I know it has been a while since I posted to this little journal (work has been kind of crazy lately) and I know it is not a Monday or a Thursday. But I just couldn't help myself. Today is the day. Today is the anniversary of the day we brought the monster home. One year ago today ours lives dramatically changed...
We got married in August of last year, five days before my birthday. So while we were on our honeymoon my new husband kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday. We had talked about a dog before and even tested drove a husky puppy a year earlier. But the timing was never quite right. So when I said "a dog" we both kind of smiled and though, if only.
Then things changed in our lives. I got a new job working from home and our car died. While the new job may seem like an obvious opportunity for a dog (someone to be home with the puppy all day, someone to take her out every hour for potty training, someone to take her for walks and keep her exhausted so she didn't eat our furniture or carpet and, most importantly, someone to keep an eye on the cat/dog relationship), the car may not be as obvious. But it was just as important. My husband and I only have one car (I know, how un-Atlantan of us) and it was a two-door Honda Civic. It was a great car. It was a late '90s model and had made many multi-state road trips over the years. But it was not too great for our outdoor lifestyle (no room for people and gear) and you definitely could not easily fit a dog into the backseat. You couldn't easily fit a person into the backseat for that matter. We knew that we needed a larger car that could fit our gear, go off road and, of course, house a dog.
Things were starting to align, making that birthday present seem more plausible. After a few missteps with breeders (We were actually turned down by a breeder! We are the best husky parents EVER. They obviously didn't have a very good screening process.) we found the one, Harry's Huskies (the Harrys are a nice older couple in Pine Mountain, Georgia, who have two females that have one litter each a year - we highly recommend them if you are in the area) and went to pick out our little girl from the litter of six.
The puppies were all adorable, so we had to have some deciding factors. We wanted a girl. No, we had to have a girl (see my previous post, Puppy Love, for details). That eliminated three pups. We wanted one with blue eyes. That eliminated one more. So now it was down to two girls, one black and white and one red and white. I was focused on the black and white one, but couldn't help but notice that the red and white one was very interested in my husband. She was actually trying to untie his shoes. The Harrys told us that was the mischievous one of the bunch. My husband was smitten. I held up the black and white one who was at my feet and said, "No way, we don't need more wild ones in the house. Let's get her." She was curious, but not fearless. She was active, but not hyper. She was small, but not the runt. She was perfect. And now she was ours.
The Harrys took a photo of us with the pup, put a collar on her and wrote down a description of her coloring. The puppies were not weaned yet, so we had to wait a few more weeks before we could take her home. It was the longest two weeks of my life. We went to Petsmart multiple times and got everything we thought our little girl would want, and more. We borrowed a crate from a friend, knowing she would get really big really fast. I sent that photo of me holding our little fuzz ball (she actually looked more like a guinea pig than a dog then) to everyone I knew. And most importantly, we tried to prepare the cat for what was to come.
We put the dog toys out and set the crate up, hoping she would walk around and smell them, get used to them. We spent extra time snuggling with her and brushing her (her favorite pastime). We even cried, wondering how we were ever going to be able to love two animals this much. She, in her typical cat manor, was oblivious.
A few weeks later, the puppies were ready to go and we made the trip down to the Harry's again. They had our tiny little monster ready to go. She walked away with us and never looked back. We got to the car and she started playing chase and doing the doggie play bow right from the get go. We knew we had the right dog for us.
We all climbed into the car (the new car that had less than 200 miles on it and NO dog hair) and headed back home. It was a long ride. Pine Mountain is about an hour and 20 minutes from our house. The little monster climbed all over the front seat, going from one lap to the other, and finally settled around the gear shifter between the two of us and passed out. She was so tiny her body fit on the gear box and her entire head fit in the cup holder. She may have been the one sleeping soundly, but I don't think anyone could have been more content than we were that day.
That was a year ago today. And while there have been a lot of crazy moments and a few times when we wondered how we were going to do this, what were we thinking, she is the best birthday present I have ever gotten and I wouldn't change a thing. Thank you, babe.
