Puppy!

 Soooo. I had sworn off ever getting a dog again but then... it's been a year since we re-homed our big dog, Bleu, and it's been really hard on Rose. And I just couldn't take it anymore. But I did a lot of research and did things very different this time with a small dog who wont shed. There's a lot of pros to this that differ from a big retriever. (a few cons like if she's super barky like small dogs can be) but over all, it's so different. We've dog-sat our neighbor's small dog several times this year, once for two weeks straight, and it showed me just how different it really is. I found a breed and breeder and asked a lot of questions and when I went to check out the litter I brought my dog trainer friend Tanya and we observed the puppies for a long time and played with them and watched closely how they did things and the different personalities. And then I bought one of the dogs. I was so scared and worried but I just knew it was right, even if I'm blacklisted in the dog owners world. People don't know the whole story and well, we have to make it work this time, there is no going back! 

So, meet Millie! She'll be about 10 lbs full grown! 

Christmas is too crazy and we wanted to start establishing a schedule and crate training so we didn't wait till Christmas day for the surprise. We even surprised the kids in stages during the morning. And needless to say, everyone was super excited and over the moon. It took me several days to figure out a name and even then I never did settle but the family started calling her Millie and I was taking too long so it just kind of stuck and here we are. And while I knew Rose and June would be so so happy (they are "dog people"), I've been surprised just how excited the other kids are too. Turns out she is a good therapy dog for us all. Even Buck! 

P.S. Our neighbors and good friends ended up going to the breeder a couple days later and got one of her sisters! So now they've been getting to have play dates together and it's the cutest thing.