Ups and downs and all arounds

Last night was the first night I left little Charlie for the first time since we've adopted him. I had made plans with some old high school friends of mine that I hadn't seen in years, and I would have loved to take him with me, however with his upset tummy I wanted to keep him in an area he was familiar with. It was also a good chance to see what he'll do when I'm not around.

Leaving him was hard - I'm such a little dork, but he was pulling on my heartstrings almost the entire time I was gone. It was fabulous to see everyone, and I've missed them a lot, but the next time we get together I'm sure Charlie will have to be me copilot.

I call home after being gone a few hours to see how he's doing - apparently as soon as I left Charlie went right up to the door and lay down with his nose RIGHT at the bottom of the door and didn't budge for an hour no matter what my parents did. So sweet! It broke my heart a bit, but at some point he has to learn that when I leave I will always come back, but of course this will be a difficult process (for the both of us). I sound like a mom... goodness gracious.

Mom and dad finally got him away from the door to feed him and give him his medication and get him to bed. Although overnight he RIPPED UP his bed. He left stuffing all over the floor, tore holes in the cover, ripped the stuffing to shreds... it was quite an epic thing to come home to - mom left it out for me so I could see how ridiculous it looked. Almost as if the thing exploded from the inside out! It's hard to tell if he just couldn't find his chew toy, or if he was frustrated and angry that I wasn't there so he took it out on the bed, or if he just felt like ripping it up... of course I think that it is because he was frustrated that I wasn't there.

I finally made it back home this afternoon and he was off his rocker to see me - wagging his whole body, pushing and leaning into me, jumping up onto me, licking my ankles and feet, and if I stood for any period of time longer than three seconds he collapsed at my feet with his paws around my ankle and his head on my foot - it was so sweet! He hasn't really left my side all evening. It's amazing that he is so, so sweet after all he has been through.

It will be interesting to see how he acts in Burlington - over there, he'll be kept in a kennel while I'm gone during the day at class, but I really hope that eventually he will be OK outside of his kennel.

I have noticed that he has been regressing just a bit - he peed on the floor right in the middle of the day! Normally he's pretty good about letting me know he needs to go out - he comes up and starts panting and jumping in front of me and mouthing my ankles - but I got none of that and I walked by the bird's room only to see him peeing right in the middle of the room! I was totally shocked, and I think he knew that it was not a good thing that he was doing...

Honestly, we just need to finish up getting furniture over to the apartment so we can get on a schedule, and get him enrolled in an obedience class. The poor thing has been all over the place, and although he knows that I'm his owner, he needs some sort of consistency in his life for an extended period of time, and he needs his little intestines to be back on track! This poor guy... he is certainly a handful, but he's the best handful I could ask for.

He's currently quite passed out next to me - twitching and snoring. It was so odd not sleeping next to him last night! I kept waking up in a panic because I didn't feel this warm body of fur breathing next to me.