Gomez!

Alright, I'm finally getting around to immortalizing this event in pixels, because these days, nothing has truly happened until it's been reported on a blog somewhere.

Last Saturday was the day. A short hop from DC to the breeder's home in Gettysburg, and behold! He was awake and wacky, freshly wormed and immunized, smelling like an 8 week-old puppy exploding with growth hormones, and bouncing like an intoxicated jackrabbit with balloon feet.

He slept all the way home, apart from a brief stop in Frederick, MD, to give him a moment of solid ground to stand on. It was clear right away that GOMEZ shall be his name. Long live Gomez.

John Astin's portrayal of Gomez Addams was a perfect human imitation of a boxer's energy: foolish and silly yet totally confident: a dignified sort of lunacy. "Gomez," then. The pup's stripes even emulate Addams' signature pinstripe suit. The comparisons go on...

Now we're a few days into it, and up to our necks in house-training. He seems very intelligent and capable of "getting" what we're asking of him. The real task is for us humans; to manage our lives well enough to offer him a consistent, dependable scene to learn from. Thus, house-training will be tougher for us than for the dog.

Seriously: another few nights of up-to-pee every 2-3 hours and we'll be reduced to mute zombies, daydreaming of a long nap... But despite the challenges, there's still this wiggling oddball to keep it all in perspective.

Of course, I'll be photographing the hell outta this guy. I've started a photo set on my Flickr site which will be updated every few days. He's growing fast, so it'll be quite a show.