New Nephew (A Furry One)

Meet Miller!

He's not ours (Tessa is enough for us, thankyouverymuch)--he's my brother and Marie's. He is a 9-week-old beagle/labrador mix that they adopted from a shelter earlier this week.

Last night, we went over to meet him and introduce him to Tessa. Tyler and Marie will be taking care of Tessa for us when we go to Vegas next weekend, so we were worried about how the pups would get along.

Marie's sister (who currently lives with her and my brother) also has a new kitten, so we had quite the collection of animals running around last night.

The kitten, Molly, and Miller have already had a few days to get acquainted. Also, they are around the same age (both still in that playful stage), so they really enjoy each other. They were wrestling around, which was pretty funny to see:

As for Tessa and Miller, it was OK. We have tried to socialize Tess with other dogs since she was little, but she just doesn't get to see/play with other dogs often enough to be truly good with other dogs. Also, since she's small, she has what we like to call "little man syndrome" and is always a bit defensive since most dogs she's around are always bigger than her (and I sorta can't blame her for that!).

For now, Miller is close to her size, and since he's a baby, we hoped she'd be good with him. For the most part, she was. She did put him in his place a couple of times, though. Miller kept trying to nip at Tessa (to play, of course), and there was one time where she rolled him onto his back and pinned him down! It was actually pretty funny because I think he got the point. But a little while later, he became brave again and tried again. Once again, Tessa chased him off.

I think that, given time, Tessa will get used to him. The problem is that Miller is going to keep growing and get bigger and bigger, so we'll see what happens with time. We're hoping that now that we have another dog in the family full-time, Tessa will have more of an opportunity to "socialize."

This is Tessa vying for my brother's attention. Hey! Hey, remember me? Ignore that puppy, look at meeeee! Look how cute I am, I'm rolling over. Belly rubs, belly rubs! I want belly rubs!

It worked.

Miller is so cute, but man do I not miss the puppy days! Of course, I always look back at them with a little bit of nostalgia. Tessa was adorable, less than 4 lbs., and the little puppy things they do can be pretty cute as well. But the peeing in the house, the constant trips outside, the puppy ENERGY? It's all exhausting and it's nice to be past it. :)

But just look at that little face!

In this photo, he had just come in from a potty break outside. He had snow on his nose.

Miller with his proud adoptive daddy.

Little guy tuckered himself out.

Receiving loving from mommy.

So cute! It should be interesting to hear how they do together next weekend. Hopefully Tessa won't ruin her chances of ever getting to stay with Tyler and Marie again!