Your Eyes Are Getting Heavy. Very, Very Heavy.....

Louis is my heart.  I cannot imagine life without him.  I cannot imagine that he was not a part of my existence Saturday morning, and now he is the focus of my world. 

That being said....Louis is going to be the death of me. 

That puppy has both of us wrapped around his little paw.  He didn't speak until last night.  We thought he was mute.  Daisy and her friend came over Saturday night and we made a fire, ate pork loin and played Canasta.  Louis was exhausted and could barely hold his head up.  But...he wanted to be with us.  So, I moved his little bed into the living room in front of the fire.  He promptly drifted off.  Daisy's friend kept saying "that can't be a puppy.  like a real puppy?  he's so quiet and still."  Uh-huh.  That's what we thought too.

Yesterday (Sunday) we took Louis to TEN's football game.  Even though TEN is injured he still wanted to be there to cheer on his teammates.  Louis was well behaved, and he wore his argyle sweater because it was quite cold.  BFF's kids were at the game.  They played with Louis and he was a little angel. 

After the game BFF and I went to see New Moon (separate post for my thoughts on that!) and TEN babysat.  Louis ate, peed outside for TEN, etc.  I come home from the movie, TEN and Louis are asleep on the couch.  The evening winds down.   It's bed time for Louis.  Or so I thought.

From 11PM until 1AM Louis howled/cried/barked from his crate in the kitchen.  TEN and I were upstairs in my bedroom, and it was as if Louis was in the room with us.  So very loud.  So very sad.  So very pitiful and frightened sounding.  I sat at the top of the stairs and kept telling TEN I couldn't do it.  I couldn't leave him alone and scared.  So, TEN put Louis (crate and all) in the basement.  The house was silent.  I felt much better :)

This morning when I went to fetch Louis from the basement he was very groggy.  I'm guessing he continued to cry/howl/bark until the wee hours of the night.  Poor baby :(  Once again, he would not pee outside for me.  He won't do this, you see.  Only for TEN.  He likes TEN more than he likes me.  I'm convinced of this.  You see, TEN held him on the long drive home.  I drove.  For that reason, he bonded with TEN first.  Also, TEN doesn't snark at him when he pees/poops on the floor.  TEN also doesn't clean the mess up, so any quasi-snarking he does is only half hearted.  I expressed my thoughts on this today, and TEN has agreed to become the disciplinarian. 

I realize we are only on day three, but I already feel like a failure :(  I tried to think positively on my way home at lunch, but wanted to cry again when I saw that Louis had soiled his crate.  And when I say soiled, I mean SOILED!  So, towels are now in the wash, the puppy has new towels in his crate...but NO TOYS.  Bad puppy!  Of course I didn't yell at him, and I did tell him I loved him before I left and put him back in his crate. 

I'm exhausted.  Literally exhausted.  Thank God it's a short 3-day work week.  Perhaps I will get some opportunity to sleep!  Perhaps I should also take advantage of my 73.5 hours of vacation left over for this year.  Perhaps staying home with Louis would help him adapt?  Or, perhaps I'm just expecting too much too soon? 

Regardless, he is my little angel, and if he is ends up spending the rest of his life in diapers that's okay.  We will love him anyway.

Yawn,

T