We waited until five days before Christmas to actually bring the tree in to the house for fear that Brutus would think it would be a great tree to pee on. I'm happy to say that that didn't happen. I am actually amazed to say that that didn't happen. We had to move his crate from one side of the rec room to the other side of the rec room to put the tree up, and I thought he would be fine with that too. He hates his crate. Instead, he spent the next week pretty much living in his crate, by his own choice. It was so sad. He would greet the kids as they came home, let them rub his belly for a minute, then go in his crate. He even sat in his crate while we were opening presents, and I thought for sure that he would be right in the middle of all the action chewing up all of the boxes and throwing around the paper. He was acting completely depressed.
When we go to bed at night, Brutus is usually two steps ahead of us. He LOVES to crawl in to bed and snuggle up. The whole week of Christmas, he would come to bed for a little bit, and then leave and go down in his crate. The "down" part is strange too because he doesn't like to be downstairs. The kids stayed up much later than we did, so they would be downstairs visiting, but he would still go in his crate instead of hanging out with them. We're talking about a boy who loves to be the center of attention here. Not necessarily in a bad way, but at least in some way.
It also bothered him (a lot) that he didn't get to ride in the car the whole week. I had my car completely vacuumed out so Nick could use it while he was home. His girlfriend Liz was coming in to town for the first time, and they had plans with other friends too, and there was just no way that they needed to be using a sticky roller to get dog fur off of them every time they stepped out of the car, so my car was off limits. Don had just vacuumed out his car too. He was taking some of his guys from work out for a Christmas lunch toward the end of the week, and no dog fur was allowed in his car either. Every time someone would leave, Brutus would go running down to the entry way all raring to go for a ride, only to be told to sit and stay. When he did what he was told, and the person left and didn't come back in for him, he was pretty sad.
On a bright note, he did get a new "Tuffy" toy for Christmas from a company that claims to make the "tuff"est soft dog toys ever. When it first came and I took it out of the box, I swore that Brutus would never get through it. This thing was sewn through so many times, and made out of some of the strongest fabric I had ever felt. Four days. That's what it took. In four days Brutus had the top of the head ripped open and was unstuffing this guy. He LOVES this toy, so I think I'm going to have to just keep restuffing it and sewing it back shut!! I would still say it was a purchase that was worth it, because Brutus loves to chew on soft toys and pull out the stuffing, and at least this one was a challenge for him. Here's a link to the company if anyone wants to check them out, and I'll put a link up on the main page too. Their shipping was incredibly fast, and for the quality of the toy, I felt the price was reasonable.
https://www.vipproducts.com/retail/files/index.php/categories/view/106/mega-series
The tree is now out of the house, and the kids have all gone home, :-( . On the bright side, we packed up the three cats and Brutus and headed to the lake. Today Brutus gets to spend the day with dad snow blowing the driveway (which is huge) and going for a ride in to town. He will be the happiest boy on earth. Hopefully now that things are settling down he will get over pouting in his crate. I will never know what made him do that, especially for a dog who has typically been very fearful of his crate. Does he have bad memories from something that happened in a house with a Christmas tree? Is that the time of year he was thrown away? I guess we'll never know. January 9th will mark the one year Anniversary of when Brutus joined our family, and all I know for sure is that we will celebrate, and special treats will be given. Maybe even a Kong birthday cake with peanut butter in it. He'll have no idea what we're celebrating, but Don and I will know that we're marking the one year mark of one crazy ass fun year!
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