Get your hands out of your pockets and get to work...you'll warm up.

My Dad

Lacey

She's a full-fledged rat terrier. The grand-kids found out first. "She nips!" they'd gasp in tears or terror after doing the typical let's run and jump and tease and play with this wonderfully fun-looking, tiny puppy.

"I'm so sorry, are you truly hurt?" I'd ask in true concern. At first I wasn't sure what was happening. This small puppy cannot possible be a threat to anyone, not even a child. She is small, especially so, at first. She fit inside my cupped hands. pretty well. As we watched and worked with her we figured out that she was bred to pounce and nip. At puppy stage she had no idea what was game. A laughing, playing, teasing child was going to get nipped. For sure.

We concluded that the grand-kids would need to join us in her training and understand what we had in our possession. Her purpose in life is to keep the rodents down and she was already doing this at a few weeks old. I am still finding dead shrews on our doorstep ... her offerings to the gods in her life, proof of her worth. I'm never going to fuss about removing them. I'm loudly praising her, actually. So when you pet and love on Lacey, you do it gently with short pettings behind the ears and pleasant words. Briefly. She plays rough. So be up to that without fussing, or leave her alone. She's nobody's lap dog. Not intended to be.

I'm building her a doghouse. I have never built anything of lumber before in my life of any consequence. We shall see. We aren't builders around here so collecting tools and material was a bit on the sketchy side, but when there's a will, there's a way. It's going to be a dog house, of a sort, but Lacey won't mind. I only hope she will use it.