puppy update: the first 24 hours. →[More:]

Branco (our ward for the next couple of weeks) is so sweet, and so very, very, very quiet! He hardly utters a peep, even when playing! Except when he's being Mr. Guard Dog, a position he seems to take pretty seriously.

If someone walks by our door, he's all about the low-growling 'til they are well and safely past. If someone comes in the door, that's it, gloves are off... but he will calm down immediately once you assure him that the offender is a friend of the house.

He likes to lay all around the house. Favorite spots so far are either of the Flokati rugs by the bed; under the bed; under the table in the bedroom; on the couch; on a special blanket sort of thingy we made up for him in the living room; on the terrace. He doesn't try to get on the bed. So far, the only chewing episodes we've had are 1) he really loves my crocs, but so far no damage done, and 2) one plant; loss of one branch.

When he came to visit the other day and I took my crocs off without putting them away, he took one of them and put it in the center of the rug on one side of the bed, and took the other one and put it in the center of the rug on the other side of the bed. Funny little dog. :)

He was a little upset after his mistress (our friend) left and spent about a half-hour rushing back to the front door at any noise, to see if she'd returned, but he didn't cry, and didn't seem to continue to be downcast after the first hour or so.

He's so good! He comes when you call him, stops when you tell him to stop, doesn't climb up on things/wreak destruction (so far! he hasn't been left alone yet!). he likes to play sometimes, but doesn't get wild crazy or demand attention. He poops and pees quite a lot! We've gone with the inevitable, and let him do that on our small back terrace (terrazzo; he has a balcony at his regular house where these transactions take place), so I'm swabbing that down multiple times a day.

The only concern so far is one of the cats who lives upstairs has breached security, and last night I found him (the cat) at the door to the terrace, looking in and making those moaning, angry cat sounds, with Branco inside looking at him with puzzlement. I worry, because this cat and his brother can be very aggressive, and they're just about as big as Branco, who has no experience with catkind. We had tried to cut off our terrace from the courtyard below to keep the cats from coming around, but our efforts were apparently puny. Must scale up cat protection barrier.

We'll take our first walk outside in a little while.