From Tessa 10-172

 From JoAnne M Halbert

An Open Letter to Santa Claus

Dear Santa,

My name is Happy and I am a new member of the RAGOM family as of November 21st.  I hope this letter finds you at the North Pole in time for this Christmas because it is my first Christmas and I don't want to miss out on any of the toys you are planning to bring me. Also, I have had a change of address but the mail carrier would not let me fill out one of those cards.  (Maybe you should give him a lump of coal in his stocking, just a thought.)

Let me tell you about myself so you can get an idea of who I am and what I would like this year.

I was born on the 4th of July so apparently the whole country celebrated my birth by having lots of parades and fireworks.  I was told they were spectacular in many parts of the country but I was just too young to notice.  I was busy learning how to work the milk machine so my tummy would be happy.  Before coming into RAGOM's care, I spent my life outdoors, but am now getting used to living inside a house.  I am a very smart boy as it only took me until my second night here to learn how to do a full flight of stairs. Okay, under full disclosure, I did have help the first night with FM lifting me up and putting my feet on stairs one by one, and had to watch my foster sisters for a while on day two before I got up the courage to do it.   After that first successful solo flight on day 2, I have been doing it by myself, sometimes just for fun.

In my foster house, I have two foster sisters who are just like me, a golden doodle and also RAGOM girls.  They are young, too, almost 3 years old and 16 months. So we have lots of energy to play.   I am 48 pounds and will be 5 months old on December 4th.  I have some good sized paws on me and really solid legs, so I expect to get bigger before I am 1 year old.  I am a very light blonde color and my face is so darn cute, if I do say so myself.

FM says that you have a Naughty and Nice List, so I would like to list my qualities so you can see for yourself that I belong on the Nice List. 

• I am Cute, Cute, Cute!  Take me anywhere and you are guaranteed to hear people say, "Awe, he is SOOOOO Cute!"  (FM has already proven this multiple times and places.) 
• I am playful, yet can be reserved.  I settle down nicely in the house. 
•  I am not destructive on toys.  Well, ok, I've been trying to rip the cover off a tennis ball, but have not yet succeeded. I haven't been tested with many soft stuffed toys yet as they are all put away on account of Lilly, the fabric ingester. 
•  I don't resource guard anything from people or other dogs.  I do however like to play chase, so I might steal a toy to get the game going.  I will play both roles, chaser and chasee. Doesn't matter to me! 
• I am a slow eater.   I kinda pick at my food as I feel hungry, but am learning here that walking away from my dish has a consequence.  That consequence is named Lilly, aka the Circling Shark.  She is so intent on getting my food, but will "leave it" if FM is in eyesight.  All bets are off if FM leaves the room.
• I am a quick learner.  I have only lived in a house for a week now and have learned to do stairs, walk thru doorways, ride nicely in the car, and take treats gently. 
• I am very good about getting baths (have had 2 so far) and was really good on the grooming table getting a clean up trim yesterday.  I loved to be touched all over. 
• I get along great with all of the dogs I have met so far.
• I have met a 3 month old infant and 4 year old without any issues.  The 4 year old also had a high energy chocolate lab which I wanted to play with, but we were told we could not wrestle in the house.  I gave her a couple of puppy play bites anyways when FM wasn't looking.
• I enjoy car rides and just lie down and relax.  Just need to work on my vehicle entry and exit.
  I walk well on a flat leash, and don't pull when walking by myself.  If my foster sisters are with me, I do pull a little cuz they like to be out front a bit and I want to keep up.  When we all walk, then it is gentle leader time and I am fine with that too.
• I pretty much walk around the whole time wagging my tail.  Not super fast like an excited lab would do, just a calm swaying which displays my good nature.
• I am food motivated for treats (not dog food), especially for the Natural Balance Food Roll, which FM says is like Puppy Crack cuz we will do almost anything for that stuff!
• I have a very mellow personality.  I am still a bit shy when meeting new people or in larger crowds, but hey, it's only been one week! 
• I am correct/redirect very easily if I am doing something I am not supposed to do. 
• I don't jump up on people.  Big selling point here Santa! 

I really enjoy the cold weather and would happily assist in pulling your sleigh.  Here is a picture to show you my initiative.

