The New Pup Across the Street

Lucy has a new nemesis, and it’s approximately twelve weeks old.

The moving truck showed up on Tuesday. By Thursday, a small, wobbly puppy was out on the opposite lawn on a leash roughly twice its size, and Lucy spotted it through the front window before I’d even registered there was anything to see. She went instantly rigid — front paws planted, ears up, the exact posture she reserves for squirrels and delivery trucks — and let out a single, considering “woof” that seemed to be more question than warning.

The puppy, for its part, noticed absolutely nothing. It was busy attacking a leaf.

We took the next walk on purpose, angling wide toward the new house without quite admitting that’s what we were doing. When we got close enough, Lucy did not bark again. She just stopped dead on the sidewalk and stared, the way she does with the neighbor’s cat, except this time her tail was doing a slow, undecided wag instead of staying stiff. The puppy finally noticed her, promptly fell over its own front feet, and looked thrilled about it.

Lucy took one cautious step forward. The puppy took four enthusiastic ones. It was, overall, a lot of commitment for a first meeting.

New neighbor report

• Initial threat level assessed: high (from the window)
• Threat level after seeing it fall over a leaf: significantly reduced
• Tail wag status: cautiously optimistic
• Verdict: pending, but leaning toward “acceptable”

We didn’t linger long — puppies have the attention span of popcorn, and this one was already distracted by a passing bee. But Lucy kept glancing back at that house the rest of the walk, already rehearsing round two.

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