Like a ray of sunshine at 5 in the morning

That is how I would describe Rufus. And we're not morning people. My other dogs? They're not morning people either. I have to practically crawl under the bed and pull Riley out in the mornings so he can go do his business before we go to work. I hate Reese and Riley for getting up before 8 am on the weekends. Rufus though? It's 5am and he is ready to roll. He's had an entire pot of espresso and wants to start his day! Don't you know is a bright sunshining day outside? Huh? Huh? He's ready to jump and play and roll (thankfully still not barking) and the four of us are all, "DUDE! Do you know what time it is?" Riley's like, "What the f*ck man. I haven't met my minimum 16 hours of sleep just yet so chill the f*ck out before a pop a cap in your ass." (He really does talk like that. Dog's got a dirty mouth) So John and I wake up with a bouncing Jack Russell trying to attack us, Riley's barking from his under the bed "I'm goig to take over the world" lair, and Reese is laying in her bed growling and wondering, "what the hell is the little white furball doing on the bed? Doesn't he know he's not supposed to get on the bed? I don't even get on the bed."

So yeah. It's been really interesting in our house the past few mornings. He is sleeping in his crate at night, but last night we left it open, the night before he figured out how to get out (damn smart ass dog) and the night before that whined and scratched until we let him out. This morning he eventually went back to sleep after we threw him off the bed and kept ignoring him. Or I just fell asleep and don't remember anything else..

Other updates on the little guy: He still hasn't quite learned his name. I think he gets that Rufus is something, he's just not sure what.

He can be a total punk ass with training. He often won't look at you (he just tries to crawl into your lap when you're sitting or stick his head between your legs when standing) or he turns his back to you and just sits there. He also has total JR ADD so it's hard to get him to pay attention. He's usually easiest to train after a long walk and he's had time to burn off that Jack Russell energy. He reminds me a lot of John with his crazy energy and his ability to be sitting quitely one second, to pouncing on a toy the next, the running up and down the hall chasing said toy. Yes, I've just adopted the dog form of my husband. At least I'll be more prepared when the kids come along.

He's still freaks the hell out around other people. Last night I walked all three dogs around the neighborhood and these two little kids were playing down the street. The little girl notices the dogs and the little boy runs over to pet them. Rufus turns into a total nutjob and of course the kid is all, "Look at that dog. He's totally freaking the hell out!" Despite me trying to tell the kid, "He's really scared of people and you need to go away now." After that he was terrified of the people getting into the car across the street and the guy sitting on his porch. He basically just shuts down and doesn't let anyone near him and tries to pull away from you. One of my coworkers lives a block away from me and we passed by her house on our walk. Her husband sees me and comes out to chat and of course the whole family comes out to play with the dogs. Rufus? Totally didn't care. He just sat there and ignored everyone. He did eventually let one of the little boys pet him and went over and sniffed my coworker, so there is hope for the guy.

Still no accidents that we know of, but we finally had our first casuality. Riley has a stuffed dog that looks a lot like Reese. I found it this morning and it's eyes were ripped out. Poor little stuffed puppy. He also helped himself to a bag of treats last night. John tends to get real relaxed with him (like leaving him out of his crate when he left the house yesterday to run errands - more on that later) and he always feels guilty for leaving him crated. So there's a lot of training with the hubs too.

We'll get there with the little guy.