Before I knew it, hubby had one in his arms and as he was passing it to me, he said "go see mummy!" by mistake. Oops indeed. As of this writing, we now have a puppy waiting for us with a tiny red collar on and a special haircut to mark her. Our little bundle of joy. Typically, I picked the shy one, the runt of the litter (one of 11!), the one who wasn't as eager to jump into the pile of writhing sleeping biting climbing smothering other black puppies.
She's a girl, and she's adorable. I am a proud new mother.
So now we are tasked with the enviable job of finding a name for this little sweetie pie. So far, the top contenders for names are: Pixie (her mom's name is Trixie, and she's the smallest of the litter), Cricket (because she's small and black), and Lola. Her mum is a beautiful, happy and humungous one-year-old Golden Retriever and her dad (R.I.P.) was a Black Lab, a championship hunting dog who made this his one beautiful final act. I don't think she'll end up being as tiny - I have a habit of super-sizing my pets.
Her biggest brother is going to my brother, which is nice, because they'll grow up together and have the chance to play together a lot with someone else their own size (kind of) since we live 3 minutes apart. That's his butt in the foreground. He's a real bruiser.
I have visions of having the dog in our red canoe, having the dog on the boat, having the dog camping on islands, having the dog on road trips, having the dog while ice fishing, having the dog on long walks in the woods, teaching the dog to swim, gently. Having the dog hang out while I garden. Having the dog be raised by my two giant cats, who will totally dominate her in the first few months, and maybe later as well, at least until she realizes how big she is. The cats are easily twice her size right now. Hubby has visions of them riding around on her back, and has made them promise not to use their claws on her.
I want to buy her healthy chew toys, healthy dog food, healthy treats, and healthy bedding. My girlfriend's sending us her crate, for bedtime, and we now have to figure out where her potty-training zone is going to be while we're away at work. She'll need a room, with a baby gate, covered in a tarp and newspapers on top of that. Problem is, we don't really have rooms like that, like other people do - laundry rooms or utility rooms or spare bathrooms. All of our extra rooms are in the basement, and it's too cold and lonely down there for a baby pup.
I'm registering her with the municipality, getting her license, getting her checked by the vet and getting her microchipped. We're going to do this all right.
I am so ready to be a parent it's completely ridiculous. Just when I thought there was not much hope for me, this is filling the niche quite nicely. We have been waiting for the "right time;" for a rescue dog, or for maternity leave when I'll be home all day. But the following factors made our minds up for us:
- we met a vet at a party who had two dogs, and she keeps them inside all day, and they're fine.
- these puppies were made known to us the day after the party - it's karma.
- I may never go on maternity leave - why wait for that?
- even if I did go on maternity leave, who wants to potty train a puppy while dealing with a new baby?
- we're never going to be unemployed otherwise -may as well bite the bullet and get it over with now, as difficult as it may be.
So here's our babe, our sweet little girl. I will keep you updated on her progress, of course, and post more pictures when I bring her home.
Oh, also I joined the gym at work.
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