Someplace New Every Day!

As part of Jo Jo's social development during his first 12 weeks of life, I've been taking him someplace different every day.  He's gotten to be quite the little traveler, hoisting himself onto the rear bumper every time I open the back hatch of the Acadia!  Last Saturday, we met up with the whole Marino family and Maxwell at a new little park just up the street from us.  What a big morning for the brothers!  Grocery shopping carts, pumpkins, lots of Starbucks customers, an underground pedestrian  tunnel, fake coyotes, real geese and ducks, a life sized horse & dog statue, a fountain, a waterfall, lovely sweet adult Labrador Retrievers named Moose and Luna, fire trucks and firemen...OH MY!  Maxwell has lost most of his baby fat and is looking good!  He is such a sweet boy!  Both of the boys weighed 17 1/2 lbs mid to late week last week.  They are growing up fast!

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Sunday, Jo Jo and I went to Longview, but we walked through the park rather than just around the pasture.  There, he mastered open stairs without hesitation, walked across bridges, saw more people on bikes, a horse up close and baby strollers, got petted by children, met a 12 week old Golden named Josie and smelled a lot of stuff!

Monday, we went an extra block along Clayton Rd outside our subdivision and made an impromptu visit to my walking acquaintance, Linda, who happened to be in her front yard when we walked by.  Lots of traffic whizzing by, Linda's three young grandchildren who were laughing and squealing and making all kinds of children noises as they rode scooters and tricycles around the driveway, Linda's little Yorkie - named Cody, and a nice visit with my friend!  

Tuesday, we went to Lamp & Lantern Shopping Center.  What a good idea, I thought!  People coming and going from shops, outdoor patio restaurants, parking lot traffic, a pet supply store....What could go wrong?  Well Jo Jo was very interested in one of the natural areas while I talked to a shop owner who came out to admire him.  Next thing I know, he's got something - I think a small skeleton, but who knows???, in his mouth.  We haven't yet learned "leave it" or "drop it".  So there I am, trying to wrestle this - whatever it is - from "little" Jo Jo's jaws.  Well, he decides it's his and uses those jaws to chomp down on my thumb and middle finger!  OMG - it hurt soooo bad!  Blood everywhere!  And Jo Jo swallowed the "whatever"!  What a little "S!@#!"  We walked calmly back to the car where I used Clorox Wipes to clean up my hand and mostly stop the bleeding.  Then we somewhat completed our rounds of the shops, but he did not get a treat or a new toy from the pet supply store.  Imagine that!  Instead, he got 2 cc's of Peroxide when we got home and got to empty his stomach!  I did not careful search the contents, but everything seems to be moving along normally today, so hopefully, the "whatever" was purged from his little system!

Today, we visited the salons where I get my nails and hair done.  Lots of interesting smells and different people to meet.  We also walked across a busy street, experienced his first manhole grates, and stopped at a private school for a walk on the way home.  Fortunately, he did NOT consume anything he shouldn't have!   We keep working on checking "experiences" off the list!

It's not that easy to think of different places to go every day!  Maybe tomorrow we will venture over to Queeny Park.  It's huge and he can only walk a little ways at this point.  That should be good for several days because there are multiple parking lots and we can head in different directions on different days!

He has not yet mastered climbing into the rocking chair (or any of the inside furniture).  So now, in the mornings, he's convinced Rhani to share her bed with him when they decide to settle down following their after breakfast romp.  Those romps are increasingly active.  Rhani doesn't wear her collar anymore when he's around because he is obsessed with biting it.  They are spending more and more time running in the back yard, but he's still too small to be out there unsupervised.  There are places in our fence line that he could scoot under if he decided he really wanted to.

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I continue to get good reports from Kiki (PKA - Rita), Sadie and Aurora (PKA - Lizzy).  Everybody has had baths now (except Jo Jo!)  Tom has been searching for a good trainer and found a highly recommended guy who is doing online classes due to COVID.  They start soon, but she already has learned heel and other commands and is making great progress on house training!  She gets to go to school to pick up the kids in the afternoons too! Sadie is loving her "big brother Chip" (see video below).  I think we will see Aurora and Maxwell at class tomorrow evening, and Maxwell is going to have a sleep over with us this weekend because his girls made it to the State Tournament in golf. The family is going to Joplin for the tournament, but 11 week old puppies are not welcome on the course!  Good luck, Amelia and Campbell, and have fun!  I promise we will have a lot of fun with your boy while you are away!

​Enjoy!  Until next time....