I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of the family. Over the weekend, we picked up our Christmas present for my mother-in-law. Why so long after December 25th? No, we are not procrastinators – although year after year I have to convince my wife that the closer to Xmas you get, the better deals are, not to mention AFTER the big day. You don’t believe me do you? Okay, next year check out the prices of Chia Pets on December 1st and check it again on December 24th. Most people like a Chia Pet for Xmas, but EVERYONE likes a Chia Pet for half price. With those words of insight, I would like to introduce Benji.
Benji was bred in Clinton IA and is a Poochon which is basically a crossbreed of a Poodle and a Bischon Frise. We are a poodle family (lost one, still have two) so I am really not that much into designer breeds, but this little guy was available and he sure is cute. Linda thinks he looks a little like a panda, I on the other hand, think he looks like the Predator which is also cool. At this point he is mostly fluffy fur, but much more alert than our poodles were when they were brought home for the first time. He also doesn’t make a lot of noise which may be due to just getting acquainted to the strange surroundings – for my mother-in-law’s sake, let’s hope it is his normal disposition.
In order to keep him out of harm’s way and safe from the curiosity of our two spoiled dogs while we had supper, we put him in pop-up cage. This was definitely not something he was used to and quite frankly not a big fan.
At this point he did start making some noise including a all out raise to the moon howl. Our white poodle does this exact same thing if we do not pick up the phone after 2 or 3 rings. Don’t ask us why, but it is nice to have a secondary notification that someone is trying to contact us, especially since his howl carries a lot further than our ringer. At this point, Benji decided to show off. We looked over and noticed he was literally climbing the cage. This I thought was amazing for such a small puppy. I predict he becomes an explorer and plan to keep the dangerous stuff pretty high. Here is a shot we took of his climbing skills – keep in mind he is only like 6 weeks old.
As soon as we finished supper, we rescued him from his cage and let him loose. My dogs were doing pretty well with him until he went for their food bowls. They are used to being the only dogs and have very little visitors out here in the country so they did not appreciate that one bit and had a little altercation. Benji was a little scared at that point, but they need to get this resolved between them real quick. After a few minutes of “discussion” they settled back down and went their own ways. Benji decided to start exploring and found a small table with a ledge full of magazines. I am not sure if he wanted protection from our dogs or just likes being off the floor, but he ended up climbing up the magazines and making himself comfortable.
Since he liked it there so much we decided to remove the magazines (they were slipping around) and make a little cozy bed out of it. This immediately became his favorite place to be and ended up taking a snooze.
We gave him a toy skunk which surprisingly looked like a twin. Just for reference, here is a pulled out image.
Might as well show off my kids while I am at it. I don’t want them reading this blog and getting jealous.
Neither of them were very happy at the moment because they really did not want any part of the new guy. Our two dog agility stars are Rizzi (Osiris) on the left at 10lbs and Kerby (Kerberos) on the right at 5lbs. If Benji currently weighs more than 1.5lbs I would be shocked. Oh, and yes, our dogs are named after gods of the dead, but Linda demanded they had cute sounding short names she wouldn’t be embarrassed to call out in the agility ring. Kerby was actually from the same breeder in IA. There, that should make our boys happy.
Unfortunately, at this point Benji was pretty exhausted from his big homecoming. He definitely just wanted to catch some Z’s and nothing was going to stop him from doing that. Clearly he is comfortable around us and looks like he going to fit right in.
While we were visiting Linda’s Mom, we wanted to make sure the sweater she got for him fit. Our dogs are not fond of their cold weather coats, but Benji seemed to have no problem with his. It is still too early to tell if he actually likes it, but he definitely did not fight it. He is quite the cutie.
It finally came time to head home and leave Benji and his new mother to the bonding the process. The potty training process is always the hard part, but Linda’s mother does not work so that should be easier to get him out on a regular basis. He had not gone most of the day, but while he was in the cage we ended up putting a newspaper in the corner. As soon as we did that, he ran over to it and relieved himself. Apparently, he already had a little familiarization which will help tremendously.
Welcome to the family Benji!
We might just have to bring him home with us 8^)
Life Intrigued 