Tomorrow will be a week since Lucian came home with us to start this new adventure. I had forgotten how difficult puppy world can be for the humans…lol. Lucian has definitely settled into the surroundings of his new home and is go, go, go most of the time. He just loves to run throughout the house carrying a toy to drop and pick up another on the way through. It’s the cutest thing to watch…you just see a streak of black run through with some colorful toy in his mouth.
The house training is going fairly well (there’s been a few mishaps) but we’re starting to pick up on his cues that lets us know it’s time to get him outside. And boy does he love being outside…so many things to see, strange noises, and all the smells. Lucian loves to rip up grass and pull bark off the tree Leland always loved to sit under. It’s non-stop mouth cleaning when we’re outside. Oh and gravels…he loves chewing on them and I’m always getting them out before he swallows one.
Surprisingly Lucian has done well sleeping in bed with me and my husband. He will settle right down and go to sleep. I think he really loves being in bed. He usually stirs about 4-5 hours later and that lets us know he needs a potty break and he’ll go pee then it’s back to bed.
I took off work Monday and Tuesday to stay at home with Lucian to get him accustomed to being in a new place. Well my husband has been home since trying to get some work done on his equipment. On Wednesday my husband was beside himself because he had to put Lucian in the crate while he was outside and he could hear Lucian whining and howling. He called me to tell me what was going on and that it went on for like 30 minutes. He wanted to go check to make sure Lucian was ok but didn’t want the whining to start up. I told him Lucian was probably sleeping and I’m sure things were ok. When I got home my husband and Lucian were stretched out in the bed and Lucian was just exhausted. From what I’ve seen Lucian is forming a tight bond with my husband…he’s like his little shadow. Leland was always with me but I think Leland has sent Lucian to look out for my husband because he’s had such a hard time with his passing.
Since having Lucian home it’s amazing to see him exhibit a lot of the behaviors that Leland and Lucky had. It’s like both Leland and Lucky had a paw in Lucian coming to us. My husband has been very skeptical with the whole religion idea and whether there is a god and heaven. He’s had a lot of death in his family and many have suffered through their death because of cancer. Then when all this stuff happened with Leland he felt that if there was a god how could he make this animal and us suffer like this. Since bringing Lucian home and seeing he’s like Lucky and Leland wrapped up in one he truly believes there are spirits among us watching over those left on earth. Leland and Lucky saw how much we have been hurting and led Lucian to us.
Emotionally we both still cry over missing our Leland and wish he was still with us. I thought Lucian would help ease the pain in our hearts and perhaps we wouldn’t cry as much. I’ve figured out in this week that isn’t what his job is. Lucian’s job is to make me and my husband laugh and smile…which he does very well. Only time will help lessen the hurt in our hearts but I don’t think it will ever completely go away. My husband and I would just like to get through a day without crying…I’m crying right now typing this.
We definitely feel the presence of both Leland and Lucky with Lucian in our lives. We just hope that Lucian can have a long and healthy life. We are going to do things differently for Lucian (not neutering him till later in his life if at all and not over vaccinating him every year) to try and prevent him from going through the health issues that Leland and Lucky experienced.
Here are some pictures of the crazy boy…don’t let the cuteness fool you. Sometimes I think he’s possessed…lol!
OMG… he’s bigger than I thought! Will his ears pop and stay up? He’s adorable!
Your blog sounds very much like the first weeks I was home with Jasper (however, you as you know, I had a horrible time bonding with her). But definitely sent for a reason. Shelby sent her to me to help me smile, laugh and have fun again. Puppies are a whole different beast for sure! Jasper is over a year but still has so much puppy in her w/her toys and her babies … But there are slivers of my Shelby in her that make me smile and bring me joy!
I look forward to hearing MORE adventures about you and Lucian.
XO
Alison with the Spirit of Shelby fur-ever in her heart
We’re hoping to start posting his ears to stand this weekend. His ears were just a mess with being inflamed, sore, and oozing. We think with him and his brother rough housing after the cropping (they were kept together) they never really healed up good and the stitches were removed after a week.
We took them down on Monday to change the stuff out and clean them up and then we really saw what a mess they were. We tried posting them the way we did Leland’s with the long wooden Q-tips and just putting the tape on the inside of the ear (not where the cropping was done and things were all scabby) and nothing would stick. So we tried posting how the breeder did with the tampon applicator and wrapping tape around the ear (which we hated doing). By that evening the tampons had come lose and the tape was bloody from where he kept scratching.
I got my husband and we took them down and Lucian just cried and whimpered because his ears hurt so much. We decided we were not going to attempt posting until his ears were completely healed. My husband was a mess and I was balling (again) because Lucian was in so much pain.
We’ve been keeping Neosporin on them and they look so much better but he still has some scabbing.
So I guess we’ll see if we can get his ears to stand after all this. If not so be it…we refuse to cause Lucian that sort of pain again.
Oh I didn’t realize their ears didn’t just ‘pop’ like a bulldog’s ears do naturally. Either way, his ears are adorable and so is he. 🙂 I know nothing about dobies, obviously. I wonder if Jasper was born w/her ears straight up like hers were. AKA – dumbo ears!
Ohhhh sweet little Lucian I can smell your puppy breath and corn-chip feet from here!
He’s such a lucky boy to have you. I agree; his job is apparent, and like you said, it’s not ever to replace Leland or to help you forget what you had together; it’s to help you and hubby see life in a different way, through the eyes of an innocent pup who instinctively knows he is so lucky to have found the right humans.
As for living and learning from the past when it comes to things like neutering and health and all that, I know exactly how you feel, our Wyatt gets the benefit of what we learned when raising Jerry (which unfortunately didn’t really happen until after he got diagnosed with osteo). But that’s how we learn I guess. If only we could have had the choice to neuter or not neuter Wyatt, I’m in your camp, I would have waited or not done it at all.
Anyoo, it will be fun to watch him grow up, thanks for allowing us to be a part of it.