Sooooooo, after Macie died, I said we would never ever, not on your
life, not in a million years, not a chance so don’t even think about asking,
never ever EVER going to get another dog.
The whole experience was just too hard.
The puppy part was hard, the illness part was hard, and the dying at
only a year and eleven days old was hard.
Sure, the reasons we got a dog in the first place still existed, and
yes, having a dog does have quite a few good parts. Still.
I said we would never ever, not for all the gold in the world, not if my
life depended on it, no matter what, never ever EVER going to get another dog.
We got another dog.
And it’s raining. A lot. I thought Berkeley Lake was a mile up the road, but it seems
to have relocated to my backyard. There
are muddy paw prints all over my floors and I’m washing dirty towels at laundromat
pace and standing in the rain at two-thirty in the morning and my house smells
like wet puppy, which, I assure you, is only slightly better than the smell of
wet dog.
But this time, I know it will all be worth it. This time, I really do know she’ll be worth
it.
The one making the muddy paw prints is a nine-week-old mini goldendoodle.
The goldendoodle part means she should be
smart, loyal, calm, and, thank goodness for the invention of ridiculously
expensive mutts, non-shedding. The
mini part means she should top off at about thirty pounds. Yep, for us size matters, because standard
goldendoodles can weigh anywhere from fifty to a hundred pounds, and what that screams
to me is the possibility of paws on a kitchen counter, which is simply
unacceptable in the name of sanitary conditions.
We named her Georgia. She’s the
color of Georgia red clay when it’s wet, which is appropriate because it’s been
wet for days. And she flew in from Ohio,
so her new home is also her new name.
Yes, you read that right. She
FLEW in from Ohio. Buying a plane ticket
for a puppy and picking up a pet at air cargo ranks right up there with some of
the dumber things I’ve ever done, but all the local breeders only had Christmas
puppies available, and at Christmas, we weren’t ready for sleepless nights and
urine on the hardwoods. Those things
just don’t go well with the beauty and magic of the holiday season. So we found this wonderful breeder in Ohio who only breeds goldendoodles, and only breeds them a couple times a year. She has been sending us pictures and videos several times a week since our puppy's litter was born, and you should know that watching five little balls of fur tripping over each other in someone else's kitchen (that part is key) is true entertainment folks.
Georgia is already a precious addition to our family. She's sweet and loving, and she sleeps a lot, which keeps me from wanting to give her back. I have no doubt she will wind herself around our hearts even more with each passing day. In the meantime, we're working on adjusting to what it means to have a four legged creature in the house again. We’re working on the potty training.
That’s going just as you might expect.
We’re working on the crate training.
Also going as you might expect.
We’re working on ‘come’ and ‘sit’.
Not going anywhere fast. And
today’s lesson, and also tomorrow’s and every single day of Georgia’s life
after that, we will be working on this lesson, which comes from Genesis 1:26 .
. .
Then God said,
"Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be
masters over all life -- the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the
livestock, wild animals, and small animals."
Thank you, God. I love you so much. You thought of
everything.:)
