Straight Up With An Olive

Big news! The Milwaukee DeGroot clan has increased by 50%. Say hello to our new family member, Olive. She's an eight-week old Pug puppy that we picked up Friday evening in Madison. Both puppy and mom are doing fine.

[I know that sentence doesn't make a lot of sense but since I've received an astronomical amount of emails about people having babies this year, this is as close of an opportunity as I'm going to get to return that favor for a while. So forgive me.]

It's been an eventful weekend with her. Friday I am happy to say that she slept through the night (almost) with no accidents. I was shocked. I had envisioned walking around the house with paper towel and Febreeze for the next month or so. She's been really good about going to the bathroom outside.

Saturday I took her over to Downer Avenue for the annual "Downer Days" event which was a great idea or a mistake depending on how you look at it. Every five feet of walking I would have to stop while people came running to pet and ask the standard questions: How old is she? Male or Female? What's his or her name? After a while I didn't even wait for the questions to come. Someone would walk up and I would just recite the answers like the Terminator: She's 8 weeks old, female, Olive. Some were very receptive of this. Hey, I thought I was helping. Some were not and I could tell they were ready to call the pet patrol on me. It was a good time though and it wore her out a little.

So far it's been great, but the feeling of GREAT responsibility is certainly sinking in!