JodyTheBad's Pirate Ship!

Meet Maccabee, a rescue discovered at Pet Smart this past Sunday. I have recently been thinking that my kids are old enough to enjoy an indoor dog, and Fozzie is really not a good indoor dog. So when we walked into Petsmart I remarked that if I found the ABSOLULTELY PERFECT DOG that it would be an OK time to bring one home.

I saw the puppies out front and was halfway pleased that it was immediately obvious that none of them would be good for me and family. Clearly I have some modicum of judgment. While Mark did his shopping, Connor and Grandma and I walked around looking at fish and bunnies and birds. Then I saw the other collection of rescues. There were lots of cute puppies and dogs. One of them was a spaniel mix climbing spastically out of his 4 foot high cage. There were a couple of smaller terriers that were very excited about everything. Then there was a shiny black 10-month-old lab mix calmly wagging his tail and looking around at everyone.

I went over to say hi and he nudged my hand with his nose and wagged a little harder. Hmmmm. I asked if I could visit with him and they put us in a training area. This dog is just so sweet! He never jumped on me, he only licked my when I put my face close and made kissy noises, and it was just a little polite lick. When Connor screamed and ran up to him he just wagged his tail and touched his nose to Connor's face, he didn't even flinch. Same when Chase flailed at him.

He happily let me touch him all over. It was weird because while I have always said that I'm not afraid of dogs, having Fozzie makes me really nervous about touching a dog's nose or paws.

I spoke at length with the people who had rescued him from the pound - apparently the whole litter was super calm as well. He's house trained, obeys the sit command and was fostered in a house with cats and kids and had no problems.

I visited with the dog for a while longer and decided that I just had to take him home. He reminded me of a calmer version of Goose or Salvador (although he seems to have more than the 11 brain cells Goose had.)

So he's been home a few days now and I'm waiting for the bad-habit-shoe to drop. So far it hasn't, though. He's interested in the cats but when Tilde swatted at him he backed down. That's the worst thing that's happened. Well, I've been keeping him away from Fozzie which means I have to walk him, and he enjoys going outside so we end up going outside a lot more than we need to, but I imagine I'll get used to his potty habits. (But this dog seems to have an iron bladder!)

The dog seems to like me best for now (but then again I'm the one home all day with him and I protect him from Connor-the-Terrible). He likes to follow me around and lie quietly in whatever room I'm in. He does bark a bit but not too much at all. He does play with Connor, and he is sooo tolerant. Twice yesterday I had to physically stop Connor from dragging the dog around by his tail. He enjoys dog treats, but is NOTHING AT ALL like Fozzie with food. When you give him his meal he grazes a bit then moves on to other things. It's freakish to have a dog that doesn't inhale food! He does sit close to me when I eat - apparently his last owner fed him off their plate. Also he jumps on furniture. He's not that big (50lbs) and he's clean so it's not the end of the world but I'd rather my animals stay on the floor, so I'll be breaking him of that habit (I hope.)

So since we've had him he's had no accidents, he hasn't chewed on anything but his own dog toys, he hasn't woken me up ONCE, and he's been nothing but calm and sweet and great with the kids. I even feel comfortable leaving Chase on the floor with the dog walking around - he seems very aware of his surroundings, unlike Fozzie who is oblivious to anything but his objective.

I am going to leave him alone in the house for the first time today. I'm curious to see how that goes, but I think it will be ok!

I am so thrilled with him =)

We are still waffling about whether we will change his name or not. Maccabee was what he came to us as, but I'm sure we can get him used to another name easily enough. Maccabee isn't quite my style of name, though, so I'm open to suggestions.

Our pets' names to this point:
Cassie (cat)
Killer (cat)
Tilde (cat)
Fozzie (dog)
Goose (dog)
Chinook (ferret)
Fat-Elvis (ferret)

For this one I've considered
Macbeth (Mark doesn't like it)
Escher
Deefer (like D-for-dog, suggested by Grete and I like it! It goes well with Connor)

We may end up keeping Maccabee - it has a nice ring to it and it's so cute when Connor says it. But open to suggestions in any case!

More dog pics here.