A miracle

He walked down the stairs! He walked down the stairs! Thank god almighty, he walked down the stairs!

That's right... St. Orent Buster Smithereen McTurnip* had a full bladder and walked down both flights of stairs to pee -- twice!

We've been training him up for this moment. He's been begrudgingly coaxed down the stairs with lots of love and treats, but only on an empty bladder, and even then we've had some accidents. Today, I did some training and lunch-eating with him on the stairs. But he's been so grouchy whenever we want him to walk down the stairs.

Then, today, both for Max and for me, he walked down the stairs all by himself, with only minimal luring and coaxing. It's an absolute miracle! This will make our bi-hour trips outside much less painful.

Will this trend continue, or will he regress to his old, grumpy-about-stairs self? Stay tuned...

*In a fit of silly, Max and I decided before we knew his name that we wanted to call him Saint George Buster Smithereen McTurnip. But his name turned out to be Orent. So, much like my mother used to call me Katherine Andree Riek when she was frustrated, I've taken to calling Orent by his long name - St Orent Buster Smithereen McTurnip - when I'm annoyed with him.

**Update Sat 7/16 10am** He did it again this morning, after not going out for 2.5 hours. I think we're almost house-broken!