Climbing Stairs and Loving Sox

Climbing Colorado

I started to write a blog post in March and it started something like, “holy cow, I can’t believe it’s already March.”  And now here I am in May and I’ve left all of Aleck’s fans in the dark for months.  It’s so true that the days are long but the weeks fly by.  So I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that Aleck is doing really well.  When I step back and look at him I’m constantly surprised by how much he’s grown, both physically and in his desire for independence.  What really showed me how much he’s changed was taking the family away for spring break to Colorado.  For some reason, putting us all in a brand new environment allowed me to look at my family at arm’s length, and often even further.  It was only our first evening out of town when we met up with my cousins and my brother in law’s family in Boulder.  Aleck quickly attached himself to my nephew, Jack, and the two of them took over the Pearl Street Promenade like they owned the place.  Before I could turn around to figure out where they were headed, they were gone.  Shoe shopping at the local shoe store, “any kids’ shoes that fit our braces, “ is what the saleswoman heard as both of them sauntered in with their matching orthotics.  I couldn’t help but imagine them in their 80’s, wooing all the ladies in the retirement home.

Then they headed for the bookstore, and this is about where my mind was blown into about a zillion pieces.  With all of the confidence in the world, Aleck threw his arm up to grab the banister, determined to walk up a very serious flight of stairs so that he could keep exploring the bookstore with his cousin.  We have been on a physical therapy break and the therapists had been going light on the stairs, not wanting to waste entire sessions with a meltdown.  So you can imagine my surprise as Aleck hoisted himself up stair by stair as if he’d been doing it for years.  I stepped back, I had to get this on video, (click the link for the video) but it’s so hard for me to be any distance away from Aleck when he’s on stairs.  My brain is yelling at my body to spot him, to put my arms close to him, to be sure he doesn’t fall.  But I stepped back, I took the videos, and I let them run around the store, keeping enough distance to give Aleck some feelings of independence.  Funny enough, they were moving so fast I kept losing them, but their excitement had lit the store on fire and every person knew exactly who I was following and where they had headed, you could hear them shouting out the titles of each section, thrilled about what books they might find there.  It was pretty hilarious. (to see Aleck going downstairs click here)

For the first three nights, we crashed with my cousins, Ben & Leanne, who have two kids and two dogs.  Annie is nine but looks like she’s easily 13, got her mom’s super tall genes, lucky girl.  And Jay is two and a half and has only two modules, super full on running around on, and sleeping.  They also have two large dogs, a chocolate lab named Lucy and a St Bernard named Elby.  Aleck was never at a loss of who to play with.  My boy was up bright and early every morning listening for Jay, opening up his door to invite Jay and Leanne to come hang out in his room at around 5:45 am.  Offering up to his Aunt Leanne, “you can leave Jay here, I’ll watch him.”  So Lee grabbed some books and set Jay down on the floor with Aleck while she ran to the bathroom or throw some clothes on.  On Monday, when Jay needed to go to his preschool Aleck offered up, “don’t worry Aunt Leanne, I’ll watch the dogs while you take Jay to school.”  (see video of Aleck and the dogs) Running around the house making kissing sounds at the dogs to get their attention, stroking their fur, watching them eat and drink, and talking to them all morning, it was pretty adorable.  After Aleck’s surgery and recovery, we knew we were going to get him a dog, and we’d been debating whether to do it in the fall and finally decided after we got back from Colorado he had to have a dog.  I mean, we told him his tech time was over the day and he couldn’t have cared less, he hopped off the couch and started his circles of dog play, going back and forth between the two pups, always keeping track of where they were.  Someone was craving someone or something to look after, that was clear.

Craig and I were going back and forth on how to find the right dog, we’d been talking about this for months.  After a few disappointing experiences where the dog we wanted was gone from the shelter or we were rejected from a rescue place, we weren’t sure how to go about this process.  If this dog was going to live with us we needed a dog that wasn’t going to knock Aleck over.  The last thing we wanted to do was add more stress to our plate, we can’t follow him around our own apartment whenever he’s home, that’s not good for anyone.  Craig was convinced then that it had to be a smaller dog, a beagle mix, the right size so that it couldn’t knock him down.  But I’m a big dog person, I want a dog to run, to play fetch with, and maybe a dog who could help Aleck as he’s trying to get up from the ground, a dog that could be big enough that Aleck could put his weight on if he needed to, once their relationship was strong.

Finding Sox

I shouted out on social media looking for good recommendations, got a ton of responses, and then a friend tagged me in a post about a huge adoption event at PAWS Chicago.  Our first Saturday back and I’m standing out in sleeting freezing weather to wait outside for 45 minutes just to get in the door.   Of course, by the time we finished the initial paperwork and they let us in to see the dogs, we had committed a lot of time to this process.  Almost immediately I saw Socks, lying down in a room, super chill.  A volunteer gave me the rundown on the behavioral testing they did to her like taking away food during the meal, taking away toys, etc.  I had trained dogs before so I knew she was passing those tests with flying colors.  Though my heart was eyeballing the black lab puppy mixes with a deep yearning, I knew a dog that was already pretty well trained about be a better fit for Aleck.  And even though my instinct is to pick a dog with tons of energy, I requested a meeting with Socks so we could see what she was like.  When they brought her into the room she was super calm, super cool.  She sniffed, she was curious and seemed to want to check us out, and the room of course.  When she jumped up her paws touched me with the most delicate amount of pressure, and she didn’t bark at all.  Most importantly she tolerated Aleck, she let him touch her, she didn’t growl or bare her teeth at him.  He was jumping up and down asking if we could keep her, Craig and I tried talking silently over his head to no avail.  We shrugged our shoulders and said, “OK, we’ll take her.” 

Then it was off to Petco to stock up on supplies, it was time to turn our home into a dog home.  She was so good while we were there, she was friendly with other dogs if they barked she didn’t, and she seemed to want to be with us.  More good signs that we had chosen wisely.  When Aleck went to grab a new dog tag for her he saw the White Sox tag and showed it to me, boom, mind blow.  Of course, she’s our dog, and her name is going to be Sox, for Craig’s favorite baseball team and the white on her legs that look like socks. 

At home it’s been a super easy adjustment and Aleck is all about Sox all the time.  He comes for walks, insisting on holding my other hand while I hold the leash.  Laughing when she poops, cheering when she pees, coming with me to give her American Cheese with her antibiotics because she came home with a cough.  He’s running around the house trying to brush her, making kissing noises and calling her name.  When we eat dinner he coaxes her into her crate with treats and runs to open the door when the meal is done.  In the morning he leaps out of bed looking for her, and at night he gets down on the floor to cuddle her before going to bed.  It’s kinda the most awesome thing going on right now and it’s even harder to leave the house in the middle of a cuddle session.  It’s been 7 years since we lost our dog Sadie, and now everything feels right in our house, a dog at our feet and under my desk.  The house feels complete, well, almost.