It was sometime in September. Dylan and I were up all night once again with Sherman. He simply wouldn't settle down. When this happened, his restless nights led to restless days, and the cycle would continue. It was almost like he was always waiting for something, and he just couldn't sit down and relax. It was a Saturday afternoon when we Dylan and I came to a decision. We believed he needed a buddy more than we thought it may be time to put our old man down.
Dylan sprang into action and hit up the Humane Society that Tuesday on his lunch break.
Waiting in the hallways was one little blonde dog with bright eyes, a poofy tail and perky ears. Dylan played with the little blonde stranger, then called me to come meet him after work.
Insert Baxter: 7 years old, lab mix, an owner release, used to live with 2 cats and an older black lab even. Good with other dogs, loves people, what could it hurt? We brought the little guy home!
Ask Dylan sometime when you're bored and he'll tell you all about my force 5 freakout - but here's the thing you know about me if you've ever met me - like at all - I hate change.
Ask Dylan sometime when you're bored and he'll tell you all about my force 5 freakout - but here's the thing you know about me if you've ever met me - like at all - I hate change.
But! A furry little bundle of cute is an excellent "problem" to have.
Here you can see the cats giving Baxter the stare down on his first night in the house.
Arnie, who is usually the most skittish cat on the planet, did really well getting used to a new pooch. He would get in Baxter's face, stand his ground, say to the new little pup "hey bud, I was here first!" Baxter is never aggressive with the cats, excited, happy to see them sure - but at first he didn't understand why the kitties were so standoffish. He got a little fixated, but it was always cute. Like he was smitten and totally in love with the cats, he'd stare at them, but little hearts were floating off his head.
Today, the fixation has passed, and the cats know Baxter's just another dog in the house ^_^ Our best guess is that Baxter probably missed the cats he used to live with, so he wanted them to be his friend the moment he saw them. It's cool though, Bax, I get it. When I see kitties, little hearts float off of my head too.
Baxter's been good for everyone. I had a whole existential crisis (refer to the above about my force 5 freak out) but the truth is, there were a lot of feelings about the loss of Fifi, Chelsea and the impending loss of Sherman that I had not dealt with. Baxter was a catalyst for some serious inner findings. He's also been great for Sherman! The transformation was amazing and practically instant. Sherman realized there was another dog in the house again - and he could finally relax. As those two have bonded, Sherman's regained trust in me and Dylan again, too. This is important, because now he'll take his anti-inflamitaroy medication, and with the meds working, he's doing so much better! (We had a whole to-do where Sherman stopped trusting anything we handed him - yeah. We tried this anti-senility medication. Good news: we learned Sherman wasn't actually losing cognitive function. Bad news: he had a VERY bad reaction to that drug ... I still feel guilty about that incident.)
Not only all of the above mentioned items - but Baxter is getting us off our butts to get more exercise, Dylan especially. I'm actually jealous, gonna get the treadmill back into working order (see, trickle effect!) Baxter has us all up with the sun, he and Dylan take 2 walks a day almost every day! Plus, Baxter goes out to play disc golf on Saturdays with the dudes.
Baxter loves Disc Golf!
All of our walks with Baxter even inspired this year's Halloween Decorations:
We've also gotten into Bojack Horseman recently, it's a show on Netflix and if you're a fan, you'll understand this next joke. We had an epiphany - we adopted Mr. Peanut Butter.
There you have it, Baxter Boswell. He's a sweet, strange little weirdo full of love and energy -
and he fits right in!
and he fits right in!
