Introducing Rupert

I've missed posting the past two Fridays, that's the day I normally aim to share whatever item I've most recently finished. The first week, I simply didn't have anything to share and there was no point in posting without having something to share.

And this handsome boy is the reason for my failure to post last Friday.

Meet Rupert

We collected him after I finished work on Friday so our evening was spent settling the little guy in. In the build up to him arriving, I didn't get very much knitting or crochet done. I was a little bit anxious about whether it would all go smoothly and maybe panicking slightly in case we were about to make a big mistake!

We lost our old dog, Tara, exactly a year to the day yesterday. I knew the anniversary of having her put to sleep was coming up, but I had tried not to focus on the date; I didn't want to be concentrating on that if I had something on that day, playing back events of that day in my mind. So it seems sort of significant that we woke up exactly a year after she was gone to find that we once again had a dog in the house.

Rupert is an 8 week old border collie and he's so smart. He's already getting the hang of his name and we're working on getting him to tell us when he needs to go out. We've had two little puddle accidents since he arrived (plus a peeing in the water bowl incident).

I heard about him about the time he was born, saw some photos and heard a little about him, but I was adamant that we'd not get another dog after Tara, so it was easy to look and listen. Then we went to a birthday party out a my friend's farm and my daughter, Miss 4, and I met him in person.

Back when he was known as Puplet.

He was a little bit wiggly and being held by someone else. Miss 4 asked me if she could hold a puppy and the man holding Rupert offered him to us. I warned Miss 4 that I thought he might want to go play with the other pups, but Rupert just melted into her arms and stayed there until it was time for him to go away. She nicknamed him Puplet. On the way home Miss 4 broke her heart that she missed him.

I hoped that it would be a case of 'out of sight, out of mind', but she and I couldn't help but keep thinking about him. A couple of family meetings later and we were going out to visit the farm again, this time with the Spousal Unit, and he fell in love with Rupert too.

He's settled in so well.

We have a crate for him in the living room and we're working on a ratio of 1:2 for activity and down time. I've never crate trained a dog before, but Tara had an area of our living room sectioned off and it was so handy for her to escape to if the kids were too much. We're using Rupert's crate in the same way and he's getting used to settling in it.

The Spousal Unit and I have been tag teaming at night, I do the first shift in the living room with Roop, then whenever Miss 1 wakes up looking for me, we swap. Rupert seems very attached to me, which feels like such a privilege. I'm writing this with his sweet little puppy head on my foot.

I was also fully prepared to be unable to get much knitting or crochet done once he arrived; the thought of which ironically kept me from doing much of either in the week running up to Rupert's arrival. I've been pleasantly surprised. There's been less in the way of day time knitting, because I need to be ready to intervene if the pup starts chewing something he shouldn't or the kids get a bit much for him, but come evening, he settles down and chills while I get on with my craft of the day. I suspect I'll have plenty to share in the next few Friday posts.