Pup-sitting for my sister left me pooped - but he was cute

Rowdy has left the building, and my home may never be the same.

Rowdy is a very cute, very energetic young dog who came to visit my much older little dog and me for the past week. Did I mention that he was young and energetic? I don’t know about Maggie, but I’m pooped.

I volunteered our services as dog-sitter for my sister and her husband’s dog. After a play date to try things out, which went well, they dropped Rowdy off.

It’s been a while since I had a pup around and even though he’s trained and well mannered, and approaching a year old, there is no doubt this little guy is not out of the puppy phase.

His first order of business was to round up all the long-deserted dog toys that my dogs had hidden behind and under the furniture and out on the patio quite some time ago. Somewhere I have a bucket of dog toys, but Rowdy didn’t need to tap those, he found plenty around the house.

The little stuffed monkey was easy to find because that’s the only toy Maggie ever shows any interest whatsoever in. He also found the Santa Claus hedgehog and a rope ball. I knew he likes to remove tags from toys and he did do that, but the hedgehog’s Santa hat needed to go as well. Try figuring out when you find a tiny Santa hat on the floor in August.

He loved to chase said toys when flung down the hall from my recliner and he would pounce off my belly with great pleasure as he leaped on to the chair to bring it back. Maggie half-heartedly chased him for a while and barked at the game, but she soon got tired and laid on the rug to watch.

Maggie didn’t much care for him taking all of her lap time, but she finally resigned herself mostly to the floor. She did discipline him just a little bit when necessary, but no serious scuffles ensued. The biggest issue we had was they are both fixated at treat time and if I wasn’t paying attention it got noisy under the table.

It took a couple of days to train him to the dog door, but he finally got it. Once he figured out he could come and go his favorite thing to do if he got bored was to go outside and bark. If he did this other dogs would bark back. As a country cousin, this was new to him.

As hyper as the little dog is I’m amazed at how many miles my brother-in-law has logged with him on the road in a truck. To his credit, I put him in his kennel each night and after just a few minutes of crying he would be quiet and polite all night long.

I’ve got to say the energy level of this youngster has me wondering if I would ever want to raise another pup again. Then again, when he was quiet, he sure was cute.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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