Damn you, red ball.

This is a red ball. 

A simple...red...squeaky...rubber...ball. 

I wanted to buy said ball for Cole since he's the destroyer of all things that squeak...and yet...we ended up with....

Grimm.  

 

On Tuesday, Eric and I were making our way home from the Commissary since we needed to pick up some additional groceries since he was going to be home all week. Since we were in the town of Bocholt to look for some special salt for a friend of mine, I remembered that there was a pet store in the town so I could just pop in there and grab a toy for him. 

That, folks, was our downfall. 

In the midst of looking at the various toys, Eric disappeared to the back of the store where the puppies were kenneled because, hey, who can resist puppies? I wasn't really worried about it because I didn't think they'd have any particular breed we would've been interested in. Yeah...I was wrong. In fact, very very wrong. They had two bulldog puppies and two Dachshund puppies. If you know us, you know that Eric has wanted a bulldog forever, and we have an obvious weakness for Dachshunds. Of course, I play with the doxies and he's looking at the bullies...those lil boogers were a thousand euros a piece! GAG! The dachshunds, not so much..hah. So of course, we're making our way out of the puppy area and the owner comes in to see what we think of the puppies...and I think he saw how inlove Eric was with the bully babies. A thousand euros is absolutely out of the question since that could go towards our mazhout order (stupid diesel used over here to heat the homes)...THEN the guy tells him "I have a six month old bully for sale. He's three hundred euros and his name is Hummer". Oh, lovely! So, he brings Hummer out. he's insanely cute, very very sweet and gets along well with other dogs. If we didn't use our brains, we would've taken him straight home...but...the main factor that clicked in is: Macie. 

Macie is Eric's pride and joy..his defender of the house...his little body guard. She DOES NOT like other dogs very easily. In fact, she's earned the nick name of "Puff" because she puffs up double her size and basically hulks out on other dogs. Sooooo bringing a bulldog into the mix would be hazardous. Luckily, the guy said he'd hold Hummer for us since Wednesday and Thursday were Belgian holidays, so they'd be closed anyway. In addition to holding Hummer, he also held the little male Dachshund for us since I was wondering how Macie would react to him. Over the two days, we flip flopped back and forth a lot...ultimately decided we'd see how Macie would act and go from there. Wellllll...when we introduced Macie to Hummer, it went over like a lead balloon. I've NEVER seen her try to crawl up Eric's leg to get away from another dog, not to mention, she made so many ugly faces..it was kinda entertaining (to be honest). After about fifteen minutes of trying to introduce them to one another, it was VERY clear that it wasn't going to work out with Hummer. I, of course, was bummed for Eric because I know how badly he's wanted a bully, and he got attached to Hummer. Then, they allowed us to bring the baby Dachshund out...talk about a complete one eighty! She was instantly intrigued, kept sniffling him and started wagging her tail! Eric and I were both shocked because she never does that sort of thing. After letting them walk around one another for a bit, it was clear that she didn't have any sort of problem with him and basically gave him the thumbs up.

 We filled out paperwork and got a "Welcome home puppy" box, then we were on our merry way with the newest edition to the Hall house. 

 He even got an official "Puppy Passport" so we can keep tabs on his vaccinations and what not. Cool, right? None of the other dogs got little passports like this, so it'll definitely be easier to figure out which one is his when the time comes to move.

Over the last couple of days, it's been a riot with Grimm getting adjusted to the house, not to mention, gaining three bossy sisters and a dopy big brother. For the most part, Grimm just lounges around on dog beds, gets checked on to make sure he's still breathing, then he doses off for a few hours before running around and causing havoc with Piper. 

 Here's a pic for some size reference as to how small this furball is. Izzy wasn't even this small when we got her at 10 weeks old, so I'm kind of at a loss as to how tiny Grimm actually is. He's using Pipers old collapsible travel bowl set to eat from since the portion size is appropriate for him. Thing is, I have to collapse it all the way so he can actually reach the food! Otherwise, it's too tall for him and he knocks it all over the place by trying to stand on the ledge in order to get the food. His belly is about an inch and a half from the floor, he weighs about a pound and a half and he's the length of Eric's foot (size 13). His paw is the size of my thumb! 

LITTLE DACHSHUND! HUGE personality!

 Oh yeah..and I noticed something hilarious that Grimm does when Eric hold him. Eric tends to cuddle him like he's a baby, so of course Grimm goes limp because he likes having his belly rubbed...then I noticed the faces he makes. 

It took me about ten shots for me to actually get this pic cause I couldn't stop laughing... no, Eric isn't doing a choke hold on him. He just makes this derpy face when he's getting his belly rubbed. Epic cuteness, right?

The girls have been super inquisitive and try to figure out "what" he is since he's so tiny, while Cole on the other hand, follows him around and plops close by to keep an eye on him. Macie took all of us by surprise because she acts like she's his mother / protector and tries to keep the other dogs away from him. Definitely wasn't expecting that! Grimm is completely oblivious to all of this and just runs himself ragged in the mean time.

We've had a bit of a heat wave here in Belgium...and by heat wave, I mean someone turned the outdoor temperature setting to "HELL". It was in the low 90's yesterday while it was in the high 90's today...very hot and very miserable, especially since our house holds all the heat in despite all the windows being open & having fans circulating air around. All of the dogs found a way to cool themselves down throughout the house except the littlest derp. So, we gave him a bath to cool him down a little bit since he really looked like he was struggling to find some sort of relief.

 Wet weenie baby is not pleased.

After his quick cool down and a fast toweling, he was off and running around like a bat out of hell to pick up where he left off in terms of harassing Cole and gnawing on his baby Kong toy. Tomorrow's his first visit with our vet to make sure everything is on the "up & up" in terms of his vaccines and anything else he might need to be checked out for. Grimm fits in PERFECTLY with our family! I really couldn't have asked for a sweeter puppy...really, I couldn't have. His little tail goes a mile a minute, plays wonderfully with the other dogs and knows how to sleep in (that's a MAJOR plus in our family!). 

 He's definitely a total love bug!

*** To those of you who could possibly be making comments about us having "another" dog, which brings our total to five k-9's...in all seriousness, shove it & keep it to yourself. Our dogs are our kids who are extremely well taken care of, they have a "forever home" with us and all are spoiled rotten. I refrained from posting about him earlier or even posting pics of him on my Facebook because I don't want ignorant & judgmental people making brainless comments about our decision to add another fur baby to our family. But, screw it. On that note, Tah! ***