Hours 49 to 72

Jacques and I had another terrific night with no accidents and a pee break at 1am.  We woke up at 6 this morning (there's been too much sleeping in going on around here) and he ate all his breakfast.  Then the first set back occurred--he pooped (not diarrhea, thankfully) on the floor in the hall.  Not on his pad.  Accidents happen, but as it turns out this was going to be a harbinger of things to come.

We had a good play-time in the living room whereupon Jacques again raided Jax's toys, discovering items long since forgotten.  Speaking of Jax, he's pretty much behaving completely normally now--he's back to being his snuggly, needy self and he's eating normally, too.  He still hisses at Jacques and keeps his distance for the most part, although he is daring to come closer.  He's not sniffing/tasting the air as much and he seems perfectly content to nap on the back of the sofa while I sit on said sofa and hold Jacques.  Hey, if this is as good as it ever gets then I'm a happy camper!

At 10, Jacques and I went to visit my Dad and his wife (aka Grampy and Grammy).  They were babysitting her niece and all three of them instantly fell in love with Jacques.  Unfortunately, Jacques promptly christened the living room carpet, despite my excellent plan to bring a dry but used pee pad and making sure he knew where it was right away.  He proceeded to pee on the floor a total of 3 times.  Granted it wasn't much--just a few dribbles--but I was getting frustrated.  He had been doing so well at home but here he was going all over the place!  I was glad I'd not brought any food or allowed him any water which probably helped to minimize the damage.

We left around 12:30, Jacques thoroughly worn out and nodding off in the car (despite the pee issues, my Dad and his wife absolutely adore Jacques and can't wait for another visit.)  Back at home he again ate all his lunch and I left him to have a little nap while I snuggled with Jax.  After an hour or so I let Jacques out for another romp in the living room but this turned out to be a bad idea.  After briefly playing with a few toys and taunting the cat, Jacques started to sniff and circle suspiciously.  Just as he was about to "assume the position" I chased him back to the bathroom and corralled him onto the pad.  After a few escape attempts he eventually made a small poop on the pad (just barely) so I let him back out to play.  Well, the next thing I know he's crouching again, this time on the carpet.  I quickly scooped him up and brought him back to the pad, but he frustratingly refused to go.  By now I've finally smartened up and I leave him in the bathroom for a while.  His accident in the living room is small--only a few drops--but it's a wake up call.  He's still a puppy and now he's feeling confident enough to test me.  Clearly we still have a long way to go with this training business.

Unfortunately the set-backs didn't end there--I got a call from the vet and apparently Jacques has an intestinal parasite.  It's pretty common and easily treated but it's probably the cause of the diarrhea he's been having.  At a cost of about $25 I have to give him a pill every day for 10 days at which point he should be cured.  There's no risk of it being transmitted to me or the cat but I do have to thoroughly clean up his poop to prevent him from reinfecting himself.

And lastly, Jacques has really bad farts.  And I don't mean "oh isn't that cute, he farted!"  I'm talking eye-watering "silent but deadly" emissions of noxious gases.  On the bright side, now I can blame mine on him.

To finish off, here are a few pics I took of Jacques this morning playing desperately with all the cat's toys:

That's it--bite him right on the bum.

****Update****

Aaaaaaand the diarrhea's back again.  Big time.  So for now, Jacques is confined to quarters (ie the bathroom) until further notice.