1st Day: Peanut (my dog) comes into his new home after being adopted by me from another family that had some puppies. He is very new to the family and doesn’t know a thing about where he is. He is shivering not from cold but from fear. He is very unfamiliar.

Peanut just got brought home from the other family. I brought him home inside a small bucket that is big enough for him to lie down in, and high enough so that if he leaps up, his front paws can extend over the edge.

Who is Peanut, again? He is my dog. Peanut is a cross between a miniature schnauzer and a shih tzu. They can be called a “schnautzu”. He is six weeks old, and his fur is already beautiful. Silk black is the color.

Well, on the way home, Peanut got real smart. He leaned against the small tub and put his whole body against it. The tub leaned over and fell over.

I ended up holding the pup the way home, hoping he wouldn’t pee all over me. The good news? He didn’t.

I took him home and put him in the cage we bought for him. He fit perfectly, and I layered the bottom with cloth and newspapers.

He was shivering the whole time I was doing it, so I patted him on the back. He stopped shuddering for a moment, but then he began again.

That night, he howled and barked and bucked. I was forced to leave him alone because my dad told me that if you left him alone, he would stop.

After what seemed like half an hour, he stopped. I made the mistake of checking on him then. He began again.

That night, every one hour, I would go in and open the door and show him I was there. It worked, but every time I left, he would howl for five minutes or so and then stop because he knew I wasn’t going back.

It went on like this until 8:30 in the morning. In the middle, I probably skipped a total of three hours when I actually dozed off. This time, I went downstairs and laid down on my mom’s bed.

I didn’t go to sleep, but I was reassured that my dad’s technique would work… eventually.

What bothered me most that night was the fact that there was a thunderstorm going through. It thundered, and Peanut whimpered. It bolted streaks into the sky, and Peanut howled. I had to go to the room and check on him a lot before he finally settled down.

Every time you looked at Peanut, his eyes looked so innocent. He looked like he needed to be cared. That was the reason I kept on feeling guilty every time I had to walk away when I was checking on him.

Of course, pretty soon he is going to have to get used to my home, and then it’s going to be better.

I hope.