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See – I have lots of toys!

So far, I’m doing really well on not chewing on the furniture. Of course, that doesn’t prevent me from finding new toys around the house.

The toy I like the best, though, is my Dad’s favorite pair of shorts. When he walks around I like to jump up and bite at the bottoms of his shorts. My Dad doesn’t wear those shorts anymore for some reason.

More embarrasing photos after the fold. Thanks, Dad!

The vet that I saw that day was a very nice woman. She pet me a lot and kissed me, but then she kind of felt me up! She checked my ears and took my temperature (we won’t talk about that). Then she whipped out these needles and gave me some shots! But when she stuck me with those needles I didn’t whine or cry or do anything. The vet told my Dad she thought I had a really good temperament and she was surprised and happy I didn’t get upset at getting shots. Then the groomer came in and clipped my nails and I was all done! Yeah!

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After the vaccinations, however, I got really lethargic and just slept for the rest of the day. My Dad thought that was cute, so he took some pictures of my sleeping.

A couple of days later, though, I had a loose stool. Sounds gross, huh? My Dad really enjoyed cleaning that up. Plus, some of it was stuck in my hair (use your imagination), so my Dad put me in his bathtub and washed my bottom. That was my first time in a bathtub and I didn’t like it all that much. I squirmed and ran around and shook the water out of my hair. The whole bathroom was wet afterwards, as was my Dad.

Then I had another one in the evening and my Dad got concerned. So it was back to the vet. This time I met with a different one. She was also very nice. She let me run around on the floor of the examination room while she talked to my Dad, and you know what? I peed on the floor. My Dad was very embarrassed, but she said it happens all the time! Note for the future.

The Doctor didn’t think it was anything serious. She suggested it was just me adjusting to my new environment and food. She prescribed an antibiotic for me, though, to help ease the transition (something about “resetting” the bacteria in my intestinal tract).

My Dad waited a few more days before actually giving me the antibiotics hoping that the problem would resolve itself, but eventually he started giving them to me yesterday. I’m getting better now, although I did have a lose stool this morning. Luckily I did it on the puppy pad like my Dad trained me to do, so it wasn’t a mess to clean up this time. More on potty training later!

My Dad names his pets after characters from one of his favorite movies, Aliens. (100% rating on rottentomatoes.com!) He named his first dog “Ripley” after the heroine in Aliens. Ripley was a cute and very sweet Maltese he found walking on the side of the road in 1998 during a cold November rainstorm in Seattle, WA. He said he couldn’t just drive by such a tiny, helpless creature on a terrible night like that. Ripley was a much loved member of my Dad’s family. Sadly, she died of cancer in the summer of 2000.

My Dad wanted to name me either “Hicks” or “Hudson,” names belonging to two of the main male characters from the movie. (If he adopted a girl dog instead, he was going to name her “Vasquez!”) He opted for “Hudson” after determining that he preferred a two-syllable name. Here’s a picture of my namesake from the movie:

Incidentally, the actor who portrayed Hudson, Bill Paxton, was born in Fort Worth, TX, not too far away from where I live now!

Here are some great clips featuring Hudson from the movie. Just watch out – there’s some bad language in the movie clip. But he had some great scenes! I especially like the scene where he talks about the “ant hive”.

My Dad is glad he opted for “Hudson” over “Hicks” because it turns out that, like Hudson in the film, I’m a clown!!!

Dad picked me up on Wednesday, June 4, after a five hour, 270 mile drive from Dallas. He was very tired because the movers brought all of his stuff from New York City on Tuesday afternoon and he spent most of the afternoon and evening unpacking and putting stuff away so that his apartment would be mostly clear by the time I arrived.

I wasn’t very interested in him when I first met him. I was too busy chewing on a toy. But I warmed up to him after a few minutes.

Then he picked me up and put me in a cage in his car. He calls it a “crate.” It’s a cage. Just look at this picture of me in this cage in his car!

The drive was uneventful. After whining about being in the cage for about 10 minutes, I fell asleep. Two hours later my Dad rudely woke me up! He had pulled over on the side of the road and put a “puppy pad” down on the ground and asked me to pee on it. That was actually nice because I really had to go. Of course, to punish him I saved a little bit and peed on him after he picked me up off the pad. Then I fell asleep again all the way back to Dallas!

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I’m going to try to chronicle my life and times via this blog. We’ll see how well I do. The next four months are going to be pretty exciting – I’m going to learn how to do all kinds of things, though I think the first thing I have to learn how to do is not go potty in my Dad’s house (unless I’m mad at him – just kidding).

Please drop by from time to time and see how I’m doing! By the way, that puppy in the picture is me! Yeah, I’m cute.