Proper Introductions

While the Icarus is going along smoothly (finished the next repeat, no major catastrophes -yet-, yay!), it looks very similar to the last picture and I don't want to be too redundant. And since I don't really have anything else going on the needles, I thought I'd do something a little different today. I'd like to properly introduce you to Sammy, my shih tzu.



Sammy is 5.5 years old. He was given to me in August 2005 by a friend of my mother's coworker, who was, for whatever reason, unable to care for him. He's been an absolute delight since day 1. Sammy is incredibly smart - he loves to play fetch, dash around the room, and bark at the doorbell. He also spends a lot of his time doing this:



Laying at the foot of our bed and napping. A little tidbit is that when neither The Boy or I are at home, he gets put away in his kennel. For a long time, we'd let him stay free, but he would often rip up window blinds in his fervor to keep people away from our home. Even when we would keep him in the bedroom and not let him run around the entire apartment, he would continue to chew the bedroom blinds instead. So, after a lot of replacing and as much scolding (to which he acts pathetically), we decided that since dogs are indeed cave dwelling animals, then it was not cruel and unusual punishment to ask him to stay in his kennel. The good thing is that most days he only has to stay in there a few hours because The Boy and I have staggered work times.

A minor issue that we deal with is his chewing his toys. He chews his stuffed animals and plastic toys to bits (rips off appendages, specifically) and then swallows the goodies. Which then leads to rushing outside and to expel said appendages. It's not pretty. So we're slowly taking away stuffed and plastic toys, and replacing them with tough-skinned tennis balls and a blanket that I knit for him last year.



Yes, he does chew on this as well, but so far there has been minimal shredding and absolutely no ripping - meaning no piece of his blankie has ended up on the lawn yet.

Because Sammy spent the first 3.5 years of his life with another family, I'm a little sad that I wasn't involved in his socialization. He is a little frightful of strangers and other dogs, and it's hard to get him to calm down sometimes and be kind to others. But we're still working on that. And the important thing is that he is incredibly sweet to The Boy and I - and we will love him forever.