Consistency

Five weeks later - nothing is really different, yet everything has changed.  The joy little Rocco brings to the house is palpable.   Many things about being in the world are still hard, but we walk a little lighter, a little more often.   It’s hard to imagine life without this funny boy.  He is growing and learning every day and we are learning too.  Rocco has taught me that trust does not develop in a vacuum, it can only mature through loving interaction and lots of consistency.  We are nothing if not consistent.  Rocco is one of the most loving, smartest and playful dogs I have ever met.  Some of the cute things he does are hard to even describe, but I will try to record them here.

·      He loves to play with his toys, by himself or with one of us.  He seemingly never tires of moving them from place to place.

·      If anyone comes in the house, he grabs a toy and welcomes them with it.  He drops it for the visitor (at their feet) and waits for them to throw it.  That is a ritual for him.

·      He loves Camille and likes to take his toys to her.  He will pile them outside the door of her room if she stays in there too long.  Too long is relative in Rocco time.

·      Rocco and Lily sleep in a large exercise pen with a bed at each end – I lovingly call this their…Dogworld.  It is the same pen that Cecil and Lily slept in and I don’t think I ever put either of those dogs to bed without having to chase them and physically put them into the pen.  Cecil was the worst as he would simply go “dead weight” on me and force me to lift him in.  Lily would run from one end of the house to the other until I could catch her and lift her in.  When she was young it included a significant amount of chasing.  Now that Lily is older, she is easier to catch.  Rocco is totally different.  As soon as I put Lily into the pen, he runs in on his own and gets right into his bed.  This alone makes me love him.

·      The water dish we have used - forever, has two compartments and we keep them full.  Somehow, it seems that Rocco can only use one of them – the right one.  He will bark and let me know that he is out of water – even if the left one is still full.  No amount of pointing to the full compartment is helpful – the only acceptable answer is to fill up the right one.

·      Rocco does not walk anywhere – he “zooms” from one point in the house to another.

·      He is not a big “barker”, for which we are grateful. Lily is a barker and her high-pitched yap could peel paint off the walls when left unchecked.  Rocco has a deep bark he uses when being a watch-dog, but it is not often.  He does have the funniest little squeak – a chirp really, that he uses when he knows we have said a final no about something.  He chirps once and then again quieter and quieter until he sighs and gives up.  It always makes me laugh

And so I offer these few observations as a glimpse into the evolving world of All-Things-Rocco. Happy Mother’s Day to all - whether your children have two legs or four!

Rocco in Lily's bed

Looking at me

So alert

This week's favorite toy is reindeer.

Getting ready to hide the reindeer