We are almost through the first month of puppy-hood in the blink of an eye. Zerline is 11 weeks old today. She has done a lot of growing. Her legs in particular seem to explode and lift her still fragile body higher and higher up into the air.
Looking back at our first three weeks in Puppy World, she has already experienced incredibly much. She explores everything on her own terms and she is good at it too. She indicates when she's about to get tired of all those new impressions, which sometimes first happens after an hour, sometimes after just 10 minutes. She is confident and outgoing with most people already and enjoys all the attention she gets. She has met people in most sizes, shapes, colors and outfits, moving in different speeds, volume levels and in a different state of (ir-)rational emotions.
There are plenty of things we still need to witness though. Things like the obvious and obligatory sight of on unexpectedly opening umbrella in public for one. Not because we didn't have our share of rain, after all it's an average wet and cold Danish Summer. It's just that most die-hard tourists simply refuse to exchange their shorts for a portable rain shelter in their holiday optimism, or forgot to pack it. How our views can differ. I am praying for a mild thunderstorm.
Tilde enjoys Puppy World too. She grasps the opportunity of all the extra attention Zerline attracts from people and claims her share of cuddles, doing her best puppy impression she can muster with ease. Only when we meet farm animals we start to leave Tilde at home, simply because Zerline is already calm at a much closer distance than ever-chasing Tilde.
The wild bunch are an active couple. They would play together the whole day in Puppy World if I would let them. They also started to copy each other's behavior. I wasn't surprised when I stepped out into the garden to see Zerline chewing on the corner of the garden chair. That is what puppies do. What surprised me was seeing Tilde chewing on the other end.
Zerline is a smart cookie. I remember how it surprised me she already recognized her name when I picked her up at Schiphol and she continues to pick up on simple things like sit and come fast. We are really doing excellent in the Leave It department - one of my priorities -, probably because of the tons of free opportunities we get during the day to practice. Counting the scars and tears, my guess would be at least one hundred of such opportunities a day.
In Puppy World, Zerline signals me when she needs to get out to do potty and I am freed from the annoying buzz of an alarm clock in the morning. She wakes me up faithfully around 4 am every day for her first potty break. The last round is just before midnight.
Yours truly was using the time in which she takes naps during the day to write and work through photos but is starting to suffer from latent insomniac side effects. So if you don't hear from us in a couple of days, you know why. The new routine at the moment is, when Zerline sleeps, I sleep. When I wake-up again I probably pinch myself to realize it was not a dream. It is real, I do live in Wonderful Puppy World.
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