Grandpuppy Troy

This is a picture of BJ's Brittany Spaniel puppy Troy when he visited us about a month ago when he was three months old. He is much bigger at four months--AND more active!

BJ got the puppy before he got a job; he'd been unemployed since graduating from A&M University in College Station in May. (His big brother DC went to A&M also; DC was in The Corps, but not BJ.) When BJ got hired last month, he moved to a coastal Texas town into a trailer because it had a fenced-in yard for the dog (and was also affordable).

And then BJ was sent for seven days of safety training in Louisiana, so he needed someone to take care of Troy--us! Troy will be with us until Thanksgiving (Nov. 22 this year), the next time BJ will get home.

Troy is in his "toddlerhood" and must be in the "terrible twos," as he is busy, busy, busy. Our 11 year old cocker Baillie and 4 year old shepherd mix Cisco are tired of him. Baillie is old and just growls at this whippersnapper and walks away from him. Troy continually jumps on and bites Cisco, who is very patient, even though we humans get tired of the constant growling and wrestling. Sometimes Cisco will snap at Troy, which only discourages him for a moment or two.

When the noise gets too much for us, we usher all the dogs to the door to go "outside." It has gotten so that often Troy will run out, while the other two dogs just stand by the door, waiting for it to be closed with them still in the house.

Today Troy pulled the camera case off the desk while we were in the other room. He was chewing on it, when husband CB angrily apprehended him. CB did not appreciate me telling him that we needed to "child-proof" the room for Troy, just like we'd need to do for a grandchild.

This evening Troy dug out an orange wire that was in between the deck and the house. I asked Chuck what that wire was for--and he furiously told me it was for the internet connection! None of our other dogs (and our black lab died last year) ever dug it out before! You can see Troy gets into everything.

He's having a good effect on me though, because I'm taking him for long walks.