Entries tagged 'puppy'

the city of los angeles passed a mandatory spay/neuter law recently. we have held off getting wonton “fixed” because most everything i read seemed to suggest that it was better to wait until after six months or so, and then there was just the time crunch of the holidays. but he has his appointment for friday, and then he will no longer be firing live ammunition.

wonton has been acting very serious all day. i think it is the heat.

actually, wonton is a number (091-514-094). we got him chipped at the vet’s office yesterday, along with getting the last of his shots until next year.

he’s getting groomed at the lofty dog now, and he’ll be hanging out with his brother and other cohorts at tonight’s yappy hour.

dog day afternoon was a wonderful event at the cathedral of los angeles for neighborhood dogs, their owners, and other downtown residents. this was the first time that wonton really got to meet a lot of other dogs (including some downtown celebrities), and he had a blast. he was totally fearless, even with dogs that were twenty times his size.

ed and don were both there taking lots of pictures (i only took a few). i’m not sure they were on the same page as to which of them was the dog.

next on wonton’s social calendar is a birthday party with the relatives (his first people party!), and then yappy hour at the lofty dog next week during the artwalk.

sometimes i wonder how adorable wonton will still be when he is an adult dog. but most of the time, i just live in the moment, and marvel at how cute he can be now. (that is also a good way to forget the less-adorable moments.)

i love his pose in this shot. it looks like something out of a chinese propaganda poster.

before we brought wonton home, we picked up a few dog toys. and we’ve added a few more since then. but his new favorite toy is wadded-up pieces of packing paper from amazon. he almost knows how to play fetch with them.

and the first time he chased one down, but kept kicking away with his paws before he could snatch it up in his mouth, was one of the most adorable puppy moments you could have ever seen.

we left wonton home alone in his crate for the first time today while we went to lunch. we tried to go to langer’s deli, but it was closed so the employees could attend the memorial for the restaurant’s founder. we ended up at mama’s hot tamales instead. the tamales were delicious, although they screwed up our order.

since we got back, wonton has been expressing his disappointment at being left home alone. he’s been barking to get out of his enclosure, and before we caught on to what he was doing, we actually fell for it a few times.

the puppy-training books should have arrived today, but i didn’t make it downstairs to catch the ups truck. the call-box for our building is still out-of-service.

when we got wonton, we were told that he slept through the night and was trained to go to the bathroom on housebreaking pads. both of which were generally true, but they forgot to mention the training we would need to recognize when he needs to go. we’re training him to go outside on the rooftop to use the pads, rather than just leaving the pad somewhere he can always get at it, which has resulted in a few accidents.

we haven’t really been shutting him into the crate during the day, which may or may not turn out to be a mistake. it has been a bit of a relief to see him going into the crate during the day (like this picture), which shows he’s getting more comfortable with the crate and doesn’t just see it as some place we lock him in at night. he doesn’t roam free during the day — we got an enclosure that we’ve used to fence off an area around the crate and his food and water dishes. we only take him out to go to the bathroom and play with us.

i am sure that there are greater life lessons in all of this, but i think i would rather go play with the puppy than try to connect those dots.