Cinder-Pack Princess

  Cinder's new title will be, "Cinder, Pack Princess."  After three weeks, Gilley went from a firm "zero tolerance" policy to being Cinder's new BFF.  Unlike Buzz, who really doesn't play so much as he tolerates play, Gilley actually engages with Cinder in fun and meaningful ways-he actively plays and wrestles with her.

    I'm not sure what caused Gilley's criteria to shift from one extreme to the other, but if I had to guess, it was that Cinder needed time. She was so small and feisty when she arrived that even though she may have earned a lot of reprimands, they were hard to issue without actually hurting her or bordering it.  Her biting and jumping was over the top for the two "grumpy old men" who have long ago established a quiet routine within the house. Avoidance and evasive maneuvering seemed to be their key to not hurting her and not letting her hurt them.  It made life a little rough and forced me to be her primary interactive entertainment while also giving them the option of deciding for themselves exactly how and when they chose to interact with her.  Size-wise, she may have needed to grow for those couple of weeks for the boys to be more comfortable with exacting their lessons in decorum with snarls, snips and a few real well-placed nips and not be so small she was endangered.  It's hard to know if any or all of those things came into play, but the bottom line is that the initial cold shoulder and zero tolerance policies seem to be over after three weeks.  I am personally doing the dance of joy since that means I now have help puppy-sitting in meaningful ways for her.

     As I'm writing this, Cinder has come into the office and curled up with Gilley beside my chair. I think that punctuates his total acceptance of Cinder as the new pack princess and his new BFF.  Buzz is currently on the bed to have some respite from all that is the new norm of chaotic activity surrounding the little princess.

     Meanwhile, another new development for Cinder so far this week seems to be the ability to now easily scale the living room loveseat and chairs to safely land atop them.  Of course with any new skill she develops there is also a downside and that now means she's capable of reaching anything on all the furniture now.  Hide the remotes! Hide the books! DO NOT LEAVE ANYTHING on the end tables because Cinder may invade and ingest anything in her paths both at and above ground level now!  Yippee!  Another set of adventures in daily life raising Cinder.

Cheers!

Chris