![Scrappy tripalong at 16 blocks](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8507/8354333005_c862344dff_z.jpg)
And then just over a week ago this little guy happened and crafting came to a . *
![The newest member of our family - Ollie #puppy #dog #pug](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8224/8363102247_ec895310b4_z.jpg)
Meet Ollie, who arrived a couple weeks earlier than we expected. He was a total surprise for Hazel, although not for Mat and me, as we've had been looking for a puppy and a good breeder for quite awhile. Luckily Hazel and Ollie get along very well, although she does have a tendency to treat him like a stuffed toy. The phrase "paws on the ground please Hazel" is heard several times a day, as she awkwardly totes him around from place to place, ignoring the fact he has legs and a will of his own. She'll learn though!
![It looks all peachy-keen but adding to the family is hard going. Ollie is tired, Hazel is tired and overwhelmed and was in tears tonight because she loves Ollie but wants her old life back. I'm tired and a bit overwhelmed and I love Ollie but I want my ol](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8470/8376092048_1ca05ce6e0_z.jpg)
What I wasn't expecting was what hard work a puppy is, especially for a cat person like me, how tired I'd be, how much pee I'd have to mop up, and how house-bound I'd be. He's super-cute, tiny and really quite lovely, but damn. I simply have to trust all the dog owners who assure me that "it will get better, I promise!"
Luckily he settled into a routine fairly quickly (pugs are such laid back little creatures, or at least he is) and I've been able to get a bit of sewing on the Scrappy Tripalong done the last few nights. In fact I'm off right now to try and get the last 6 blocks sewed up into tubes and maybe cut into strips. At least I think they're the last, I'm assuming the quilt will be single bed-sized at 30 blocks because I think I'm kind of over cutting 16x2.5" strips. Unfortunately 6 of the blocks I made are slightly rectangular and I'd have to unpick them to get them right, so I have to hope I can use them down one side where it won't matter. I must have had the needle set just slightly wrong for one session.
*I can't remember which book that little joke came from, but I've loved it for years. For those people who call a '.' a period, if you call it a full stop, the sentence above makes sense.