Welcome to the family!

We became parents (for the 2nd time) this weekend:


Our fur-family grew by bringing this precious little boy home. Our 3-year-old chocolate lab has been ready for a chew toy sibling and play mate for a while now. She has grown up around other dogs, as both our respective families have at least 2 dogs.

Mosley is 6 weeks old; we know his momma was a pure-bread beagle, but since she got adventurous one day and wandered through the fence, no one is quite certain who the poppa is.

We had been checking online ads/in the paper since before Christmas-we knew that our next family planning venture would involve adopting another dog-we just weren't sure when and what kind. So yesterday the ad caught our eye--7 beagle mix pups were up for adoption to a good home! We immediately called, left a message and waited patiently for a return call. Minutes ticked by and as we approached an hour, I begged Mook to call again--maybe they were by the phone. He never had to call again, since the phone rang seconds later. There were 3 left, and we were welcome to come by and take a look.

I drove the 40 miles thinking about the pros and cons of brining another dog into our house:

• Puppies are soooooo cute. (they also poop...a lot)
• They want to cuddle all the time! (they want to cuddle all the time)
• We've wanted another dog for a long time (Do we go through puppy training all over again?!)
• Jordan needs a playmate (more teeth to chew through my shoes)
• They sleep a lot (but never when I want to sleep....say around 2am)
  

When we pulled up, there was another couple getting out of their car at the same time. We all walked over to play with the 3 remaining puppies. They seemed nice enough: playing and talking baby-talk, but then she looked right at me and said "We plan on taking 2 home."

This immediately put me on the defensive. We were there to adopt and care for a precious pup just as they were, but what gave her the right to pull rank and put dibs on 2 before I had chance to interact with any of them? As I sat down to play, one wriggled out of her death-grip, tilted his head at me and jumped into my lap. Where he stayed.

She kept glancing over at me, and making comments to her husband "Well, are you sure honeeeeey? That one over there (cutting eyes at me) sure looks cute too." By then, she had made it well known that they had 2 kids at home. Whoop-ee, lady. Of course that leads to the inevitable: "Do you all have kids, because you know that dogs are a lot of work, especially with kids." I put on my southern belle charm and grinned back, "We have another dog, so we know that they are hard work, and since we don't have kids we travel a lot." I made sure to put an emphasis on a lot. Petty, I know--but I had to get a dig in somehow. I didn't waste anymore time chit-chatting, said my thank-you's, and dragged Mook and Mosley back to the car to head home.

The 40 mile trek home didn't seem as long as the one going to get Mo. I wasn't as anxious or fretting about the cons of having another puppy. I was enjoying time with Mook and this precious little pup slumbering in his lap. I looked over to Mook and said, "Hey Poppa." We both gave a strained grin, knowing the double meaning of that statement. So many of the events of yesterday's pet adoption paralleled to the feelings I can imagine going through in another sort of adoption...

Call me crazy, but by adopting another puppy reinforced my belief that if we end up completing our family by adopting the human kind, then we will be one happy family.