Cooper continues to be an important part of our family. It doesn’t take much for him to make me smile, really all I have to do is look at him.

Lately he’s been making me laugh.

When Cooper first came to live with us I got him some busy bone things, mainly to keep him busy when he’s locked in his crate. He loved to eat them and they didn’t keep him busy for long because he ate them so fast.

Since he loved them so much I bought him a Costco sized bag so he’d have plenty to enjoy.

A couple of months ago he stopped eating them and started hiding them. I’d give him one and he’d take off running, ears back, with a guilty looking stride. I followed him to see what the hell he was doing and he was “burying” his bone in a corner. If he saw that he was followed he would look distressed as he grabbed his bone and ran off again.

The other morning Logan came down and showed me what he found in his room while he was cleaning, it was one of those damn busy bones. Logan had left it on the floor in the family room and next thing I know Cooper has it and is hauling ass upstairs. I quietly follow and find him in the office “burying” his bone in a corner under a workstation next the drone.

Hopefully he didn’t damage any of the drone props while burying.

I couldn’t help but laugh and wonder just how many of those bones are hiding throughout the house. I went on the hunt to see how many I could find, but of course I never let him know when I found one.

I was able to find four others throughout the house.

The top two squares above are bones hidden in the dinning room, the bottom left is behind my bedroom door and the bottom right is behind the office door.

Cooper is clearly worried that there will be a bone shortage, so he’s hoarding. Maybe he’s stocking up for winter? Could he be part squirrel?

What funny things does your dog do?

About four months ago, we got a dog! Yeah, this post had been sitting in my drafts folder for months, but my lazy ass hasn’t been blogging so it just sat there.

Cooper’s first day with us.

Anyway…

I’ve been wanting a little dog for quite some time now but Bill kept saying no. I pulled the crazy card on him and that’s when he started to cave.

It all came together quite nicely actually. A friend reached out that she needed to rehome a Yorkie I had once admired in one of her Facebook posts.

There were some concessions made before Bill would allow us to even try to bring a dog into the house. It took me a matter of hours to figure out how I could make it all work. When I’m determined to get something, nothing can stop me.

Cooper quickly made himself part of the family.

Cooper came to live with us on a Monday morning. I dropped the kids off at camp and met my friend to pick him up. He was friendly and hopped into my truck without any problems. It wasn’t until we got home that we saw what our challenges would be.

The cat.

The first time Cooper and Nittany met, the fur literally flew. It was an ugly interaction. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t be instant BFFs but I was hopeful that they wouldn’t want to kill each other.

Nittany is bigger than Cooper in every way and I was really hoping that would work to her advantage when it came to him leaving her alone. It has not.

While it’s gotten significantly better of the course of those four months, it’s still not my ideal situation. Their violent interactions are shorter and Cooper will disengage as soon as I get involved.

I actually woke up the other night to find Nittany sleeping on my pillow and Cooper at the end of the bed. When Cooper decided to get under the covers he just looked at her and went about his business…No fighting.

Baby steps.

Progress is being made!

Other than the issues with the cat, Cooper has been a wonderful addition to our family. He’s sweet and loving but also very protective of his new family. I’ll feel much safer when Bill travels having Cooper around to sound the alarm if danger comes our way.

Cooper loves to go for car rides and his love of car rides has taught me an important lesson. I took him with me to go get the boys from camp and left him in the car (in my view and in the shade) while I picked Logan up. He wasn’t going to be in the car for more than a minute or two so I turned the car off. I also left my keys, phone and wallet in the car with him. In the short time he was in there he managed to lock me out. Long story short, the spare set of keys was lost and the police needed to be called.

Moments before locking himself in the truck.

I now never leave the dog in the car with the keys, not even for a second.

He’s taken off on me twice and while it’s not too funny in the moment, seeing his little legs running away with his giant ears back is pretty funny.

Cooper is full of personality and is sure to provide some funny stories from Mommyland. He has truly filled a spot in our home that we didn’t even know needed to be filled.