Over Christmas last year, my family got a new puppy, after putting down my first dog a few summers ago. His name is Bandit, and he's a miniature Australian shepherd. He's super cute, but he can also be a big brat.

Obviously, puppies chew on things. Bandit's favorite thing to chew on just so happens to be people's hands. Part of it is our own fault - we let him play rough and sometimes push him around to egg him on. The problem is, every second of every day is play time, and if we aren't paying attention to him for some reason, that warrants pulling clothes, nibbling fingers, climbing in laps, and generally being a disruption. Usually going out to play with him for a while tires him out enough to relax for maybe an hour, but it's not long before he's tearing around the house again.

Another thing Bandit loves to chew on - rather, through - is wires. The first wire he chewed through was the HDMI cable for the Wii U. He started chewing through the cable for our television, but was caught after pulling it out of the socket. The next wire was the air conditioner during the summer. Then, after we moved to a new house, the air conditioner there. We had two or three days each without air conditioning, in the middle of summer in Montana. The only good thing about those days was he wasn't quite as energetic as normal either.

His favorite toy so far is a stuffed hedgehog whose squeaker makes more of a groaning sound than a squeak. He enjoys tearing off the feet and hands of every new one we get him, then taking off the tag and pulling out the stuffing. He also tore one up just because he was angry, because he didn't get a walk while it was raining (he chews on the leash and his harness, too). He's on his third or fourth hedgehog so far.

I ended up spending a lot of time with him over the summer, and he chewed his way right through me and wiggled into my heart. By the end of the summer, he was curling up beside me and sleeping against me in the mornings before we went outside to play fetch (or for him, keep-away). He even licked my hand a few times instead of chewing on it.

I miss my old dog, but Bandit has already become my best friend.