Babysitting

From Tuesday to Thursday of this week I got to babysit Mom's adorable new puppy, Cricket the toy Schnauzer. She weighed less than 2 pounds dripping wet, and was almost 8 weeks old.


Snuggles!
She was such a little cuddle-bug when she was tired. She was also really feisty. After the breeder dropped Cricket off there were only a few minutes of shy-pup mode, then she wanted to play.



She is an active, social pup. I wanted to help socialize her while I had her but I didn't want to overload her with new things. I would have liked to introduce her to several people and their pets, but I didn't want to do new people and new pets at the same time. It might have overloaded her little brain. :)

So, during the few days I had her she got to meet Chad & Angela, Amanda, Tyra (Jake was asleep so he missed out), and then Mia.


Attack!
Both pups wanted to play together so bad, but Mia didn't really know what to make out of Cricket, who is about as big as one of Mia's toys! And Cricket's definition of play was actually a little too rough for Mia. She kept nipping Mia's feet with her sharp little puppy teeth. Poor Mia. I have to give Mia credit though. Even though little Cricket was nipping her, Mia was very gentle.

I was a little worried about Cricket accidentally bonding with Ryan and me. All for naught, apparently. She took to Mom and Dad perfectly.


Here she is on Mom's feet, while Mom brushes her teeth. She couldn't be left out of such a fun activity!

The breeder gave Cricket such a buzz-cut hairdo! I felt sorry for her because she kept shivering, poor thing, so I made her a sweater. That was fun. I've never made a dog sweater before.


Posing pretty with a little help from Mom.


I came up with a pattern, made the sweater out of fleece so I wouldn't have to worry about hemming it, and I used two pieces of fleece so it's reversible. The pattern still has to be tweaked a little, but soon as I'm happy with it I'll post it. It's really simple, basically a tube with arm-holes, and could be blown up or shrunk down to fit any size dog. I want to make one with a hood next.

Now Cricket is driving home with Mom and Dad. She is missed, but the 6am feedings & the sneaky poops on the carpet are not. :)