Oh wait, Kraelyn just told me that I am supposed to be in FRONT of the sleigh.  NOW they tell me! Sheesh. You'd think it was April Fools Day or something around here!  Well, as you can see, there is plenty of room in the sleigh for the presents.

So here are a couple of things on the Naughty List.  (I vehemently disagree with FM on this title, and prefer to call it my "Opportunities for Improvement" List.)

1. I like to pull newspapers off of the coffee table and dish towels from counters or if they are hanging on the stove.
2. I am a messy drinker - FM likes to call me Messy Marvin.  There is always a towel or mop near by to clear away the OSHA Water Safety Hazard I leave behind.  
3. I kennel up pretty easily, but will protest for a while (5 minutes or so) after FM walks away.  I just don't understand why I can't be with her every minute.  Seriously, will someone please explain this to me?  Does FM not understand the 17 points above?  Kraelyn has free run of the house when FM is gone and Lilly the fabric ingester is in the crate next to me and appears to be fine just hanging out.  I try to get her to protest with me, solidarity, you know, but she won't.

My current self-improvement program includes the following:

1. Potty Training:  I am making good progress here.  I keep my crate clean (except for dumping the water dish a few times).  I haven't felt the need to mark in the house, but I have had a couple of accidents.  Since I lived outside, I didn't have any restrictions or learn to have to hold it.  During the work day, my uncle comes over to play with us at lunch to give us a break.  At night, I sleep for 7 hours no problem.   I'll be able to hold it longer as I get a little older.  

Note: I was surrendered from the breeder due to submissive peeing. However, FM has only noticed that once so far when I was approached really fast.  But I am told that sometimes that is a puppy thing and once I build some more confidence, it probably won't be an issue for me.  

2. Puppy mouthing - I have done this a couple of times with FM when playing.  She corrects me and I stop immediately.

3. Learning Basic Commands - like Stay, Leave It.  I am pretty good at Sit.

4. Building more confidence when out on my own.  I am better with my foster sisters around or even other friendly dogs, but a bit shy when solo.

So Santa, you see here that mathematically, the stuff on my Nice list totally outweighs the Naughty by a factor of almost 6.  And the stuff on my Self-Improvement List clearly demonstrates my self-awareness of my strengths and weaknesses.  I am respectfully requesting a very nice Christmas with lots of toys and treats.  But most of all, I would like to find my forever family.   And if you could bring my foster sisters some new toys too, they would appreciate it.  You see, Lilly, the Silver Golden Doodle is really my half sister because we have the same dad.  How cool is that to be in the same house as her and have her teach me good stuff!

Thanks for reading my long letter and I hope to hear from you soon about participating in your delivery route on December 24th.  I will work on getting in front of the sleigh just as soon as we get some snow around here, which could be today!

Here's a picture of me and my half-sister Lilly snoozing.  Ok, I'm snoozing and she's thinking, oh little brother!

Happy Boy.

===========================================

FM here -- just to update you on some other Happy stuff.

He is up-to-date on all vaccinations.  He is not neutered yet.  He just lost the rest of his puppy teeth this week, except his upper right canine tooth.  The adult tooth did not come in at the right spot to push out the baby tooth.  Dr. G at VCA Bloomington would like to delay his neuter surgery for a couple of weeks to see if that baby tooth will eventually release at 6 months of age.  If it does not, they will have to pull it at the same time as his surgery so we don't have to put him under twice. She does not want to do the tooth extraction too early as it would disrupt the roots of the adult teeth that are coming in now.  So his neuter surgery would happen right after New Years Day.

He did have roundworms when he came in and is currently being treated for them with 2 doses of medicine, 14 days apart.  He will get the second dose on December 7th and will need to be retested two weeks later.

He is an exceptionally sweet puppy that needs to grow and develop some more confidence.  His half sisters Lilly and Luci came from the same breeder at 6 1/2 months old and were much more timid than Happy. They now are very well adjusted and playful dogs after having another confident dog in each of their households. He is very good natured and playful with other dogs, and has not shown any aggression.  He does not try to dominate other dogs by posturing or growling.  He will climb on his foster sister's backs when playing, and was pawing the chocolate lab he met as he wanted to play.

We will see how his personality develops in the next fews weeks prior to surgery,  He would probably enjoy another dog in his new home to play with if the dog was not overly dominant or had a lot of resource guarding issues.

Stayed tuned for more updates and photos from this wonderful little guy.