A new puppy

We got a new puppy.

The house was too terrible without a dog.

Here he is bringing some joy to my hurting heart, tiny ball of fluff that he is.

He is a Morkie, with a tiny black body, brown paws that look like rabbits' feet, a stubby tail that is white from behind, like a deer, and a black belly with a little stripe of white like a necktie.  He is so tiny, I feel like a giant looking down at him as he looks up at me from the floor far below.  When he runs through the grass, he bounces like a bunny, and the tips of his ears flip up and down like tiny, triangular white flags.

This is his sweet, tiny face.

We have named him Fergus MacDuff,

and we call him Duffy.

Which is turning out to be a good name, because it rhymes with 

Fluffy

Tuffy

Ruffy

Puffy 

Stuffy and

Muffy

Lots of fodder for poetry here.

I will just say, he is no Schubert.  Schubert was the best natured little dog God ever did make.  Duffy can be a bit naughty, and we are working on training him up.  Yesterday, he tried on his new collar for the first time, very briefly, and it made him immensely cross for the rest of the day.

But, as I recall, Schubert had his issues with collars and leashes.  After much angst, we tried a Gentle Leader.  Schubert did not like his Gentle Leader either.  Oh no, he did not.  After we tried Schubert with his Gentle Leader, he became so pent up, he overturned the entire 5 x 7 rug in our front entryway, a big job for such a small fellow.  Duffy is too tiny to even attempt to overturn a rug, so he got mouthy and started biting.  We had to spend some time doing submission training after that.  He is doing much better today (and we left the collar alone; we'll wait until he is 10 weeks old, on Sunday, before we slowly reintroduce it).  There is always hope.  And love.