every morning when I stumble to the bathroom in the pitch black house all I hear is the loud THUMP THUMP THUMP of his tail against the hardwood floors. It's oddly reassuring knowing he's out there keeping watch and saying hi to me on my nightly treks to the bathroom. I guess we'll keep the lovable lug.