I love the passing of time

One of them (the black one with the brown paws) was ill for the first few days. On the first day, we thought she was just carsick. On the second day, we figured it was just her still settling down. Then, on the third day, when Shari came to give them their shots, we told her about the vomitting after meals & she decided to isolate her. She took her home, gave her something to settle her stomach & says she’s doing much better on her own.

Now, we’re down to seven. And, they are still as cute as can be. Healthy, furry, warm. Just adorable when they sleep all cuddled up in their puppy pile. And, so fun to watch them frolicking with Charlie out in the snow, as he herds them & plays with his little friends, who seem to look up to him like a hero.

But, they also all like to play ‘the ear biting game’, where they wrestle each other down & the first to bite the other’s ear in a yelping-painful way, is the winner. It’s not fun to watch. I know that puppies have to play these kind of games, to find their place in the pack, to learn how to be dogs, but I still don’t like it.

And, this morning, it got more aggressive, with one of them biting the other’s scruff & not letting go - while another started pulling on the leg of the puppy that was down. Jim & I couldn’t figure out how to separate them, how to stop the fight. The one that was down, was crying in pain. We pushed them outside & Charlie, barking, went with. And, Charlie broke it up.

We put the aggressor in time-out, down in the puppy pen. He’s just settled down, now - after crying for 15-30 minutes. We cleaned up & cuddled the one that got attacked. And, now, I’m sitting here, working from home today & being overly cautious, jumping up & going to the kitchen to break up any puppy fights that sound like they’re getting out of hand.

I’ll have to get the big guy out of time-out, soon. I’m pretty sure that isolating him isn’t going to teach him to be nice. I think, instead, it’s going to take some intensive cuddling & touch to turn him around. No time this morning, though - I’ve got work to do. But, maybe this afternoon.

More thoughts on my ride *home* from work yesterday…

It’s almost like I’m trying to balance out all of the good things before karma can get in & give me a whammy that’s out of my control. So, I’m surrounded by all of this awesome, beautiful wonderfulness & thinking “Whoa, all of this good is way more than I deserve, karmically - something bad’s got to be coming, to balance it all out, to make me ‘pay back’ into the balance of things”. So, by choosing the ‘hard things’ that we have in our lives, I kind of get to avoid some kind of karmic ‘balloon payment’ showing up when I least expect it

And, I don’t think I’m doing any of this consciously. Well, at least, not until now, when I noticed it, anyway.