Will: "Mom, I have the perfect idea for what we can do the first day of Fall Break."
Me: "What?"
Will: "Get a puppy!"
The next day we got a puppy.
The boys had been begging for a few months for a dog. They has wanted one for awhile before that, but in the past few months had really been putting the pressure on. Knowing I was pregnant and wouldn't feel like taking on one more responsibility when the idea of having to brush your teeth seems like an almost impossible task, I delayed. They didn't know yet I was pregnant, just sick so that seemed to help a little. But while I was clinging to life I tried to find the right breed for us. I didn't want an inside dog or a high maintenance one. After all my looking I decided that I thought a lab would suit our family best. Chocolate was my color of choice 1. Because they're so pretty 2. Because she would be outside and I didn't want her looking dirty even though she probably would be 3. I wanted a female, too much testosterone around here. After all that decision making it was time to find a puppy. $600 is what I found. Six hundred dollar chocolate lab puppies. Yikes. Have I mentioned my mattress is on the floor and if you were to fit in my living room you would have a choice of 4 options; left side of the couch, middle of the couch, right side of the couch, and hardwood floor. Yeah, so $600 wasn't really in the budge. So I delayed, and started looking on local websites for cheaper puppies.
A little bit later, we went with Pa Joe and Aunt Holly's family to Bro. Smith's farm. He has goats and cows and incredibly smart farm working dog who had recently had puppies. Cuteness overload!! My boys had picked out many contenders for us to buy. They were so cute, even I wanted to say yes, but the problem was they were some kind of collie, read long hair and smart dogs that wanted, no NEEDED to work i.e. attention. Watching them handle the puppies and love on them was hard knowing I'd have to disappoint them on the puppy front again.
Fast forward a few more weeks. Jor had been sending me links to dogs on a local buy and sell website for awhile now. Nothing had really interested me. But then Thursday night he sent me a text telling me he'd emailed me a link to a lab mix puppy. I went to my email and there he was. A 10-12 week old chocolate lab mix pretty FREE little puppy. Adorable AND at such s nice price!! Patrick arranged a pickup time and we were excited!! I could not wait to tell the boys in the morning. When I did tell them they definitely showed a lot more excitement over this need than when I spilled the beans about the baby. And they were way more impressed with his picture than if that of the baby's ultrasound picture. Sorry, Baby.
On Friday we picked up Patrick from work and went to meet the lady. We were delayed about 20 minutes because a guy had been drinking and wrecked his car and bailed the scene. We saw him running up a hill, he'd told another guy three that he lived just up the hill, and then we saw him cut back over to the woods where he jumped a fence. Craziness. Thankfully no one else was hurt. Times like these always leave me feeling sorry for people in these types of situations. I just wonder what their life has been like to lead them to such poor decision making. It makes me sad, and feel sorry for them on the one hand, but n the other hand it makes me angry that they not only put their own life in danger, but the lives of everyone they come in contact with. Sad and mad. This incident provided a good real life example of our favorite topic of discussion at home, "Your choices have consequences." Really hoping my kids can learn that lesson sooner than later.
After we were given the okay to pass through, we finally got to see our puppy, and he didn't disappoint!! He was soo pretty and so so sweet. I wasn't expecting to instantly love him though, but I fell head over heels for him, too!! He climbed up right in the laps of Will and Jack. Sam was so cute telling him good boy over and over and hugging on him. Yes, I hope this will be the right puppy for us. Poor Sam. It was pure torture for him to have to sit where he couldn't see or pet the puppy the whole way home. He kept saying, "puppy sit with meeeee...in my yap." Adorable and pitiful at the same time.
We finally made it home, and the boys had a fun time running around being chased while Patrick and I made a make shift bed for him for the next few nights. He whined and whimpered a little when we told him goidnigt, but soon fell right to sleep.
The boys decided on the name Cooper for him Saturday morning. Our favorites were Henry, Diesel, Hank, Drake (Jack came up with that one) and Cooper. We think it fits him really nicely. The boys played with him early ALL day and I think he was pretty excited when it was time for them to go to bed. He instantly fell asleep and didn't whine or whimper at all this time. He has been very good pup so far. I don't think I've heard him bark yet. He just seems pretty easygoing and laid back, so far. He loves to play fetch, and he is pretty good about sitting when you tell him too. Biggest complaint is that he thinks Sam's a puppy and tends to jump on him. Hoping we can correct this behavior quick! All in all very happy to have him join our family!!
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