Hunter is here!

Hunter is adjusting to life in our home. From the time we picked him up at around 1:30 on Saturday afternoon until he fell asleep long after midnight, he panted nearly non-stop and slobbered profusely. Sebastian is not a drooler, so I could see that MM was frankly disgusted by this. I figured the excessive slobbering and panting was just due to nerves, and I was right. By Saturday morning, both had subsided considerably.

Sebastian and Hunter played and wrestled constantly from the time they met in the park up to and past bedtime on Saturday night. They took turns humping one another, though to be fair, I will say that Sebastian started that. They would stop and rest for 2-3 minutes and then start playing again.

Both dogs awoke early on Sunday morning tired and much more subdued than the day before. I think they were worn out from Saturday! I didn't see them wrestling at all on Sunday.

Hunter has had only one "accident" in the house: he peed in the kitchen on Saturday afternoon. Once I caught him in the act and redirected him to the backyard with a "no," he has been using the doggy door faithfully and doing all his business outside. We have worked out feeding time. Hunter seems to be settling in (though he is still far more "alert" to our activities than Sebastian, who knows our routines).

Hunter is super sweet. He loves petting and seeks it out even more than Sebastian, something I didn't really think was possible. LOL

Hunter is just a smidge taller than Sebastian, but has a much more typical Golden Retriever body type: he has a broader head and chest, and though he is not overweight, probably outweighs Sebastian by 10-15 pounds. He reminds me of a big, cuddly teddy bear.

Unless he is sleeping soundly, Hunter follows Sebastian or me around all the time. He is a little wary of MM. We had been told that he seemed a little nervous around men, and it's true. We think that his previous owner, a man, likely yelled at him and perhaps even hit him. If MM makes what Hunter perceives to be a sudden move, Hunter will cringe and cower.

Hunter has also been startled by what we'd consider some normal household sounds, like the air conditioner kicking on. A baseball player on MM's 50-inch big screen TV took him by surprise and led to some investigation of the TV (including sniffing behind the set, which Sebastian does if he hears a cat on TV). He doesn't seem to like the vacuum--will walk away if it comes near him--but that's not uncommon.

We were told that Hunter likes to fetch tennis balls, and that's true, too. MM is very happy to finally have a retriever who fetches. He is more than willing to give Hunter time to overcome his nervousness of him, too.

Actually, MM has been trying to avoid petting the dogs too much because he doesn't want to aggravate his allergies. If MM's allergies get too bad, we won't be able to keep Hunter. But so far so good.

Here are a few photos of our new boy.


Here he is in our dining area on Sunday. What a sweet face!


Wrestling with Sebastian on his first day here


The boys while MM was on the internet and I was practicing the keyboard last night. The spare bedroom we use for our home office is small, but they both managed to find somewhere to lie down in there.



Wrestling this morning