In case you missed our pre-holiday issue, we adopted an adorable puppy, CocoPuff, who has taken over our hearts…and our lives. Her nickname is Coco.

As soon as she moved in, she started eating EVERYTHING!!! Two days later, she was at the vet because there was blood in her you-know-what and she vomited some, too. After blood tests and x-rays (and $300), it was determined she had a bad case of colitis. After a few days of meds, she’s fit as a fiddle. We have since moved the cat food out to the garage, and threw away all the rawhide because we suspect one of those was the culprit for her distress.

On the advice of my mother, we purchased several deer antlers from the pet store and those really seems to curb her teething.

I have been keeping a list of the items Coco has attempted to eat:

Toilet paper
Mason’s tennis shoe
A pillow zipper
Corner of our mattress
Sofa cushion
Rubber glove
Brand new, hot pink iPhone charging cord (she destroyed it)
And, the eyebrow off a puppet…

The potty training is going as well as can be expected. We’ve found that setting the kitchen timer every 45 minutes is doing the trick. For accidents, well, thank goodness our floors are ceramic tile!! Last night, she spent the entire night in her kennel for the first time. We have been introducing it as a comfy play-thing, not a place for punishment. She even drags her toys in there (along with other items as well).

She is coming along nicely with leash training and she is very comfortable riding in vehicles. She just curls up in the back seat for a snooze. We took her to a dog-friendly restaurant the other night and she was the star of the evening. EVERYBODY wanted to pet her and she was LOVING it! Coco is really good with children and she is very social with adults, too. She doesn’t even mind when we leave her at the sitter, which is good. With her teething, she’s too young for us to leave at home alone (or even in a room alone!) for one minute. Coco the furry vacuum cleaner requires 24-hour supervision!

THIS WEEK’S MASONISM

“What if I’m allergic to my own species? Hey! Species rhymes with feces!!!”

Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.

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Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
Learn more here: https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/