Quirky Family

I tend to forget how odd my dogs are until a stranger meets them for the first time. Tim, Sarah's new boyfriend, came with her to pick Sophie up after a sleep over last weekend. It was the first time any of us met Tim. He was great, and I especially appreciated his ability to appreciate both Sadie and Porter.

Sadie's last hurdle is excepting strangers into the apartment without incident. She is getting much better but I still take every opportunity to work with her on this problem of hers. When Sarah and Tim entered, I was standing in the living room next to Sadie telling her no every time she barked at him. Her barking has drastically decreased from what it once was in similar situations. Now it' s more of 'who the hell are you?" instead of "I WILL HURT YOU IFYOU DON'T GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" If you don't know her, however, combined with the small quarters of my apartment, the experience can be unsettling. Tim's response was to tell us over and over again (and quite sincerely) how beautiful she is. At least she has beauty going for her!

Porter, meanwhile, is still anxious about change. It is slowly getting better, but as soon as he saw a person he didn't know enter the apartment, he quickly said hi to him and then ran into the bedroom and started humping his bed. What a greeting.

Eventually, we all sat down in the living room. I was on my huge beanbag chair monitoring Sadie who was by this point chewing on a huge marrow bone, and every so often glaring at our guest. Tim sat on the couch farthest from us, Sarah sat in the middle and Ben closest to Sadie and me. Porter's humping spell finally broke and he came out to join the party. He immediately fixated on Tim, who let him jump on his lap and practically make out with him. I don't love it when Porter does this, but considering how many people are scared of him (because he's a pit bull with a huge head) it makes me feel good when people downright love his attention. I let Tim and Porter get to know each other until Porter got a little too assertive and actually did stick his tongue down his throat.

Next time we'll work on giving Porter some boundaries.