Early Christmas Present

Early on in our family Christmas planning, David and I talked about the idea of getting another pet for our family.  I was thinking "cat" but was surprised when David said, " I think we should get a dog."  He thought the kids were getting old enough to handle the responsibilities of walking and cleaning up after it.  In fact, they could use some set, can't-miss-it-even-if-you-want-to responsibilities.  You know, since we don't live on a farm anymore.  Plus, he knew how badly the kids wanted a dog.  I am a dog person, so he didn't have to convince me!  We started looking.

We looked at a few websites and visited a couple animal shelters (secretly of course). I knew that I wanted to adopt an older dog so as to skip the puppy phase (and to help an older dog - they can sit in shelters for a long time because everyone goes for puppies).   But every time I found a dog I liked, it got adopted out from under me.  I mean, I guess that's a good problem to have - lots of people adopting animals, but it was still frustrating.  At one of our shelter visits, I met a coonhound named Wilma.  I LOVED her!  Everything about her face and personality spoke to my soul!  I was pretty sad when she was adopted about three hours after we left the shelter.  But the cool thing was that I knew I loved hounds and I started looking for another.

Well, I found one.  His name was Buddy.  He was being held by an animal rescue in the area.  I called to get more information on him and I learned that he was going to be headed to a local PetCo store for an adoption fair that very afternoon. Guess who was there about 15 minutes early - waiting to meet him?  Me.  That's who!  Oh goodness!  I loved him from first sight!  I hardly needed to think about it - I adopted him on the spot! 

Let me tell you a little bit about Buddy's story.  Buddy's a pure bread Blue Tick Coon Hound.  He is (vet's guess) about 6 years old.  He was living in Grantsville with his family when apparently, they had to move.  They found a seven year old boy walking home from school and said, "Hey.  You want a dog?"  Of course, he was thrilled to get a new dog!  They handed him off to the boy, and drove away.  Buddy wasn't sure what was going on.  The boy got home to his parents and they said, "Um.  We live in a apartment.  We can't have dogs."  So they took him to a shelter.  It happened to be a 100% kill shelter, so Buddy was put on death row. That's when the rescue agency found him.  He was put with a foster family for a while.  They said he was the sweetest dog they'd ever fostered.  He hardly barked (just when he needed to go outside to use the facilities) and that he had recall (which means he'll come back to you when you call him) which is practically unheard of with hounds.  Once their nose hits the ground, they usually lose contact with reality.  He was such a  good boy!  I literally had to guard him from other people at PetCo who wanted to adopt him.

I called David from the road and told him what was coming.  He got all the kids together in the family room and said, "Here's the deal, kids.  Mom's coming home right now and she has a surprise for you.  It's an early Christmas present for the whole family."  They waited for me to get there.  When I walked in with our new dog, there was pure joy in our home!  I wish I could have captured it with a video camera.  Everyone was so thrilled!  Each in their own unique way:

Ali: Had an inkling that this was going to happen.  I guess she walked in on her dad and I when we were looking at dogs on the internet.  She was still perhaps the most thrilled of all the kids.  For days and days afterwards, she'd say, "I can't believe I have a dog!" or if something was going wrong "That stinks!  But at least I have a dog!"  She never complains about walking him - in fact she sometimes offers to do it for other people.

Nic: Loves to spend time one-on-one with Buddy and likes to tell her brothers what to do or not do. She's the least thrilled with the whole thing.  Partly because she really wanted to have her OWN dog, not a family one and partly because it's a lot of work taking care of a pet.  Still, she loves him.

Josh: Couldn't believe that his life long dream had finally come true!  He is the one who would let Buddy sleep on his bed if he wanted to.  He's so in love with him!  Having said that, he's still 9 and sometimes scooping poop and walking the dog in the cold aren't his favorite pass times. 

Bron: Spent the entire first 24 hours following the dog around with his camera and capturing memories of his new pet so he could show everyone he could think of.  He took his camera to church to show his primary class the next day.  He loves Buddy, especially when he lays his head on Bron's lap during family scripture study.

Quin: Knew we were getting a dog.  He'd been coming with us to the shelters.  So it wasn't that new to him, but he still loves Bud.  He always wants to give him treats and let him outside to go potty, etc  He's the only kid who doesn't have to regularly walk the dog, but he wishes he could.  He is also too rough and not always very nice - as most three year olds tend to be - at times.

For the first couple of days, Buddy hardly moved!  I think he was getting used to his new home - and maybe he didn't feel too well.  But seriously, he was like a stuffed animal!  Don't worry - he quickly settled in to his new life and started acting like a dog (garbage cans toppled over, bags of rice strewn about the whole house, etc.)

The first thing we did was set up dog walking partnerships.  Each girl teamed up with a boy. One group walks Buddy in the morning before school.  The second partnership walks him in the afternoon/evening.  We quickly discovered that we had mismatched dog walking styles with our kids and we had to switch partnerships.  But everything seems to be working pretty smoothly on that front now.

All I can say, and I think I speak for at least most of the family, is BEST. CHRISTMAS. PRESENT. EVER!!!