Oh boy, he's one of those...

After getting Pete, we were going to wait a month before fostering again so Pete could acclimate; however we realized that Pete needed someone to play with and Max wasn't up to the job. So we've now got a new foster in the house that may be too much even for Petey. Yet another chocolate foster named Elmo. He's a year old, and definitely still a puppy. We seem to have hit the jackpot on chocolate fosters in the last 6 mos. He and Pete are extraordinarily similar in appearance. They both came out of Caroline County shelter, so they may be at least half-brothers.

While I've mentioned the term puppy in the past, I usually mean mentally since most labs don't settle down until 3-4 yrs of age. In this case, Elmo is both physically and mentally a puppy. He still needs to fill out a bit, he's got the attention span of a gnat, he definitely has energy to burn, and he's still got puppy-bladder. That means for the past few nights, he tells me about 4-5 hrs after bed that he needs to go outside pretty bad. Thank god he's housebroken and he knows to at least notify me but it's tough getting up in the middle of the night. As a puppy, he still has a hard time settling down at night so he spends a lot of time moving back and forth from the dog bed to the couch. Unfortunately as a light sleeper, I get to hear his entire walkabout.

Doesn't help that the night before Elmo came, we woke up to a small Petey crisis. Pete had ripped open a stuffed toy and eaten some of the fluff inside (first dog I've ever seen that actually ate the stuffing). That night his body decided that it was not digestible. Mike and I woke up to Petey jumping off the bed and making retching noises. Quinn had trained us very well. Mike grabbed Pete and moved him into the bathroom. I up-ended the nearest trash can and guided Pete's face toward it so the mess would be contained. What a team!

At this point, my brain is rather fuzzy from lack of sleep and I don't see any end in sight. I have a feeling I'll be up every night to let Elmo out sometime between 2-5am. At least Mike will take care of Elmo on the weekend evenings so I can drug myself into unconsciousness and hope to catch up on sleep then.

PS. Elmo is really rather sweet and well-behaved for a puppy...now he just needs a bigger bladder!

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