More to come

OK I have been working on a very long rant about the pathetic state of healthcare in the USA but it's not quite up to scratch yet. Here's a little something to tide you over until I finish. It's an update on how Barney is settling in.

It turns out that Barney isn't as well socialized as we had hoped. He's got an issue with scratching and biting. I know the signs that they're about to come on and leave him alone but Lisa hasn't learned to pick up on his cues. Yesterday after playing with him for a half hour, a tired Barney lay down under one of the living room chairs. Lisa wanting to continue playing tried to pick him up where he promptly lashed out wildly with all 4 paws and his teeth. He bit her face and swiped at her eyes while digging his hind claws deep into her palm. Fortunately his front claws had been clipped or he would have cut Lisa's face. Not so with the back paws yet. Lisa immediately started crying from the surprise and severity of Barney's outburst.

I was furious with him. I grabbed him, put him into his crate and then spent 10 minutes yelling at him, "Don't Bite! Don't Scratch!" He knew he was in trouble. He spent the rest of the day avoiding us. He barely touched dinner but did demand a Vienna Sausage from my midnight snack (he loves those.) So by the end of the evening he knew he had done wrong but was forgiven. He slept at the foot of our bed last night and followed Lisa downstairs for his 6am breakfast. This morning when Lisa got me out of bed there was a surprise at the foot of the bed. Barney had, at some point during the night, brought his favorite toy up from the living room and left it as a gift for us.