Every day is Halloween

This year I didn't even dress up for Halloween. Having to go to work at 1:30 a.m. that morning and stay until 3 a.m. contributed, because I was seriously exhausted (and seriously annoyed--long story). I also discovered that kids in costume and their parents would walk down the middle of the street, and if you were outside (fortuitous discovery I made thanks to taking Finn out) with candy, they'd trick or treat, but they weren't going up to doors. I heard from one mother that they were on their way to a carnival at the Methodist church nearby, so maybe that was the deal. Anyway, I sat outside on the step until it got dark, wearing all black, reading Stephen King and playing with my black puppy, and waylaid every single child who passed by with my bucket-o-candy. Then I went inside to nap, and of course that's when people started ringing the bell.

Speaking of Finn...everyone who said puppies are a challenge was right. Sunday night he curled up next to Fender on the couch, resting his head against her side, and it was so cute that I went for the camera. Which of course made him jump up to check out this cool new object. Cat breakthrough! I think. Then yesterday morning, I'm in the shower and I hear Sebastian's distinctive squeak. I peek out in time to see his head and front paws, planted on the slippy linoleum behind the toilet but moving rapidly backwards, like a horror film character being dragged away by the evil villain, with Finn on the other end of the toilet tugging at him. Yeah, we're working on "gentle with the cats!" It's hard to tell how much Skittin is okay with the rough play; I don't want him to get hurt, but often when I pry Finn away from him, he stays where he is until I let Finn go, or he gets to a high place and then instigates more chaos by swatting at Finn's tail.

Finn loves most people, but the other night he went to the door and whined. I made the mistake of letting him out off-leash, because I thought he had to pee. Nope, there were two gangbangers walking down the street, and he barked, raced up to them, and started jumping on them. Unlike everyone else Finn has encountered, they did not think this was cute and understandable puppy behavior. We had a little chat about gangbangers when we were back inside, and now Finn always wears the retractable leash when we go outside, even if it's just to carry out the trash.

I am stocking up on dog training manuals. How to get him to be gentle with the cats? How to get him to stop chewing on inappropriate things like my pillows and books (especially when he has rope toys, squeaky balls, a kong, old shoes of mine, old gardening gloves of mine, bones, carrots, etc., etc., to chew on)? How to stop him from playing tug-of-war with my pants every time I use the toilet? How to get him to stop biting me? One sign of progress in that area, though, is that it's been awhile (knock on wood) since he's actually broken the skin.