New Puppy!

I am loooong overdue for a post! It has been a busy couple weeks. Last weekend Ray-dad (aka, Ray's father and my father in law) came into town. And we took like no good pictures. I have nothing to post. But we had lots of fun. Saturday we went out to the Montgomery County fair and played games, the girlies rode ponies, they won prizes. We ate too much funnel cake and fried oreos. Fun was had by all. Then Sunday we went geocaching and, though we only found 1 of 3 caches, we all had a blast. Especially Trevor, who thought geocaching was like a treasure hunt! It was wonderful to have grandpa visit us and the kids were really upset when it came time for him to go. Hopefully he'll have business in the area again soon!

Then, this past weekend we added a new addition to our family. We've been thinking about getting a dog for about a month now. The kids are more independent, they've been asking for a dog. Ray and I miss having a dog. So we checked out a few area shelters over the next few days. We had already decided on a puppy. I didn't mind if he was older than 8 weeks, but I wanted him/her to be younger than 6 months. I figured this would lessen any baggage a shelter dog might have (that is another story). But puppies go very quickly at our area shelters. In fact, neither are shelter had puppies. Frederick county did so we drove all the way out there, only to have them both adopted by the time we got there (1.5 hours later. Argh!). So we filled out an application with our local rescue group and, on a whim and with no definite plans to adopt that day, we went to their adoption fair the the Petco. We got there WAAAAY early, they were just arriving to set up. After looking at all the dogs, we really liked this little beagle mix girl who was 5 months old. We went to put an application in on her and when we got into the Petco, there was this pen set up with this ADORABLE hound puppy! He was four months old, big paws, floppy ears. He was sooo cute. We all loved him.

Well, getting a dog from a rescue is like adopting a child or something. We were there from 11ish when they were setting up.. all the way until 4pm that day. At the Petco. In a strip mall. The kids were WONDERFUL. Got a little tired near the end there, but hung out and drew on all the Petco applications (sorry Petco!) and pet all the dogs. We had to go through an interview with a volunteer. Yes, an interview. Then, if we pass that interview, we get a second interview with a board member. It felt like a job interview. heh. We passed both interviews! Then, they did something they apparently never do. They said if they could contact our vet today then we could take him home today, prior to the home visit (yes. Home visit) as a foster to adopt. Since they did reach our vet and I guess that was good. So we loaded up our puppy with lots of puppy things and took him home!!!! Sorry, minimal kid pics!


His name is Willie, not our name, he came with it and it stuck.


On a trip to Lake Fairfax yesterday.


Ray holding him on leash. He's not huge. I think he will be a houndy size when full grown. Not huge, not small. He's big a goofy and always trips over his feet right now.


This is not our dog. This is Brett's English Mastiff puppy who went to the park with us. Yes. Puppy. She makes Willie look like a chihuahua. She will like double her weight. She was terrified of Willie at first. I think Roxy is also adorable.


Am I cute or WHAT?


Willie LOVES the kids. He bounds after them all day, trying to see what they are up to. He also loves Rachael's shoes. And he loves their stuffed toys. And their lego pieces. Oh, and their bed covers. He's a teething beast. But he really adores the kids and they adore him. They have been so wonderful, making sure they get stuff out of his way, not getting mad at him when he grabs their toys. They play in the backyard so Willie can come out and splash in the wading pool with them. I wanted a dog that would kind of be one of the gang and he really is (I sure hope there are no hitches in the foster to adopt thing!)

On a good note. He was obviously crated before we had him. He has been crated both nights now. The first night he gave one houndy cute bay and that was it for the night. Last night he wanted out at midnight and I let him out to pee and put him in his crate. He whined a couple minutes then no more noise for the rest of the night. He has only had two accidents in the house and no poop in the house. He paces when he has to go out and we let him out. If we don't catch him pacing, well, he'll pee in the house. He's only 4 months old. But I was very surprised at how little pee I have been cleaning up (knock on wood). He's really been great so far. Very sweet and good natured. He rides well in the car with us. Our routine has been walking him in the morning then he takes a midmorning nap, then he goes somewhere with us in the afternoon, we're always going to a park or hiking or something. Then in the evening he gets one more walk. He was so pooped today that he almost didn't walk the rest of the way back from his walk. He's currently sleeping on my feet as I type. He's a wonderful little monster puppy!