More on the wee beastie

There's nothing like a new puppy to revive my blog. I promise to have some fibery content soon, but for now, I must indulge my puppy love just a little bit more. Someday I'll be able to look back on this post and smile, like I do with my first post about Thea.

Leo's been talking about getting a third dog for about a year now and I've been hesitant. We have only one salary right now, there are only two of us, puppies are exhausting and I always want to have the money to properly care for anyone in our home. But Leo had some solid arguments: Our house is big enough, Panda is starting to slow down and Thea hasn't had a pal who could match her level of energy. We also want to introduce a third before Panda is so old that she'd be overly stressed by a puppy and, with both of us home every day (I work from home and Leo is looking for work) we can share the workload, ensuring a puppy isn't stuck in a crate all day.

I wasn't exactly sold but I wasn't exactly throwing a temper tantrum over it either.

And then Leo asked me a casual question the other day; "Marnie, what rescue is Thea from? Can you send me the link?" And I looked it up and saw Buddy.

I called Leo up to my office and said, "LOOK!" Within minutes I was writing his foster home. Another family was seeing Buddy that day and if they were a great match and wanted him, then we would not even get to see him. As luck would have it, this family felt that 4-5 months was just too old for them and they continued their search.

Buddy's foster home was great; a lovely family with two full grown BCs of their own, who clearly loved dogs and wanted the best home possible for the little guy. They had given him the name Buddy, after deciding his original name, Akon, just didn't suit him. Buddy played joyfully with his puppy pals and people alike and was a fierce protector of his foster home.

Panda and Thea got to meet the little guy and we saw no indication that there would be any major personality conflicts so we tentatively asked if we might be viable candidates. I guess there's no real suspense here. The foster family agreed to entrust us with the health, happiness and well being of this teeny tiny little pup who has gone from who knows what beginning, to living in a car with a wayward couple, to being surrendered to a shelter to being taken in by a rescue to being cared for by a foster family and finally to us. Leo and I don't take that responsibility lightly.

So who is this dog we brought home? He's maybe 4 or 5 months old, mostly Border Collie, mixed with something, maybe black lab. His ears go wonky in a most charming way and he wears white socks and has a little white spot on his nose, the back of his neck and the tip of his tail. Within 24 hours of adopting the little boy, he learned that he was no longer Buddy, but now we called him Darwin, and if you threw in a cookie, he might even care about that tidbit.

He's learning that to get dinner, or breakfast or to go out to potty, he's going to have to sit and his sit is lovely.

He sleeps in his crate with very little fuss and is starting to let us know exactly when he'd like to potty. But he'll also climb the coffee table and try to drink Leo's mate or steal his lunch if we aren't obsessively diligent and should we miss the pee cue, we'll be busting out the carpet cleaner once again. He is, without doubt, a puppy.

But Darwin has accepted us as sufficient for his needs and I dare say, after 3 short days, he's already gotten a little attached. You wouldn't believe the sob story he told me while Leo was cleaning the yard of puppy land mines.

And the girls? Well, A puppy is a lot to deal with and sometimes they feel a little needy.

We're doing our best to make sure that they don't feel the puppy is getting the bulk of the attention and with the daily walks, they are slowly starting to accept that this little dude isn't going anywhere.

I'm sure (positive) that Darwin will test us and make us wonder what we got ourselves into, but I think he'll be a great addition to the family and a smart, sweet, and gorgeous boy. Thanks to all of you for welcoming him so warmly. Expect to see plenty more of him and the girls.