So much has happened since my last post in October. The holidays were different this year. Although my Aunt was greatly missed it was nice to have all her family over for Thanksgiving. My second cousin even gave us something really extra special to be thankful for - she told her Mom (and the rest of us) she is pregnant with their first child. Daddy-to-be-hubby was given rounds of handshakes, congrats and some good natured ribbing. She is due in April so we are in "waiting" mode.
Our immediate family also expanded at the end of the year. We added another dog to our family. Madison Nicole is a lovely, bouncy, floppy, fluffy, liver and white English Springer Spaniel pup. She joined us a day before New Year's Eve.
I had been trying to convince Jon for some time that Dani, our lab mix, would do better with a friend around. Dani loved playing with other dogs and I felt was feeling lonely when there wasn't any other dogs around. I kept equating it to being an only child (something I'm expert in) and how parents of multiple children say it's easier to raise more than 1 child because the kids play with each other instead of bugging you (which Dani was doing...bugging us).
On Christmas morning I pulled a few things out of my stocking when I came across a package addressed "To wife, boy and dog". Inside was a small stuffed dog toy. I looked at my husband with a puzzled look on my face ... "It's a token. You can trade it in for the real thing." I squealed with joy and hugged him. A puppy! We started looking on the Internet thinking we'd probably find one in a couple of months. Lo and behold I found a batch of lovely Springer pups in Pennsylvania. We called and arranged to come see the pups. The owners were a lovely Mennonite couple who ran not only a dairy farm but a bed and breakfast. They took us through the cow barn to the back where the puppies were kept. I changed my mind about 3 different times. They were all so cute I could have taken any one of them. At first my heart was set on cute little Cara-Lee. She had a paler brown right where her eyebrows were so she had a very expressive face. Then I thought maybe Courtney was the one. She was the runt of the litter was just too cute for words. Then I realized I was selecting a puppy in the wrong manner. So I watched all the pups together and realized that Christy was the most interactive, the most alert and the one we should pick.
We didn't take her right away as we had a family dinner the next day and I didn't think it would be fair to leave a new puppy home alone all day. So we arranged to pick her up on Sunday. What should have been a 2 hour trip up became an almost all day ordeal. I took Patrick with me but Jon had things to do at home. So we thought having a cell phone and a GPS would be enough. However, about 5 minutes away from the farm the GPS ran out of battery and I had to go on memory. Of course when we drove up it was pitch dark so things looked a lot different in the light. Luckily we found the farm and picked up our little girl.
Now the trip home. I asked the owners for directions back since the GPS had died on me. I also found that my cell phone had died so my hopes of calling Jon and having him give me directions were dashed. I tried the directions given to me but things again started to look unfamiliar. I drove for a bit and we finally decided to stop for lunch. We started back out again and after quite a bit of driving (in what turned out to be the exact opposite direction than I needed to go) I stopped at a gas station for a map. Once we had the map we were on our way. Madison (aka Maddie) was amazing. She didn't cry too much, loved climbing over Patrick (although we had brought a basket for her to ride in) and slept pretty much most of the trip.
I am still amazed to this day how well Maddie and Dani get along. We introduced them on neutral territory. Dani sniffed the new addition a bit and then proceeded to wonder off to sniff other smells (actually a good sign). Dani had to learn to be gentler with the puppy than she was with her other playmates. She learned pretty quickly that the puppy was for her. I feel that she has become a calmer, more obedient dog since we've gotten Maddie. Part of it is she has one of her kind now, part of it is her sitting by Maddie's side when I'm teaching Maddie her obedience lessons (so in turn it is reinforcing it for Dani). I'm sorry we didn't do this sooner.
Two dogs certainly can be challenge at times (like walking) but I'd never have just one dog again. Having two has actually made things easier because they entertain each other instead of demanding my attention all the time. 2 doggies twice as much joy.
