Little Pup, All Grown Up

Cooper had to go to the vet today.

It wasn’t one of the normal, scare-me-out-of-my-mind abdominal episodes he gets every once in a while. It was for his annual leptospirosis vaccination. While he could have been given the injection by a vet tech, I asked that his regular vet, Dr. Nicole, see him first because he’s had issues with vaccinations in the past.

Dr. Nicole, of course, is one of Cooper’s favorite people in the whole world. She might poke and prod him, but he counts her as one of his pack. As I’ve said before, Cooper likes pretty much everyone, but his pack consists of a relatively small number — my step dad, his trainer, his vet and I.

It’s funny, but when I started updating Dr. Nicole on Cooper and his progress, I realized just how much of an adult he’d become over the last few months. He still has his moments of extreme happiness and spastic running, but they happen only once or twice a day rather than every hour. He follows commands, settles down when I tell him to and loves nothing more than spending the evening cuddling with me or Zoey (well … actually … he loves treats more, but that’s another story). He has learned not to jump up on everyone he sees — he reserves that only for family for some reason. And he doesn’t hysterically bark at the neighbor’s dog anymore.

He’s probably right in line with where he should be for his age — after all, he just turned two and a half years old — but there were some days when I felt as though this day would never, ever, ever arrive.

And I would end up killing him.

Or he would be the death of me.

Either way, Zoey would make one heck of a dinner out of one of us.

But we managed to come out the other side, and every day, I see Cooper grow up just a little more.

(Of course, as I’m writing this, he has decided it is time to chase his tail — because that’s what mature dogs do)

Cooper this morning. He took his new, favorite toy to bed with him. The quality isn’t the greatest because it was taken with my iPhone, but I thought it was too funny not to share.

Cooper, after spending a good 10 minutes chasing his tail. 🙂