Guess who is coming to dinner

The little fuzzy bear aka Dziga Barkov arrived yesterday just in time for dinner. I was supposed to pick him up from a couple in Ann Arbor on sunday morning but they called me early saturday to let me know that he would be ready in the evening. That led to an emergency visit to petsmart to get puppy food, toys, and collar, only to realize how gigantic and heavy puppy food bags for large breeds are (carrying them will be my new workout routine). Large breed would be an understatement for Dziga, of course. When I went to pick him up, he appeared to be at least twice as big as his sister from the same litter. He is a black bouvier des flandres, a herding breed originated in the Flanders region of Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The males often measure somewhere between 60-90 pounds but the lady that I adopted Dziga from said that he'll probably grow up to be 120 pounds, now that he already hit 12 pounds at 8 weeks. That, my friends, is considered extra-large by all standards (well, that is definitely heavier than me!). Anyway, he is adorable as you can imagine but still pretty much a baby. His first night went fairly uneventful, although I had to wake up every 2 hours to take him out to pee (thanks to the fast metabolism of puppies) and towards the morning the anxiety of being separated from his littermates finally sank in. He cried a little (but only a little) so I let him out of his crate and sleep on the floor instead. He was fine after that. Now he is sitting next to me on the couch and trying to be calm. Soon enough it will be potty time again.