Learning to fly...: March 2009

Here is the post from Jacob's blog, apparently his site is set to private so not many people can read it...enjoy!

Klondike has no idea what just happened. For all he knew, the three of us (Klondike, Jen, and me, in that order) were living our happy lives, albeit that Jen looked a little different. Then one fateful day in March everything changed. . .

Klondike says he remembers that as soon as March began - he is a dog, and knows things like exactly when the month begins - his puppy-mama started making some unusual sounds. It seemed that every hour or so, she would squirm, and the puppy-daddy would get all concerned for a few minutes.She did that from midnight until about the time the sun came up. Klondike says that after that, things got a little fuzzy. He remembers going out for his morning business, and coming back in to see the puppy-mama making those strange noises much more frequently. The puppy-daddy was much more excited, so Klondike says he got all excited, too. He saw bags being packed, but he got worried when the red puppy-bag didn't appear. He tried to hide by the door so he could go get in the car with the puppy-mama, but she was making those strange sounds every five minutes.

Klondike recalls that he made it into the car twice before the puppy-daddy took him back to the house, rather forcefully he says. And then the puppy-parents were gone. Klondike ran to the window to watch them drive away, and then he just went to the couch and went to sleep. Late that night, the puppy grandparents showed up, and boy did they smell different! Using his puppy sense, Klondike says that the new smell appeared at 5:08 p.m., weighed 7 lbs 7.5 oz, and was 19 inches long!

He said he searched diligently, but he could not find where the new smell, and before he knew it, the puppy grandparents had taken him away to their house. They brought him back the next morning, and Klondike said he spent another long day on the couch. The grandparents came back that night, and they were absolutely covered in the new smell! But still Klondike couldn't find the source of the smell. And then they took him back to their house again! Klondike said he enjoyed all the time with the Grandparents, but he was concerned because he hadn't seen his puppy-parents in two whole days!

Then on Tuesday, Grandma Melanie brought Klondike back to his house! Klondike says that the new smell was in the house now, and he didn't know what to think of that. He watched Grandma Melanie clean the house a little - she got out the infernal vacuum. And then, Klondike heard the sound of Neon pulling into the driveway. He was overjoyed and promptly ran to the door to go see them, but Grandma Melanie had him on a leash - can you believe it? How was he supposed to jump on the puppy-mama and puppy-daddy if he was on the leash?!? (He said he found a way). After a few happy minutes of greeting everyone, Klondike says the buzz in the back of his head (from the excitement, presumably) began to fade and he says he smelled that new smell again - this time all over his puppy-parents!

Klondike says he began to sniff everywhere to find that new smell-maker. Before he had a chance to fully investigate the Neon, however, puppy-daddy brought in a new contraption, which Klondike says he had seen but, dismissively, said he never paid it any attention. And there was the new smell! Klondike later said that if he had know that the new smell would come in that contraption, he would have marked it just to let the new smell know that he was around first. (I told him that was not necessary, but he just wandered off to chew on a stuffed penguin).

The next two weeks were filled with so many visitors that Klondike didn't know what to do with himself: Grandma Mel stayed for a week, and Grandma Deb stayed for a week, and he saw great grandmothers from all over, and aunts and uncles and neighbors, and church friends. And Klondike told me to thank everyone for all the food he got to eat. He ate so much people food, between the two grandmothers and the visitors, that his hair started falling out (Klondike has food allergies, you know). Things have finally started to settle down, and Klondike says its about time. The new smell, which his puppy parents have taken to calling "Everett", apparently isn't going to leave, but Klondike says he's ok with that. Everett tastes different but familiar, he says. Klondike also adds that he knows where to go when Everett makes that stinky smell - and he enjoys watching the little guy squirm when the puppy-parents throw away all the hard earned territory marking material Everett made.

Klondike also wanted to share some other pictures of the little guy. He says he'll post some more after he finally recovers from all the excitement and his hair grows back.