Meet Blaze.  He is the newest addition to our family. After 3 months without canine companionship, we have once again assumed the roles of alpha pack members for this little Flyweight, who is nothing like our former Cruiserweight Tucker.

Blaze has eaten about 3 cups of dog food in the four days he’s been with us.  This is not enough to sustain an adequate sperm count in a ball-bearing boy who will be providing labradoodle stud service until he is 6 human years of age.  If I leave the room, he leaves the room with me.  Though he may appear to be dead asleep and even if I exit on tippy toes, Blaze hears and follows.  My partner Margie walks him in the morning and he is stuck like glue to her until I walk him in the afternoon, when he begins his glue routine with me.  We have never heard a real bark from our boy (I heard a weird high-pitched yelp at my mom’s board and care yesterday afternoon when a care giver unexpectedly flung open a closet door, but I’m not sure if it counts).  Our tenant whom Blaze met on Sunday came home Monday night and Blaze came whimpering down the hall, crouching and cringing as if he’d seen Beelzebub!

You might think it a stretch to include a post about Blaze in an adoption blog.  But this is Blaze’s third home in 2 years and he hasn’t the neocortex to integrate or mitigate the effects of multiple separations from his “next new pack” on his limbic system.  (We human adoptees have done so much better.)

BLAZE HAS SEPARATION ANXIETY as sure as I am typing up this post.

So we will employ all the best that Cesar Millan has to offer.  Did you know, for example, that if you have not established yourself as the alpha pack leader, your canine companion will most likely go nuts when you leave (e.g. chew, bark, pee, destroy) because in dog packs the alpha leaves, not the lower pack members.  If your dog thinks he is alpha of your domestic pack, he will go crazy trying to make up for the fact that he cannot keep a watchful eye on his pack charges who just defected.

And so, we will deal with our abandonment issues as a pack here on 3rd street.  I guess I skipped the phase where my appetite went south.