Cooper is Home

We drove a little over an hour this morning to meet the breeder halfway to get the puppy. The entire day has been pretty amazing.

The sun inside the car blew out his colors but he curled up on a sheet on my lap and slept almost all the way home. The dark hair is jet black . . almost blue in the sun. The breeder took him to the vet before meeting us, got his “pre-transfer” checkup and his second set of shots.

We weren’t sure what we would name him. We had several names in mind. Oliver and Cooper were the final two. Then I took a picture of his big paw and Vince said “I hope we didn’t just buy a baby bear!”

Then Vince wanted to name him Bear. I wasn’t too excited about that name but .. if Vince wanted to name him Bear, then Bear it would be. We got on the Interstate and the first big billboard we saw was for Cooper’s Antiques. Vince looked at me and said “Cooper! That’s his name! It’s a sign!” so . . his name is Cooper. I think I’ll call him Coop.

When we got home, Vince went down the outside stairs and took the puppy to the play yard. I came in, got Oscar, took him out to do his business, then we met Vince and Coop in the play yard. When I was putting the harness on Oscar, he was sniffing me from head to toe. He knew something was very different. When he met Coop, he knew right off the bat that his mom had been loving on another dog! 🙂

We kept both dogs on leashes. Vince had Cooper and I had Oscar. They sniffed a bit and then Cooper growled and then Oscar growled. We said NO to both of them and they took a few minutes but they seemed fairly ok with each other. Oscar went off to find hackberries to eat; Cooper wanted to be picked up and held. We never left them alone together. Cooper is not house trained yet so he can’t get down on the carpet. He’s peed outside four or five times and pooped outside – nothing inside but . . we’ve been out 100 times. Really, every 20 or 25 minutes if he’s awake, I take him out. So far, so good.

Does that look like a look Oscar would give me? My high school colors are orange and black so I was happy to buy an orange and black harness for Mr. Big Foot! 🙂 Yes, I already had my pajamas on. It’s been a long day and I’m ready for bed.

Oscar did the sweetest thing. Cooper was sitting on Vince’s lap. Oscar loves the Yak Chews. There are always several of them in the floor. Oscar grabbed one, jumped up in the chair with Vince and Cooper, dropped the chew in front of Cooper, hopped down and started chewing on another one of the chews. Vince said “Did you see THAT?” I think I was sitting there with my mouth wide open in disbelief.

Later, Oscar wanted to go out so I put Cooper in the crate, took Oscar out and when we came back in, Cooper was not happy about being in the crate and he was very vocal. I think Oscar thought something was wrong with him and he went crazy trying to get to Cooper in the crate. I thought Oscar was mad at him but I think he was only trying to help Cooper. I had to put Oscar in his crate so I could get Coop out of his crate. As soon as Cooper stopped screaming, Oscar was fine.

It’s 8 p.m. Cooper is asleep on my left.

Oscar is asleep on the right.

Life is good!