(September 2018)
If you know me, you know I am a dog person. Not really a fan of cats (except for my parents barn cat, Missy, coolest cat I’ve ever met). When we had to put our last dog down, I was not ready to get another dog since I was 6 months pregnant with Dylan and we were starting to look around for a new house and I knew I wouldn’t have time for a dog. Fast forward 3.5 years…even though we are still not done with the work around our house, the major things are done and even though our lives are pretty busy and it never seems like a good time to get a dog, it felt like it finally WAS a good time to get a dog.
We knew we wanted to get a Labradoodle and I had spent lots of time researching breeders and talking with other Labradoodle owners. We settled on which breeder we were going with and told them we would be ready after we came back from our trip to Oregon. The day after we got home, the breeder called me and told me there was a litter that was due to be born on July 17th and would be ready to come home mid-Septemeber. The litter would be the color we wanted (reds/caramels) and the size we wanted (standard) so we put a deposit down and waited. The boys were SO excited and kept asking every day when we could go pick up the puppy and we started talking over some names. Over the next couple of months the breeder would email us updates on the puppies and a few pictures. This is a picture of the 6 females she sent when they were 6 weeks old.
A week before the litter was ready to come home, we went to meet the puppies and choose which one would be ours. We knew we wanted a female (I need another girl in this house!) Of the 6 females, we had our pick of 4 (one was already taken and the breeder was keeping one). It was so much fun sitting in the middle of the puppies and playing with them and letting them crawl all over us and lick us, the boys thought it was pretty great too! Right away we knew one would not be a good fit for us since she was a very timid and kept hiding behind me and I felt like our energy level with the two boys would be too much for her. And there was one that seemed to be the other extreme, she was very hyper and all over the place, so that narrowed it down to two. The puppies did not have names, they were identified by the color of their collar. At this point we were looking at Orange and Red. Both dogs were so sweet, lots of fun, had great personalities and really interacted well with the boys and us and it was REALLY HARD to decide. That’s when we started looking at the size. The mom of the litter was a full standard and the dad was a large medium. Red was more on the smaller size and would be a medium sized dog, Orange took after her mother and would be a small standard. We knew we wanted a bigger dog so that was how we chose Orange. After the decision was made, they took our first family photo.
In the car on the way home after picking out Orange, we talked over names again. At this point the boys had narrowed it down to 2 names: Skye (from the cartoon Paw Patrol) and Penny (a name of a pup in the movie 101 Dalmatians). So when we left I asked them which name they wanted and all of us liked Penny the best. Then I was thinking about it, pennies are a coppery/orange color and we choose the Orange dog so it was meant to be!
The following weekend, Justin took the boys to Jacob’s soccer game and my aunt and I drove back to pick up Penny and bring her home. We all met back at our house and spent the rest of the day playing with Penny.
Penny absolutely LOVES the water! We are always filling up her water bowl because she keeps putting her front paws in it and splashing and playing with all the water, there’s nothing left to drink. Anytime we get the hose out to water the plants, she runs in the water spray and keeps “biting” water as it comes out. And she is totally content when getting a bath. I can’t wait to take her to the beach!
Jacob’s teacher had asked me to send a picture of Penny after we brought her home. So I sent her these and she put them up on the big screen in the classroom and Jacob got to tell his classmates all about Penny. It made his day!
In Dylan’s opinion “having a dog is awesome!”
These two are two little peas in a pod.
We have been pretty much home bound until she finishes all of her puppy shots. One day I dug out my old baby carrier and put her inside and went for a walk around the neighborhood with the boys. I was only able to do that a few more times before she got too big, so then I started using the stroller. Just a couple more weeks until we can go on a real walk!
She does like riding in the car with me when I go to drop off/pick up the boys from school. It makes for a very loud entertaining car ride when all 3 of them are in the backseat.
We often say we should have called her grumble butt, because when she is sleeping she will stretch or roll over and she lets out this loud grumble that sounds just like Chewbacca!
Before we brought Penny home we were in a good groove, with the boys new school schedule and no major home projects going on. We were comfortable and started having time to do more fun things, we had some good babysitters so Justin and I were able to get out more often, then we got Penny….and life instantly got chaotic again! It is a lot like having another newborn in the house and starting all over again. But it is so worth it! While I was growing up, we always had dogs as part of our family, and I love that the boys will too. It is so fun seeing the boys run around with her and our trainer has taught the boys lots of fun “games” they can play with her that are teaching the boys and Penny good behavior traits.
And those razor sharp puppy teeth have put holes in lots of pajamas, t-shirts and shorts.
And when she is calm she likes to lay in front of the gate in our backyard and watch the gardeners and golfers go by.
And she knew when she would nap under the couch she was safe from the boys. Now she is too big to fit under there, but she still lays next to the couch and sticks her head under.
If I am being honest, life with two young boys and a puppy is absolutely insane and exhausting. But she is the perfect addition to our family and we love her and I wouldn’t change it for anything!