A Giant Leap and Some Zoomies

 So tonight a thing happened. 

I have to back up and give you the full story so you can have a better understanding of this "thing".

We recently obtained a baby shark (some would call him a puppy but his sharp teeth say otherwise). He's this black & white 10lb fur terroist that has stolen our hearts along with some of our flesh. We call him Louie. 

We have been a 2 dog family for almost 5 years, but last year our sweet boy, Max, gained his angel wings and now he's probably being put in timeouts in heaven just like he use to at doggie daycare, because he annoyed the other dogs too much. I am sure Jesus has his hands quite full. :) 

After Max passed, we decided to hold off on getting another dog right away because it was important to us that our younger dog, Sammy, who was 4 at the time, had our full attention. He was such a trooper when Max had cancer and often times took the back seat during Max's treatments, so we wanted to love on him and give him the attention he deserved. 

Over the course of the next 10 months, we watched as Sammy's personality soared. It's not that Max held Sammy back or anything, but Max was 6 years older than Sammy and he definitely led the pack. Sammy would follow Max around and do everything he did. Max led, and Sammy followed. With Max gone, Sammy had to find his own way and month after month, he started to blossom. His personality developed more and more and he became his own little being. Sammy went on vacations, stayed in hotels, went camping, took car rides, went to stores, and took ownership of his new castle and kingdom out here in the country. There is not one critter around that doesn't go running when Sammy takes flying leaps off our back deck! Sammy has arrived!

We knew eventually that we wanted to bring another dog into our home because Sammy truly loved his big brother and Max brought him so much joy and we wanted Sammy to have that again. With COVID happening, a move to another state was postponed and the pieces all fell into place to get a baby shark. 

Not everyone feels the way we do about our pets. They are like kids to us and we treat them as such and we care about their little feelings. We went back and forth if the timing was right and God just seemed to line everything up for us so the countdown to baby shark was on.

Our 9 week wait flew right by and it was time to bring the sharp toothed flat bottom pancake home to meet Sammy! We were a bit nervous (actually I was really nervous). We tried to think everything through as much as we could so that we could make this a happy and easy transition for our entire family. 

It was important to us that Sammy's daily routine stayed as much the same as it was possible; same feeding times, car rides, bed time routines, etc. We introduced the boys on neutral ground (not in the house) and there were only a few small growls at first. Over the next few days, the growls became less and less and each day there were more tail wags from Sammy. He seemed more interested in baby shark's toys more than anything, but he didn't seem bothered too much that he was here except for the occasional face lunging from baby shark. 

We were very careful about how they interacted because we didn't want Sammy to get bit and to get scared off. He had come so far over the past year and we didn't want his fun loving personality to retreat. On the flip side, we didn't want puncture wounds in baby shark either, so we were monitoring very closely and mainly keeping baby shark in his shark tank (aka puppy play pen). 

We were outside on our 3rd night together at dusk, trying to tire out baby shark before his 8pm bedtime (that would be wine o'clock for us parents). We have a 1/2 acre fenced in for the boys outside so they have lots of room to run and lots of areas to snack on poop in the backyard. We've been spending a ton of time outdoors, working on potty training for the puppy and getting all of his puppy energy out.

Usually when we are outside, Sammy patrols the yard, smelling and rolling on whatever stinky stuff he can find, and baby shark, who is attached to his 6' leash runs freely around the yard rolling, biting his leash, and chasing after my husband and I. Baby Shark ( whom we've named Louie) will chase Sammy around, but his short fat little legs don't take him very far, and Sammy is usually yards ahead of him, not even realizing there was a chase to begin with.

I was telling my husband, Colin, tonight, that I thought we needed to allow them to interact a little further now, even if there are growls and snap backs, because Louie needs to learn boundaries and Sammy needs to continue to set the tone of their relationship. 

At dusk, we were out in the backyard and Sammy was frog hunting on our back deck while Colin and I were giving chase to Louie around the yard. 

That is when the thing happened.

It was a glorious thing and one I will never forget. 

My husband and I were standing about 50 yards apart and Louie was racing in between us both when suddenly, out of nowhere, Sammy Supermaned it off the backdeck and the chase was on! Sammy started doing zoomies. 

Now, everyone's dog at some point does zoomies. If you don't know what zoomies are, it's when your dog loses it's ever loving mind and starts running as fast as it possibly can, butt usually tucked under, eyes wide open, with their mouth and teeth showing their udder delight. They run as fast as possible usually in large circles until they completely tire themselves out. 

The last time we had seen Sammy do zoomies was when his big brother Max was still here and before he was sick with cancer. Max and Sammy use to do zoomies in the backyard all the time, grass kicking up in the air behind them, eyes wide open, bearing grins of white teeth. But, we had not seen Sammy do zoomies in the backyard since then. 

Tonight, there was this glorious thing of zoomies happening all over again. As soon as Sammy's feet hit the green grass, it was on! He started doing zoomies right past Louie and then circled back to pass him again. It was as if he was saying "Hey little brother - look what I can do"! Sammy, with his butt tucked and teeth grin showing, was kicking up dirt and leaves as he zoomed past us and around Louie about 8 times. Louie didn't know what to do so he just ran in circles after his big brother. 

Sammy, with his flying leap off the deck, took a giant Superman leap into big brotherhood. He was no longer the little brother that followed; he was paving the way for newness. Sammy was setting the tone of their future relationship and he was raising the bar on brotherhood, just as his brother Max did with him.

It was such a beautiful thing. I will never forget it. The sun was setting and we could hear the Canadian Geese settling in the field for the night and then two dogs that were once strangers, became brothers. I have no doubt Max was looking down from his timeout spot in heaven and was probably beaming with pride. 

Sammy took a giant leap into big brotherhood and we can't wait to see what's in store for us all next.

xoxoxo,

Brenda