Puppy Power

WE HAVE a new dog. A small dog, a mini pinscher of sorts. It was a Christmas gift. As it is with us, we had a long debate as to what to name the dog. There were several names but we sort of narrowed it down to two. Bruno, because of its size and Scrappy because of its size. But we decided to wait for the dog because by then we would know what to name it once we finally saw it. When we got the dog I knew what to call it right away and it wasn't Bruno or Scrappy.

(Before anything else though, for the record I wanted Bruno and Gabo wanted Scrappy.) But when we saw the dog I wanted to call it Dobby, the house elf in the Harry Potter movies. I do not know why but the dog had Dobby's expression. Chona sort of agreed and I thought that would be that. But the dog may have had the facial expression of Dobby, sort of morose and droopy but the dog was a blur. I mean I can understand that it is still a pup and kind of jumpy and excitable but this dog was just all over the place. Initially when he was handed to us he seemed like Dobby but when he got inside the house, he just started running and sniffing. He even yelped a few times. So Dobby was out of the question. Besides we did not want a morose dog. (Middle aged people need something else!) So finally we called him Scrappy after the nephew of Scooby Doo! (A sideline to this is what Chona said.

She said that if we named it Bruno, then she would call our next dog, Mars. So Bruno Mars! Actually next month we will have another dog, a Labrador. But shhhh, do not tell Scrappy that okay?)

So right now, it is Scrappy who is the king of the house. When we got him we had to buy a cage because we did not want him going around the house in the middle of the night!

As a testament to his frivolity, we went into a panic mode a few days ago when Scrappy disappeared. We called him out but we could not find him. We looked inside the house, outside the house. The lawn, the streets and everywhere else. Still we could not find him and we were really worried because we could not lose him. A few minutes later we finally found the puppy under a wooden chest inside the house! We all sighed. We were all relieved. But the dog was insensitive to our panic. He just yelped and went around his canine way.

A few days ago I brought him to the vet for his shots. He seemed behave enough. He even barked at the other dogs in the vet. Either he is heroically brave or idiotically stupid because he was barking at dogs four times his size, but hey he is not called Scrappy for anything. Puppy Power! He looked unfazed and noble. He has this habit of raising his right front leg when he is about jump at you or yelp. I guess that comes from his father. His father is a constant guest in our home. He has his father’s spunk and bravado.

In fact this early he is showing who is boss. When Raphael was dressing up, Scrappy was jumping around and was making a lot of noise and fuss. And because Raphael was in a hurry, we had to put him back in the cage so Raphael could finish dressing up. At first the dog complained but soon enough, he settled down. He just stared out of the cage with those big black and beady eyes. After Eps had done with his dressing, we opened the cage to let him out. The dog stayed put, it did not go out. Puppy power!

That dog has character and I know he will show more spunk and “angas” in the following days. We talk to Scrappy, we massage him, we run around with him and he obliges by scampering around. Just like a kid, just like a pup. As it is, today he is still the king but I wonder what would happen when the Labrador comes. After all a Lab is a big dog. But Labs are docile and gentle and this Scrappy is a whirlwind by himself.

Well we shall see. In the meantime let me stop here because I need some Puppy Power!