BOO!

Says Bu.

Bu who??

Who the heck is Bu?  

And is that pronounced like "Buh" or "Boo" or "Bou" or what?

Bu, - pronounced like Boo - is my new (and actually my first) foster dog.  Many of you probably know about the various puppy-mill raids that have been going on.  Well, little Bu happens to be one of the nearly 600 dogs that are victims of those puppy-mills.  You can read a little about the situation here.

Bu is a three year old Yorkie (one of the Skagit dogs for those that care to know), weighing in at a whopping 5 pounds.  When we picked her up from the Humane Society for Seattle and King County her name was Buttercup.  Now, don't get me wrong, Buttercup is a cute name - but what are you supposed to call the dog as a nickname?  "Butt"?  We also tried out "Buttskie" and "Cuppie". 

Yeah.

That's just not going to work here.  Thus, her name quickly shortened to just Bu and it has since stuck.

When we picked her up she was a bit of a mess.  Shaking, scared out of her wits, and smelling strongly of urine.

Dazzle's reaction....stunned horror that I actually brought that thing into the house.

But never fear.  She'll get over it.

Peanut was slightly concerned as well.  After all, she has always been considered the "baby" in the house and despite her slim figure, is nearly twice Bu's weight.

The little Rat (as she is affectionately known) got acquainted with everyone and then began trotting all over the place checking everything out.  I got tired just watching her!

As I learned when walking her from the car to the house, she was not leash trained.  Nor did she much appreciate wearing a collar.

Note Peanut's eyes bugging out of her head as It approaches.

It was drizzling outside (in typical Seattle style) and Bu was most definitely not impressed by the wet outdoors. 

Oh hi there - my toes are freezing.  We go back inside now please?

After investigating the house, yard, and other canines in the house - it was bath time.

My gawd, get me out of here!

It suddenly became very apparent that, when her hair is flattened, her ears are in fact...huge.

Ok ok ok, I promise I be good.  Just no more bath-times please...

Once she dried off and puffed-out she was much happier.

And that much cuter....

Within the first day, she became hopelessly attached to me.  She is so friggin' small that she can squirm out of the gates we have set up in the house and she does so whenever I leave the room.  If I somehow manage to escape her for a few minutes, when I return she bounces up and down like a bouncy ball, little body wiggling the whole time.

Training has begun.  She has figured out stairs, leashes, crates, food time, and grooming.  Housetraining is going surprisingly well (I think Dazzle's look of disgust when she pottied in the house helped).  

Because I like training with play, we've been working on building some play drive.  She isn't really into dog toys but I can play with her if I have some scraps of paper handy.  For whatever reason she really enjoys playing with paper things (most of all those annoying paper bracelets you get when you go to museums and such - she LOVES those!) 

So far we've got a nice snappy down and a decent sit and recall.  We also have the start of a stay, spin, and release word.  I'll try to get some video of that stuff.

I am currently trying desperately not to fail at my first foster attempt.  She sure isn't making it easy for me.