Willow Makes Herself at Home

Hello everyone. Meet Willow. The newest addition to the Raff family. New friend and companion to Jamie. She's our long-awaited Border Collie puppy and we brought her home from Traverse City on Monday afternoon.

Since then, it's been 24/7 puppy-mania. It is taking "a village" to give this puppy what she needs and wants. Gil and Marika and I are the caregivers. I insisted that we all watch the Cesar Millan DVD titled "Raising the Perfect Puppy" before bringing her home and so far, I think we're doing everything "right."

Which is to say, we haven't created an anxious, neurotic dog yet. We are loving but firm. We reward good behavior and redirect unwanted behavior. We use lots of rawhide chew sticks to redirect behavior.

Jamie has welcomed Willow into the family with "open paws." They play together, sleep together and eat together. The puppy hasn't learned to respect Jamie's boundaries yet but Jamie has shown herself to be remarkably patient and understanding.

We struggled for weeks trying to find the right name for Willow. Those of you who have ever had to name a pet or a baby know how important choosing the right name can be. We made lists of favorite names, showed them to one another, the names got vetoed and at one point, each of us was afraid to even mention a "favorite puppy name" we had found, knowing that one of us would nix it and it would be relegated to the cutting-room floor.

Amazingly, when we had finally worn each other down to a frazzle, Marika was thumbing through a furniture catalog and cautiously suggested, "What about Willow?"

Gil and I looked at each other and without pausing said, "Yes. That's it! Willow!"

Haiku:

Willow comes to stay

Made herself at home Day One

Now the fun begins.