Life altering event

16 July 2010

Ke'o is now just a little over 7 months old and the past 5 months have really flown by.  I'm disappointed with myself for not being more diligent about documenting his progress lately, but it is, as they say, better late than never.

Ke'o and I completed a 9 week basic obedience course, which he passed...by one point.  I'm still a proud momma, though.  He's learned how to sit, lie down, stay, come, shake hands, high-five, roll-over, bring it (fetch) and leave it.  I'm such a proud momma :)

Today, I took Ke'o to the vet to get neutered, microchipped, and have his remaining puppy teeth removed.  I was wracked with guilt and anxiety as I waited for the vet to finish with his procedure.  I felt horrible for putting my sweet little guy through pain and resulting discomfort.  It felt unfair... why should I be the one to decide whether or not his genetic material gets passed on?  I felt a growing knot form in the pit of my stomach.  I started to hyperventilate.  I cried.  I felt ridiculous.

It's been a rough day.  For him, more than me, I daresay, but he can't talk so I'll speak for us both.  He isn't sitting or lying down for more than 45 minutes, probably because the pressure that sitting or lying down puts on that area is causing him major discomfort.  So, he ends up standing.  I've never seen a dog fall asleep standing up, but I think I may tonight.

The biggest guilt inducing trigger for me right now is when Ke'o looks at me with his sad, sad eyes as if to ask me "What happened to me?  Why does my body hurt?  I don't understand what's going on..."  Proud momma?  Not so much today.

Puppy gets a name

My name is Kahuna Ke'o Li'i.  But you can call me Ke'o for short.

Ke'o continually surprises us with how smart (and manipulative) he can be.  He's learned to climb stairs, but we're still working on going down stairs.  He can go down two or three stairs, at the most, without one of us having to help or carry him.  Ke'o seems to have found his "voice" also and surprised both himself and me when he barked for the first time this week.  Fortunately, he uses his voice fairly judiciously in play or to alert us that he's p-o'd about something.  He hasn't barked at anything else, like the front door opening or at people walking by or at cars driving on the road.  That alone makes me feel that he's a pretty special dog.