Kaline meets Gracie; gets a snuggle from Juno

Yesterday (Friday), Kaline had a playdate with Gracie, Baxter's sister. Also a yellow Lab, she's a little over a year old. She and Baxter like to play pretty rough, but once Gracie saw that the puppy couldn't handle that level of play, she really toned it down and they had a great time.

Gracie is a most excellent retriever, so once she got going with her ball, Kaline was all about chasing her around the yard, and then leaping on her when she would lie down in the grass. She let him jump on her face, flop over her back, whatever he wanted. They had a fantastic time wrestling. Kaline got tired after a while so he employed the time-honored Doberman strategy of placing himself somewhere in Gracie's path and waiting for her to run over to him—that way he could jump on her without actually having to give chase. This is something my first dog, Angel, used to do; Kaline reminds me a lot of her.

After the playdate, Kaline crashed for basically the whole afternoon. He was one tired puppy. Late in the afternoon though, he had two appointments. He came along with me and Juno to see my psychologist, and did pretty well. It was his first time there. He was a little antsy at the start, but I had brought his new hit toy, a tiny tire with a rope attached (ropes are the new hot thing in Kaline-land), and soon he focused on that. And then he crashed again.

Kaline settling in the waiting room with his rope toy.

Then we went to see the vet, because Kaline's puppy acne has not gone away, and when the vet last saw him, he said he wanted to get him on antibiotics if the acne stayed longer than a week. So yesterday, Kaline got to see Dr. Cortesi. He is mostly retired now; but when I had Angel, he was the main vet there. It was really nice to have my brand new puppy seen by the same vet who treated Angel her whole life.

Dr. Cortesi prescribed a short dose of antibiotics for the acne, said to get Kaline back on only the puppy food until he has consistently good poops, and gave me the puppy pack I forgot last time. (It's got kind of a pre-heartworm preventive in there.) Kaline was a very good boy, and Juno suffered her role as moral supporter with mostly good grace. She got lots of treats, and with his sensitive stomach Kaline hardly got any, so she was a pretty happy camper.

Later that night, Juno sacked out on the brown bed that has become her main spot downstairs since Kaline commandeered the blue bed. Once her eyes were closed, Kaline very carefully crept over and snuggled in next to her. Juno opened her eyes in horror, but Mom and I both told her, "It's okay, just stay there." Kaline wasn't doing his usual routine of "How hard can I gnaw your feet?" He just wanted to sleep cuddled up and was being very good. So Juno went back to sleep. See photos for how this progressed!