Saturday, January 19, 2019

The Puppy

We promised the girls a couple of years ago that when we next moved to a developed, stable country, we would adopt a dog.  At the time, we were living in a place where dog food was tough to come by, as was vet care, and healthy puppies.  So, when we learned that we were moving to our current country, the girls were immediately fixated on getting the long-promised dog.

We adopted the puppy in September, at about 8 weeks old.  Our last dog was a shelter dog, and I generally prefer to adopt from shelters.  However, this is the first time we've adopted a dog since we had kids, and I wanted a dog that grew up in our house, vs. one that would have personality quirks that we had to learn about.   I was particularly fixated on the girls getting bit by a dog that wasn't up to their antics.  So, puppy it was. 

From the earliest days, she has been a terrific addition to our house.  She is exactly like my children:  loud, exuberant, loving, and fun.  She is black and white with curly fur, and will grow to be about 50 pounds, which is the perfect size for us.  She has cost us a fortune in vet bills (dear lord, the ear infections and chocolate eating and apparent corn allergy!).  And although she looooooves the girls (her favorite thing to do is come in from her morning romp outside, paws and face dusted with snow, and run upstairs and jump on them in bed to wake them up), she has definitively become my dog.  We walk, we train, we play (although, she still prefers to roughhouse with the girls, if they are around).  She has been a wonderful source of stress relief for me, and wonderful for my mental health--something I would not have predicted when we got her.  It has been lovely to have her around.

I feel like we are living a somewhat normal suburban existance for a while.  We have a dog.  We have a lovely home.  We live in a nice neighborhood.  Our commute times are short (except for T, but more on that soon).  Life is goodish.  Now if we could just get T's work situation worked out so that he was living in the same city/country as the rest of us. . .

1 comment:

Heather said...

Too funny! If you've read my blog lately, you'll see we are planning on getting a dog this Spring. I don't want to house train a dog in the middle of winter! We want a female Golden Doodle and we are going to name her Bailey. The kids (including the 18 year old!) are beside themselves excited. I haven't explained it to the husband yet, but hey, he's working/living thousands of miles and two time zones away....