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We got married in August of last year, five days before my birthday. So while we were on our honeymoon my new husband kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday. We had talked about a dog before and even tested drove a husky puppy a year earlier. But the timing was never quite right. So when I said "a dog" we both kind of smiled and though, if only.
Then things changed in our lives. I got a new job working from home and our car died. While the new job may seem like an obvious opportunity for a dog (someone to be home with the puppy all day, someone to take her out every hour for potty training, someone to take her for walks and keep her exhausted so she didn't eat our furniture or carpet and, most importantly, someone to keep an eye on the cat/dog relationship), the car may not be as obvious. But it was just as important. My husband and I only have one car (I know, how un-Atlantan of us) and it was a two-door Honda Civic. It was a great car. It was a late '90s model and had made many multi-state road trips over the years. But it was not too great for our outdoor lifestyle (no room for people and gear) and you definitely could not easily fit a dog into the backseat. You couldn't easily fit a person into the backseat for that matter. We knew that we needed a larger car that could fit our gear, go off road and, of course, house a dog.
Things were starting to align, making that birthday present seem more plausible. After a few missteps with breeders (We were actually turned down by a breeder! We are the best husky parents EVER. They obviously didn't have a very good screening process.) we found the one, Harry's Huskies (the Harrys are a nice older couple in Pine Mountain, Georgia, who have two females that have one litter each a year - we highly recommend them if you are in the area) and went to pick out our little girl from the litter of six.
The puppies were all adorable, so we had to have some deciding factors. We wanted a girl. No, we had to have a girl (see my previous post, Puppy Love, for details). That eliminated three pups. We wanted one with blue eyes. That eliminated one more. So now it was down to two girls, one black and white and one red and white. I was focused on the black and white one, but couldn't help but notice that the red and white one was very interested in my husband. She was actually trying to untie his shoes. The Harrys told us that was the mischievous one of the bunch. My husband was smitten. I held up the black and white one who was at my feet and said, "No way, we don't need more wild ones in the house. Let's get her." She was curious, but not fearless. She was active, but not hyper. She was small, but not the runt. She was perfect. And now she was ours.
The Harrys took a photo of us with the pup, put a collar on her and wrote down a description of her coloring. The puppies were not weaned yet, so we had to wait a few more weeks before we could take her home. It was the longest two weeks of my life. We went to Petsmart multiple times and got everything we thought our little girl would want, and more. We borrowed a crate from a friend, knowing she would get really big really fast. I sent that photo of me holding our little fuzz ball (she actually looked more like a guinea pig than a dog then) to everyone I knew. And most importantly, we tried to prepare the cat for what was to come.
We put the dog toys out and set the crate up, hoping she would walk around and smell them, get used to them. We spent extra time snuggling with her and brushing her (her favorite pastime). We even cried, wondering how we were ever going to be able to love two animals this much. She, in her typical cat manor, was oblivious.
A few weeks later, the puppies were ready to go and we made the trip down to the Harry's again. They had our tiny little monster ready to go. She walked away with us and never looked back. We got to the car and she started playing chase and doing the doggie play bow right from the get go. We knew we had the right dog for us.
We all climbed into the car (the new car that had less than 200 miles on it and NO dog hair) and headed back home. It was a long ride. Pine Mountain is about an hour and 20 minutes from our house. The little monster climbed all over the front seat, going from one lap to the other, and finally settled around the gear shifter between the two of us and passed out. She was so tiny her body fit on the gear box and her entire head fit in the cup holder. She may have been the one sleeping soundly, but I don't think anyone could have been more content than we were that day.
That was a year ago today. And while there have been a lot of crazy moments and a few times when we wondered how we were going to do this, what were we thinking, she is the best birthday present I have ever gotten and I wouldn't change a thing. Thank you, babe.
The day we picked out our monster.
The queen upon seeing her nemesis for the first time.
Eating her leash that first day
It was a long day, for all of us, but the best day ever.
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