Announcing a New Addition to Our Family!

Hello Inspired Friends,

I’ve been away too long again and missing you and this blog. This has been the busiest year for me in the past 15 years of my life, with the wedding and the moving to a new home, new job opportunities, etc. To add to all the newness, we have now added a new member to our little family. He’s a baby and it’s a boy, but not of the human variety yet ;). He’s a little black pug puppy and he is adorable!!

Matt and I have dreamed of having a pug for a very long time (throughout our dating years). When we got a house Matt really wanted a dog. I think he felt a bit left out because we were the only non dog owners out of all our neighbors. We had 3 cats though, one of which was elderly and fussy. I wasn’t living at our house yet either, since we chose to not live together until we were married. I mentioned in a previous blog post that my beloved cat Tawny got very ill and unexpectedly died here at home. I had always told Matt we would think about getting a dog once Tawny was gone, but I didn’t feel ready. We’ve never raised a puppy before and I was already feeling overwhelmed and way behind on things, so I didn’t think I needed to add anything to the pot. Even Mom advised me not to. After Tawny passed I was depressed for quite awhile and a new pet was the last thing on my mind.

However, a serendipitous opportunity to get a pug suddenly popped up. Dad saw an ad in the local Tip Off paper and gave me the number. He said I should check in to it. I wasn’t going to do it. However, I’d dreamed of a pug puppy ( I even had a name picked out) for years, and they are hard to come by in the small town we live in. I never see listings locally for them. So, on a whim, I called to inquire. No plans to get one at all mind you, BUT the man said it was the last litter of pugs he would be breeding. Matt and I had been hoping for a fawn colored boy, but all they had was a little black boy. The man sent me a photo of the little guy via text (next to his fawn colored sister) and it was love at first sight.

Check out this photo. Can you blame me?!

I sat on it a few days, as I was still unsure if the timing was right. I couldn’t get it out of my head. This opportunity ironically popped up not long after Tawny passed and I DID say we wouldn’t get a dog until then. When opportunity knocks, sometimes one has to answer 🙂 . I just got up one day, called the man to see if the little boy was still available, and before I knew it I found myself excitedly awaiting the arrival of a little guy I hadn’t planned on getting.

In so many ways he has been a godsend. He has brought new life and joy to our new little family. He has taken away any blues I had over the loss. Oddly enough, he has given this free bird a more structured daily routine and better productivity as a stay at home wife (since I have to have him on a feeding and potty schedule). With all of the awesomeness he has brought, he has also brought extra work. Which is why I haven’t made time for writing. He in many ways is like having a toddler around. He gets in to EVERYTHING. He chews A LOT. He is potty training currently. He is a hyper high energy little guy (which I wasn’t expecting since pugs have a reputation for being lap dogs). You’d have to watch him in action over here to understand why it is hard to get things done with him, ha! He is a stinker to say the least. Albeit a cute little stinker.

So now we are a family of 4. Matt and I, our little pug baby, my formerly feral rescue cat Fluffy, and her baby Mickey. It is giving us new experiences of team work and “parenting”, even if we are just parents of a very active, quirky pug. In the next blog post I will reveal his very quirky name and the story behind it 😀 .

Until then, Sending lots of love,

Rebekah

P.S. Do you have any puppy training stories to share?