The Dog Days of Summer

So just as life has been finding some order and relaxation around here we made the move that will blow it all up. We adopted not one but two puppies. Our friends and family all said, “you’re crazy, you’re insane, what are you thinking”, etc. We had our heart set on completing our “all American” family and also shutting the kids up. It’s been a nonstop discussion of begging, pleading, crying, whining and promising for us to get dogs.

My husband and I made a pact years and years ago when he bought me our last dog. He slightly mentioned how he left Spanky’s sister there and I burst in to tears thinking of her being the last one picked and being alone. So we promised each other that our next pets would be siblings. That was 13 years ago and zero kids ago as well.

I’m not sure at what point last week that we made the decision that we were totally ready but we did. We wanted to rescue puppies from a rescue but as we got the fees for that we financially couldn’t make sense of paying for all the services up front. We checked out Craigsist and made the email attempts and calls. Then one of our neighbors knew someone that knew someone that had free puppies and they were A-DORABLE! (Ok yeah, what puppy isn’t adorable?) We opted for the free puppies.

We took the scenic drive up to the mountains to pick up our new babies. We had a vet appointment scheduled because the puppy owners said they hadn’t been vaccinated and had fleas (hence FREE). Just our luck; we arrive and the puppies are HUGE and covered in fleas and ticks. Ugh. So we happily drove to the vet visit to get them all checked out and cleaned up.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been the “puppy experience” that my husband and I have had in the past. They are so flea and tick and WORM infested that we can’t really hold them and let them kiss on us for another week. So of course we ended up rescuing AND not having Free puppies.

Yesterday was my first day with both kids and both puppies. Oh how I felt some “buyers remorse”. It was quite the day. All of my previous puppy training skills or lack there of had slipped completely from my mind. I might as well have been trying to train a couple of cracked out cats on fire. There were puppies running, children chasing, wormy poop, and puddles of pee, fleas and ticks dying and falling off and littering my new floors. My mind was gone. Where in the world could I start on clean up? I was a little unprepared. No crate, no gate, and ½ a roll of paper towel WHAT??? That’s what I get for trying to please my children on a whim.

Thankfully I pulled it together, kept everyone fed, got everything clean and sanitized more than twice and even got to enjoy some of the day as a new puppy owner. Surprisingly my youngest (Quinn, 3) is a much bigger help than my oldest who was all about the puppies. Quinn loves playing treat giver and feeding and watering the pups. I think Ethan (7) really just wanted to cuddle and love them, so he has mentioned that they aren’t as fun as he thought. My husband and I are so sad that it hasn’t been the experience we promised the boys but we do feel that we have rescued puppies and kept them together. Thankfully it’s more heartwarming than heart worming to see this sweet brother and sister play and cuddle up to each other at naptime. That in itself made everything yesterday worth the mind melt that I experienced. Today I feel more confident and in control. We are one day closer to happy, healthy, clean puppies that we can love on. In the meantime feel free to send over cleaner and paper towels.