life with jaws

As far as I can tell, JoJo lives for three things in addition to eating, pooping, and sleeping--chasing the cats, destroying the plants, and chewing on me.

She is almost 13 weeks old, and has been our pup for six weeks, and I adore her and she knows it. She is most definitely my puppy. Most often, I feed her and clean up after her and she whines when she can't follow me around the house (biting my feet or hanging off of my pant leg). She seems to identify Jack as the pack leader and everybody else in her world is simply a sibling, another member of the pack to jump on and chew on. And while she loves to chew on her big sheep (it was a gift to Jessie when she was maybe two?) and her little squeaky sheep, her kong puppy chew toy and her old navy puppy, any ball or sock or shoe or slipper she sees, her favorite thing to chew on is clearly me and when she isn't chewing on me, she's leaping around me trying to figure out how to jump up and chew on me.

Most of the time, the chewing is no big deal. But every now and then, she goes overboard and amazes me at the pain those little razor teeth can inflict. For example, the day after she came home with us, she got hold of my index finger with one of her fangs and sliced it open as deep as the tooth could sink in and half an inch long. A few days later, she punctured my other hand, just above my thumb. Next she sliced open my palm. Then she nipped at my belly, through my clothes, leaving a bite and a bruise. I have scabs and bruises and red marks on my arms and legs, hands, feet, fingers and toes, belly and shoulders and elbows. Her latest chomp was last night when she bit through my thumbnail and the skin around it, leaving three spots where teeth had been, one of them right through my nail. Every time one of these really painful nips happens, I think, "Well, this is definitely the worst one yet," and then a few days later, she surprises me with a new one.

JoJo also likes to spend time playing with her siblings, Oscar, Weezie, and Millie. Weezie and Millie are still a bit overwhelmed by JoJo's enthusiasm (and by enthusiasm I mean teeth, feet, and weight). They spend most of their time sitting on a chair or bed or couch, hissing and growling at JoJo, who is usually on the floor looking up at them.

But Oscar is the big brother JoJo always wanted. They chase each other down the hall, around the furniture, and into the basement. JoJo has actually sniffed the end of Oscar's tail and today they touched noses--quite by accident, of course, and the touching was followed by several pawslaps at JoJo by Oscar, which were followed by some crouching and much wagging of the tail by JoJo.

One of JoJo's other favorite things to do is chew on my houseplants. I used to have a dozen or so different plants in baskets and pots grouped around the sunniest rooms of the house, but not any more. When Oscar was smaller, he and Weez liked to frolic amongst the plants and would occasionally toss some dirt or mulch around. But then along came JoJo. She likes to rearrange the plants, tossing the mulch and dirt, shredding the leaves, thinning the plants as it were. Last weekend, I condensed the plants into fewer containers and moved them higher off the floor, in an attempt to rescue them. I had this great plan to create a tile top for a table frame I found at a yard sale so I could set the remaining solo plant on it, but I fear I may be too late...