Sunday Salutations and Pawsitive Changes

Beleth started this Sunday day, thinking the most exciting thing was going to be watching the snail creep across his window as the drizzle came down. He could not have been more wrong.

This week has been full of changes and exciting announcements. Perhaps the biggest and happiest announcement (and the only one the animals care about) is that Tod and I picked up our new puppy today!

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We present Flagtree's Divine Comedy, "Dante".

We are super excited to announce that ‘Dante’ will be joining the Chaos Critter family. He is a 9-week-old Mini American Shepherd.

I have a lot planned for this little guy, but the first thing we will be working on is potty training as well as trying to keep going with the Puppy Culture training the breeder started with him. https://shoppuppyculture.com/

Dante from his old home to his new.

He is amazingly curious and so far. He seems to have wonderful habits that I want to maintain and build on, from sitting and looking up at the edge of the pen when he wants out to coming toward you when his name is called. Building and expanding those foundation blocks is the greatest feeling in the world, and I can't wait to see what I can I do with him. (I like that he whines to let you know he needs to potty.)

The plan is that he is going to be my first agility dog, but that is a long way off, but building on his foundation will be wonderful.

For now, he is a bundle of joy and fun and already taking after his big brother. I still love my first puppy, Crokell, who will forever hold the name "Puppers", but I am blessed to have another wonderful dog in my life, another training companion.

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What does this have to do with our writing?

Well, there are a few things that bring more joy than new life - or new puppies. More than that there is a lot that goes into raising a pet correctly. When we have characters in our books, we want to show the correct development stages, and while each dog is different, and each breed is different, there are similarities. The stages of development affect what a puppy can retain, what they physically can or should do. Further, there are periods in their life when exposure to new items is best, and learning how to be exposed to new items in a way that doesn't create fear is important. I feel the dogs, and cats, are windows into humans as well. We are all a complex mix of how we were raised. For good or ill, development, just like so much in life is mixture of genetics and experiences.

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Dante is perfect, even Beleth thinks so... Maybe. Aki is reserving comments for now. (Aki kind of insinuated she wasn’t against it, but did point out we already had a dog. -Tod)

I hope everyone has a blessed evening.

Anna and Tod