Laney!!

We're getting a dog!  

I can hardly believe it, even though it's been 3 weeks since we first met Laney and just one more week until she comes home.  This event has been a long time coming!

While Jason and I were in Mexico we talked a lot about what the present and the future look like for our family.  Jason calls it the sweet spot- we're in a place with no teenagers and no babies.  Our kids are all quite capable and quite fun to have around and to be around.  

We're a happy family and we really are in a sweet spot that isn't going to last forever.  Our sweet babies keep growing up and eventually our time with them in our home will come to an end.

So what's does that mean?  What's next for our family?  For me, one big scary family bucket list item is to have a family pet.  Not just a 22-cent feeder goldfish, an actual pet that we can love and care for.  

All of our experiences with Truman made a dog- specifically a teddy bear (bichon frise/shih tzu mix) dog- an easy choice.  

We want a dog that can curl up in our laps and can run around in the yard, that won't get "sucked up in the vacuum cleaner" but is able to be picked up and moved when necessary.  Teddy bears are great family pets, don't shed and are just so adorable.  Picking the breed was the easy part, committing to taking the leap into pet-ownership was the hard part.

For years I said I wanted to be more removed from our potty training years before I would be willing to take on another round of handling pee and poo from another living creature.  We needed to make sure the dog was coming at a time when we didn't have many travel plans lined up so that we could dedicate time at home to house training and bonding with our puppy before leaving her for any trips.  I also wanted to be coming into summer- not into winter- to make sure we had plenty of time to be outside comfortably with our puppy before holing up for the long winter.  And eventually I realized I wanted to get a dog before I would be home alone with it all day long.  That is going to be my reality in September, so the perfect window was clearly closing up quickly.  

The conversations ramped up a bit- remember the pet campaign back in January?- and one day in the middle of a dog name conversation I suggested that we could get a female dog and name her Laney- a play on the kids initials that we often use- L. A. N. E.  Finding a name that we all loved made our puppy seem just a bit more real.  

One day in February Noah told me he missed Truman so much and asked if he could send him a text.  That text was returned with a picture of Truman and I decided to just ask Truman's mom if she still had his breeder's information...

Long story short, just a few days later we drove the hour to "just look" at her newest puppies on March 2nd and came away having picked out our Laney.  She was just five weeks old when we met her and so tiny- just about the size of a hair little potato- and not ready to leave her mommy just yet, which worked out perfectly because we weren't quite ready to bring her home.  We already had a spring break trip in the works and needed time to prepare a space for her in our home.  She found a place in our hearts right away though!

When we went to Cindy's (the breeder) we had a few criteria in mind- our dog would be a girl so we could name her Laney, she needed to be ready to come home in about a month (not immediately) and everyone needed to agree that she was the right pup for us.  

Walking into a room full of adorable puppies is somewhat of a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we all had so much fun meeting all kinds and ages of adorable little puppies.  

There were waddling little balls of fluff for everyone to pick up and snuggle and squeal over- at one point Emma literally said, "Mommy!!! ... cuuuute!!!"  She couldn't get all of the words out for all of the cuteness that was surrounding her! 

But only one of the puppies met our criteria, and after a lot of snuggles and several "are we really doing this??" looks between Jason and I, we declared that we had found our Laney.  

Everyone was thrilled except Adam, who had fallen in love with Laney's brother, an adorable little guy that snuggled right up to Adam and didn't leave his lap for most of our nearly-two-hour visit. 

 

Adam, our child who has always had a hard time making decisions, had his heart set on this little guy and was pretty sad when we told him that he wasn't coming home with us.  He's super excited about Laney in another way, but my heart still sags a bit that we couldn't bring Laney's brother home with us, too.  Just one dog for us for now!

Eventually we all gave Laney one last snuggle and got back in the car, promising to come back in just 28 days to bring her home.  

Over the next three weeks I had every feeling in the book about bringing a puppy into our family (except regret)- nervousness, shock, joy, delight, worry, a bit of defensiveness about some of the comments from non-pet people, and a whole lot of excitement.  The day we picked her out I took a nap on the couch and woke up in absolute disbelief that we were actually getting a dog.

The same thing happened when I woke up the next morning, and the morning after that, and the morning after that.  Not fear or regret, just shock that this is actually going to happen.  

So we bought her a crate and a bed and a leash and a collar and potty bells and a brush and shampoo and dog food and a have been debating for weeks over what kind of dog tags we should get for her.  The kids and I went to PetSmart one afternoon and pored over all of the choices of toys and food and beds and leashes- it is a whole other world that we are just starting to dip a toe (or a paw) into.  

I was hesitant to share our news at first, not unlike my feelings about sharing each of my pregnancies.  I like having a secret to hold onto for a bit, and it's easier to process events and emotions when you're not fielding other people's opinions.  So somewhat selectively we started sharing the news- with our dog-loving family members first, then everyone else in turn.  And it's been exciting and fun news to share!  

We're so excited that we made another two-hour round trip visit to see her just yesterday.  With just nine days to go until she comes home, she's looking quite a bit more grownup and just as adorable as we remembered.

 She has deliciously long eyelashes and a thick coat of puppy fur, the cutest little button nose, and bright blue, alert eyes.   

I was relieve to see that it was easy to pick out her sweet white a caramel colored fur from her puppy mates.  

The kids and I had a great time snuggling her, letting her and her buddies climb all over her bed in hopes of catching some scents of home to take with us, and playing with all of the other pups that aren't coming home with us.  

I asked Cindy about 145 questions about caring for our new family member and she kindly assured me that having a puppy is a whole lot like having a baby in the house.  Not that that means it will be easy, but I've done it before and after talking with her I felt more confident that I'll be just fine in doing it again.  

And the love that we all have for her already is surely helping.

Laney has been in every family prayer, story told at school, and conversation in our home since.  She's already a very real part of our family, and I really do think we've decided to get a dog at just the right time for our family.

One day Jason came home from work, looked around and said, "I wish Laney was here." 

Emma can't seem to remember that Laney is a girl, and frequently refers to her as "him" or "he".  It's funny and I know it won't last forever, but we have to keep reminding her that Laney is girl.

Noah likes to talk about how funny it would be if Laney could fly, and Adam likes to talk about the day when she'll be able to snuggle up with him in his bed.  There was a big storm one night and Adam said he wasn't scared because he just thought about snuggling up with Laney.

In French class, Leah was thrilled to get to translate, "I have a dog and her name is Laney."  

Laney has already brought so much happiness to our family.  I want to remember this on the days when she's not quite house trained, when she's digging through the trash or when she eats a very important LEGO piece.  

We decided to get a dog so that our family could experience joy, love, responsibility, and fun!  We really can't wait to bring our little Laney Bear home!