Noelle: Day Seven

Puppy training is hard. Puppy training a special needs puppy is even harder. Noelle makes it pretty easy!! She is such a smart girl!! Once again, I was shocked out of a deep sleep this morning by a "YIP!! yipyipYIPrrrrrrrrrYIP!". Noelle doesn't quite bark yet (though she came very close just a few minutes ago!), she more grunts and mumbles, quite piggy-esque. Jimmy calls her "The Pig-Bull", which I think is adorable AND accurate. Anyway, Noelle is SO good about waking me up to take her outside, I just think she doesn't know she has to pee until it's too late. We were ALMOST out the back door when she peed on me. No big deal, it's still progress from yesterday! It seems to be the morning pee that gets her, she's perfect the rest of the day. We'll keep practicing :).

So today we left Noelle home alone while we went to belated Christmas at my Godparents house. I was REALLY nervous about leaving her. Not because I actually thought anything would happen, but because if something DID happen and I wasn't there I'd completely lose my mind over it.

This is the disturbing scene we came home to 2.5 hours later:

Now, I'm not quite fluent in Dog, but I'd like to think I'm close. I'd like to translate this for you. "Mooo-ooommmmm, where'd you goooooooo?!". She absolutely could not care less. I imagine she spent that time happily nobbling (yes, nobbling, it's what pit bulls do. It's kind of like nibbling, but cuter and more intense) on her favorite rope toy.

After I hugged her and kissed her and gave her a cookie, I took her out for her afternoon walk.

As you can see, Noelle is DRASTICALLY improved from the half dead puppy of last week. Every day I am amazed by her progress. Look at her speeding along!!

Today's big landmark: Noelle jumped up on her back legs and put her front paws on my knee, looking up at me and saying "Ma, I'm not gonna poop, and I'm cold, so please pick me up". Yes, I know this is considered bad behavior, and we don't want dogs who will grow to be big and muscular learning that it's ok to jump on people, but HOLY CRAP! Noelle balanced on her back legs! Noelle balanced on her back legs WHILE looking up at me and whining. Oh. My. God.

Miracle baby, I'm telling you.

In other news: Puppy teeth hurt. And I'm thrilled that Noelle is using them, that she's teething, and that she's doing the normal puppy stuff. I really don't imagine Noelle will end up being as 'Special Needs' as we initially anticipated. Yes, she will have seizures. She hasn't yet, so maybe that will change. Initially we thought she may be wheel chair bound, she may be blind, she may not be able to control when she goes to the bathroom. SO not the case, and SO excited.

I think that's over and out for today. Thank you for caring about Noelle, she is SUCH a special girl and SO deserving of all of the love in the world. Please continue to spread the word about her, and please encourage people to donate to her care (as we are still nowhere near her total vet bill and medication) by going to her ChipIn page here.

Peace, Love and Noelle <3