So Chance has been here about a week and a half, and he’s having a pretty good time I think. He’s not overly fond of being left home along, when he’s awake, but since he sleeps most of the day anyway we’ve got a pretty good truce going. (Friday he discovered an escape route under one of the baby gates, so it’s a tentative truce.)

One of the funnier things he does when he’s tired or stressed is pile all his toys in his bed. He was in a litter of two, but in a household with at least four adult dogs and three puppies from another litter, so I suspect this is an attempt to define his own space. It’s a totally understandable reaction, but hilarious to walk into the kitchen and find a perfectly clear floor, and a tiny tiny dog bed stuffed to the gills with eight toys and every puppy treat he’s been given that day. Usually he’s laying somewhere on top, fast asleep.

And we’re already seeing signs that we’ve got a smart one on our hands. He was upset that he couldn’t leave the kitchen the other day when we were home (he needed to pee and we needed a break) and he got tired of standing on the hard linoleum in front of the gate. He dragged his bed over to the gate and climbed in, then watched us through the gate with an expression very much like we were using to watch TV.

Two things that set Chance apart from JessieDog (because we can’t help but occasionally make comparisons between our “kids”): Jessie wouldn’t play fetch on a bet, but Chance loves it. Also, Jessie loved to be covered with the blankets but couldn’t figure out how to do it herself. Chance has already mastered both covering and uncovering himself, and was doing a good job of drying himself off after a shower this morning just by burrowing through the towel.