I did a bad, bad thing

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Ok. I'll start at the start (why I didn't get anything done last night... not even sleep properly).

Left work early to pick up a transformer for the scanner from Jaycar. Under $22. On the way I passed the produce store at Blacksoil where they've had a sign out for a few weeks for border collie/cattle dog cross puppies.

My old dog, Bundy, the black and tan cattledog/shep cross, is 14. Deaf and blind. He's crashing into things too, whacked himself into the gate the other day. Owch. I think he's not well, quite thin.

I just went in to look.

Honest.

They were putting the pups in their pen for the night. The sides were only about 2ft high and the pups kept climbing out... a bit like trying to put an octopus in a string-bag. One caught my eye. He had the most colour in him, the others were just black and white. (But I wanted a girl! To LOOK at a girl!)

The bloke was tired and cranky (it WAS Friday and I think all of us must have had a week like that...), I asked how much. "Fifty dollars," he replied. Vaccinated. Normally $200, but I have to get rid of them, they're getting too big. As the pups were vaccinated. I figure they were wormed, too. If they're gonna vax and give you the cert they'll be worming.

Just before dark we arrived home. Sitting in the car with the puppy at the produce store while he calmed down took a while. The music on the CD freaked him out. The talking on the TV freaked him out.

Very late last night I had to sleep, he'd followed me around all evening. I'd tried putting him in with the big dogs. Meg, the youngest, wasn't sure what to do. Alternated between tail wagging and looking like she was going to attack him. I couldn't leave him there (it was dark and hard to see with a torch what they were doing, doggy body-language).

I tried to get a photo of him to put up, but my camera seems to have gone to god. No picture at all, just the filed ones. The mobile phone camera software won't download properly, or won't recognise my phone. Piece. Of. Crap. Never. Again. Goodbye. Moto. (Maybe at work? It's loaded there I think.)

What name? Well, travelling home in the car he sat on the console mostly with his head and paws on my lap. He's very pretty. I thought "Pretty Boy. Floyd, I'll call him Floyd." But that's a bit close to the ex's name. Hmmm. Think? Ah, of course. His birthday is 1/8/08... Horse is a good name for him. (Wasn't that the cat in Footrot Flats?)

Poor Horse got dumped outside thismorning when we woke up. (I slept on the papasan cushion on the family room floor, with all the doors to all the rooms shut, just in case. Case = one liquid deposit and one more solid mess to clean up. Yeeeccch! Paper towels, better than sliced bread), I think my back is going to kill me. (Oh, I didn't include the various liquid ones before we went to sleep, only about three or four. And I tried shutting him in the laundry. Big mistake. Do you have any idea how far one of those solid deposits can be spread by a panicking puppy?)

As soon as I got back to the house, not far at all, he was shadowing me, again. He wriggles through the dogwire at the bottom of the fence! He's smaller than I thought. But his feet are huge!

As for the reception by Bundy and Meg, Horse seems to have established his place in the pecking order. He's a worker, I don't know how he'll go here. Poor Meg is rounded up and then stopped from getting to me. Bundy's humping Horse, who is humping Meg.

Oh dear. That's not the way it's supposed to be.

Now I have to do the stuff I didn't do last night.
Update: Look at him? How could I not take him home?

Update 2:
Ok. Last night at about 6:30pm he was howling to be with me. Arrgh. And scratching the door (thank heaven for the thin plywood on the bottom of the screens! Anyway, I thought "I can't have another sleepless night and cleaning up poop. What to do?" I have friends nearby on the estate who used to run a boarding kennel and she showed dogs. I phoned and asked "How long should this take?".
She told me that it might be fine soon. I asked what I could do. Before I knew it, The Horse was at the front door, scratching and crying. Arrgh!
My friend offered to let me borrow a pen, it's called an exercise pen, to put him in so the dog next door won't eat him... did I tell you the neighbour next door brought him back when he "Houdini'd" into their yard just on dark? Their dog is a hunter... maybe she wouldn't hurt him, but he's very annoying... Meg isn't happy about him at all. He's definitely got her bluffed. He's a cattle/sheep dog well and truly.
So, she offered to let me borrow the pen and also a cage like they use when they're showing, or waiting to show. A "cocker cage". Me and The Horse went up there right away! She gave me two old bedspreads to use in the cage. (I don't have any old stuff I can cut up and use like that.)
The Horse spent the night in the ensuite with the door open. He cried a bit, but was fine (me having a shower freaked him for a minute, until he realised I was still there, then he just lay down on my dirty clothes and waited for... whatever). I don't feel so much like someone slammed me with the concrete floor.

The Horse was sooo good. I took him out for a wee before we went to bed. Then later when he'd stopped crying on and off, he started again, and I figured he needed to go. So we went outside. He just wanted attention. He didn't pee or poop so that was a good morning for me, too!

Now he's full of beans. I don't think that Meggie's impressed with him. He's got her rounded up and headed out. He's about 1/4 of her size! She can't get over to me for a pat now and she's not impressed. He was looking for something to chew so I had a hide bone. He's hopping into that.

I have to figure out where to put the excercise cage for the day so that the puppy will be not to hot, not too cold, in fact, just right. Dilemma.

And it looks like he might be called Floyd. Dang it. I tell people his name and the story, and they call him Floyd, short for Pretty-Boy Floyd.

Whatever he answers to will be what he's called!

I need a cuppa.

PS He's only in the house at night and in the cage in the day until he's too big to fit thru the dogyard fence holes.

Update 3:
I don't have wireless. I have a blue cord. Did you know that it's very chewy? Hmm. Now I have aerial blue cord, courtesy of some short pot hangers and high bookshelves. *sigh*

Will I survive this?