Puppy Love

Meet Zoey, our newest family addition.

(She's chewing on a crunchberry she found under the cupboard, that's why her mouth looks funny, but it's the first time she's sat still in 3 weeks!)

Several months ago my son Doc, the youngest of the boys, was having a hard time adapting to having a new sister and no longer being the youngest.  So he was spending a lot of time with his best friends out at their house.  Doc's best friends are two boys only a year apart, Sean and Declan. He fits right inthe middle of them age wise. Sean and Declan's mom, Gina is one of my very good friends.  She is an animal lover and had 3 dogs.  I think they are all rescue dogs, but not positive.  One is a German Shepard, Thunder; one is a yellow lab, I'll call him D because I'd never spell his name right, and a bloodhound named Lila.  One afternoon Gina let D out and could not find him until she went around the house where she found him sharing hugs and kisses with Lila.  A month later we were pretty sure Lila was going to have puppies.  Doc was so excited, since he spent so much time at Gina's house. 

We had a dog, Mali, a black lab for almost 14 years.  She was the best dog ever!  She helped me raise my kids.  Last fall we had to put her down.  It was so sad.  I said that I didn't want another dog.  When we got Mali we had 2 kids and I was a stay at home mom.  Now we have 5 kids all involved in extracurricular activities, and I work full time.  It just didn't make sense to me. 

Doc and I spent time going out and seeing Lila, and Gina and Sean and Declan.  Doc so badly wanted to be a part of the puppies being born.  About 10:30pm one Monday night (Dec, 20) Gina called saying that she was sure teh puppies were coming.  I woke Doc up and together, he and I went out to Gina's farm to watch.  It was awesome!  The boys did such a great job of being quiet and respectful to Lila.  We all kept our distance and just watched. Lila had 8 puppies, 4 males and 4 females.  All of the males were black and all of the females were brown. It was nice to share this special experience with Doc. 

Of course, then came the begging for a puppy.   After almost 3 weeks we could finally handle the new puppies.   

Ok, so I'm a big sucker for puppies and my kids.  We decided to take a female puppy.  Doc named her Zoey.  She's been home with us for 3 weeks now and she's 10 weeks old. 

Now for puppy training.....   I don't remember Mali being this exhausting...   It really is like having a new baby in the house!