Dogs!

The dogs met a baby for the first time yesterday. It was interesting, and went better than I expected. Remmy curled up on the blanket near her and didn't pay her much attention at all. In his world, it seemed to be just another human who may or may not cuddle him... Beanie, on the other hand, was extremely confused. She stood back at a short distance, fussing and looking from me to the little girl (8 months old, sitting up). If the girl made a quick move, Beanie would growl a little. She got tapped for that. Eventually Beanie crawled forward, very slowly, to sniff the girl and poke at her with her nose. Everything was good until the little girl started waving her arms and her brightly coloured plushie cell phone thing around; then Beanie got freaked out, backed up and started growling and whining. I grabbed her collar and hauled her back, and made her sit with me. She kept fussing and fixated on the toy. She doesn't like when toys are out of place (i.e. not in her bed or the toy basket). Since we were in Harrisburg at a bonfire, I'm not sure where she would have actually taken the toy had she gotten it, but she wanted it anyway.

I was really very surprised that Remmy was so tolerant. Although, really, the baby didn't do anything to aggravate him. Her existance didn't bother him enough to even really acknowledge her, even when I was holding her. So that's good. Beanie, however... this is going to be interesting. I need baby gates. Possibly a playpen, which I'd never really thought about using before because I'd always thought "Why bother?", but now it seems like it might be a practical solution to letting the dogs and the kid be face to face, but with a barrier. Come to think of it, I would like the baby gates to have mesh... that wouldn't survive for long, though, I suppose. And I would like the baby gates to last beyond the use of the baby, because they're good for my business. Separating dogs is often necessary.


Still feeling heavy and done and sore and such. No change there. I would really like to be able to lie comfortably on my back again. Or on my belly. Sigh.

Soon.