Bunco!

Bunco is my very first foster puppy from PupSavers (where he is listed as Tripp, but that sounds too soap-operaish to me). He is 2-3 months old, and an Aussie cattle dog/probably blue heeler terrier mix. He wants to say “hi” to EVERYONE! He’s teething right now, so doesn’t do much more than chew his toys (and nap), but he does like to play chase in the yard for full minutes at a time before conking out.

THE FULL STORY: On Tuesday night I picked up two pups to foster, but that quickly turned out to be beyond my first-time puppy caring skills (and mere two hands plus lackluster ability to only be in one place at a time). Lucky for me, my fostering friends who turned me on to PupSavers in the first place hustled right on over to soothe my nerves, assure me that I could do this, and take the zanier of the two pups off my hands. They immediately dubbed her Houdini for her wily escape skills. No barrier is strong enough to keep her from snuggling with you!

Some of you know that my household comes complete with cats, and although I was near tears a couple of times at the start, I assure you this is hardest on them. The Siamese started venturing out last night, and is now fairly comfortable wandering around, cautiously, in areas that he knows the puppy can’t reach. The tabby has come downstairs a couple of times to sniff things out, but runs off when Bunco tries to sniff back. Neither cat seems to be settled enough to eat, but they do lap at a bowl of water I brought upstairs for them.

NOTE: Bunco is so named because I think the one spot on his back makes him look like a die. Bunco, a game of luck played in teams with three dice, was imported to San Francisco as a gambling activity in the 1850s, where it gave its name to gambling parlors, or Bunco parlors, and more generally to any swindle. After the Civil War, the game evolved to a popular parlor game. During Prohibition, Bunco was re-popularized as a gambling game and often associated with speakeasies. Law-enforcement groups raiding these parlors came to be known as “Bunco squads.”