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	Diesel
	December 2005
	Diesel's adjustment to life at our house has been relatively smooth. We are all learning along the way. The potty training went much easier than I ever thought possible - within the first week it was as if he had lived here all his life. The bigger challenge was getting him to go upstairs. We quickly came to the conclusion that his old house must not have had them, because we had to walk him, paw by paw, 75 pounds of dead weight, up and down the stairs! He would look at us sometime with a look that simply said "Why do you people run up and down these things all the time". It took a good two weeks before he would go up or down them by himself. Now he goes up and down them when ever he chooses, but will still not go down the stairs to the basement level. Eating has been an issue as well. We had asked Karen what kind of food he was eating and we quickly found that it was not something we could buy at a store around her, however we could order it from a local feed supply store - it would take a week. Karen had bought some food, but we were afraid to use it without mixing it with something else in case we ran out before the order came in. We bought a small bag of dog food and mixed it with the food that Karen bought. He didn't eat for two days. We started panicking and tried other things, rice, eggs, cheese, all the doggie favorites that we knew off. We finally got him to eat, but only out of your hand! He still wouldn't eat his food in his bowl. By day four his hunger must have gotten the best of him. We found him standing at his food bowl, nosing all of the food out of his dish that wasn't the food that Karen had bought! We now have learned that he will only eat the Prism dog food, He does not like other things mixed in with his dog food, and we have a pantry full of dog treats that he will not eat - we have only found two kinds that he will eat.As soon as we felt comfortable that he was going to be a "people dog", we started taking him the NIU games to run the field. He made the road trip with us to Toledo and Diesel quickly became a celebrity. He had several spots on ESPN, even one where he was wearing an ESPN jacket. It was a bitter cold and snowy game and he enjoyed it in true husky style. He loves people and attention and he got it that night. He must have been petted by 250 different people that night. The following week Northern had a home game and we took him to run the field again. Everyone knew his name from the Toledo game! People would stop and talk to him like they knew him - move over Lassie.Diesel has finally learned that the backyard is his. He would go out by himself, but would come right back in if you didn't go out with him. Just in the last 10 days he has figured out that he can be away from us and that we are not going to leave him. Now he will stay out and play with his toys in the snow like all true huskies should. He looks at us like we are goofy when we make him come in.Right away we discovered that Diesel had an obsession with plastic. Water bottles and milk jugs are one of his favorite things. If there is one within 20 feet he will pounce on it and make it his own. We made the mistake of leaving an unopened case of water bottle on the kitchen floor. We came downstairs to find the case opened and punctured water bottles all over the floor! Plastic buckets or containers of any type are tops on the list. He likes to put his toys in the bucket and run around the yard with it. The he sticks his head in the bucket and turn it upside down to get his toy out and then runs around with the bucket on his head. He has emptied all of my patio planters and made them his toys - I guess we'll try to correct that problem in the spring, for now we are just happy that he is making our house his home. Pam B.
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