It's interesting what will perturb a puppy, and what won't. Last night when I wasn't here, Peter noticed that Rockwell was asleep upside down in the hall as he often is. He was close to the makeshift baby gate we had attached to the railing at the top of the slippery basement stairs. When Peter was in another room, he suddenly heard all kinds of banging and crashing and ran to see what was going on.

Rockwell must have caught a leg or some body part under the gate and in trying to extricate himself, he ripped it right off the railing. It had been attached by nylon zip ties so I thought it was pretty secure. Apparently not! Anyway, Peter checked him all over and there wasn't a mark on him. Plus, during the struggle and afterwards, Rockwell didn't cry or bark or vocalize at all. He was unfazed by what could have been a traumatic experience.

In contrast, yesterday morning we went for our walk and as we passed by a neighbour's house, Rockwell spotted two of those large 10 gallon water jugs sitting outside on the step for pick up. You'd have thought we were being invaded by aliens. Bark, bark, bark! If that were not enough, this afternoon, one of those extra large, buzzy house flies got in the house and Rockwell acted as if it were on a personal mission to freak him out. He tried to catch it but when it was in another part of the house entirely, Rockwell was still jumping at the slightest sound and whipping around to look at his own bum. Funny, but really.