If you've seen the movie "Marley & Me", you may remember the scene where Owen Wilson's character comes home after his wife, played by Jennifer Anniston, has their first child, and has a talk with Marley about the changes. I admit that I, too, had a similar talk with Truman the day after Evan was born when I went home to grab some sleep, shower and change. And Truman has been such a good dog. While he hates not being the center of attention, he's willing to share it with Evan. There's been times when we've had to shoo Truman away, gone past his usual dinner time because we've been wrapped up with caring for Evan, or realized we haven't let Truman out for several hours... Truman takes it all in stride, and I couldn't have asked for a better response from him. He's such a good dog.
For the first few days after Evan was born, Tru didn't really know what to think of him. But as the days turned to weeks, and weeks into months, Truman has been intrigued with Evan. He loves to be near him and loves to give him kisses.
Of course, at first Evan had no idea Truman existed... But now that Evan has taken notice of the world around him...he's absolutely fascinated with Truman. My morning routine with Evan is usually a bottle on the couch, with Truman napping at the other end...but he inches ever so close to me as I'm holding Evan...and sneaks in a few kisses every now and then. At first, we were protective of Evan around Tru and would only allow him to kiss his feet. Every now and then, Truman would swipe the back of Evan's head as we were holding him. While we still keep a close eye on Truman around him simply because he's a cumbersome 65 lb. bulldog, we've been a bit more relaxed.
As you may have read before, most mornings I take Evan into his bedroom where we have his dance party. Truman has to follow us back there and make sure everything is okay. I think this has mostly to do with Tru wanting to be near the Boy, but also because Truman must be around people and hates being left out. At night when we are trying to feed Evan his last bottle before bed, we have to coax Truman out of the room. He doesn't want to leave!
Truman also likes to 'alert' us when the Little Man is getting fussy. If we have Evan napping in his swing, and he starts to rouse...he'll make a few fussy noises. Truman is typically on the couch with us...and the swing is across the room. Tru will hop down off the couch and go over to check on the Boy, then pace back and forth in front of his swing if Evan keeps fussing then come over and whine to us about it.
One other thing I find absolutely amazing is after we have put Evan down for the night, occasionally Linda & I will share a bottle of wine or a few beers out on our front porch. Truman will tag along with us and we have the baby monitor between us in case the Boy stirs. The baby monitor is pretty awesome...and if Evan so much as hiccups, Truman again will alert us... He'll jump up, stare at the baby monitor, pace again, and try to alert us that we must go check on Evan.
The other night while I was at work, Linda was playing with Evan on the couch...and of course again, Truman was there on the couch too. Since Evan has now noticed this large goofy looking dog, he giggles, coos and laughs at him. Linda took it one step further and reached out Evan's hand to pet Truman...she reported that Evan squealed with delight. She had never heard him make that sound before. Truman then immediately started to lick his hand and this really got Evan tickled.
They are really gonna be a pair...and I couldn't have asked for anything more. But But what would you expect after Truman was voted as "Kansas City's Best Dog" in September 2008 by the Kansas City Star... He will always be our 'baby'.
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