New Addition to the Family

So some of you might be thinking, what?! you've only been married a little over a month and you already have a dog.. why? Do you know how much money dogs cost, how much time they take, you'll never be able to go anywhere, etc etc. Yes, we do know all this. We have been researching and thinking about it for over a year. It's not like we just saw a puppy and decided to adopt it. Gracie, our current dog and 4 years old, needs a play mate. We were thinking into the future when we decide to have kids. Gracie has been the center of attention for 4 years, she rules the house pretty much. Beside when she comes upstairs and faces Ella Mae (our cat). I (Rachel) was worried about how she would react to a new baby in the house and no longer getting all the attention. I have talked to many couples who have 2 dogs and new babies in the house and have heard nothing but great things about it and how thankful they are to have the 2 dogs so they have each other. I have yet to hear one negative thing about 2 dogs in the house. Remember, we are animal people so of course we are going to love dogs no matter what. If you aren't an animal person, you just can't understand or relate.

Anyways, so our mission was on to find a dog that would have a good temperament and would be good with cats, dogs and children (one day). Robby always wanted a Golden Retriever, and I have always loved them as well. They seem like the typical American family dog. Who can forget the good ole movie Homeward Bound and Chance (the golden retriever) leading the pact. Ok, so we started looking and researching Goldens. We looked at a couple of rescues because they have so many to chose from and different ages. They were all pretty expensive and it was a long process to be able to adopt one. We would rather rescue a golden that was in need. So last week I found the cutest litter on Petfinder.com There were 3 little puppies with the cutest little faces just begging for us to come get them. I immediately emailed the foster parent, thinking they would all be picked over. She emailed me the next day saying they were still available but had a ton of applications on them. I quickly completed an application and had her look it over. She liked our background and said we needed to come out there to look at them quickly or they will be gone. We were so busy this weekend, the only time we could drive out to Conyers, GA was Sunday morning. We headed out bright and early and took Gracie along with us. Of course we would never bring home a puppy if Gracie did not approve. It wasn't that she didn't approve of the puppies when we got there, she just couldn't care less. She was more interested in the new smells and sounds going on. I immediately fell in love, of course, with both of the goldens there. The girl had been adopted the day before so we just had the boy left. Robby and I said we would take him!! Gracie agreed too :) We filled out the paperwork, paid, got him micro-chipped and then attempted to get our 2 dogs into the car. What a funny experience that was. Once we got one in, the other would get out, and it kept going in circles until we were able to get both in the car and shut the doors. I looked at the foster mom and said "And to think, we might be adding children to this circus, oh boy!"

We got home, Robby's parents came over to check out the new pup and help with the naming of him. I wanted Bauer, and if you know me, it's because of Jack Bauer, from 24. My 2nd love. But I guess I didn't win that one.... maybe one day I will have a Bauer. So we ended up with Bentley, I guess it still starts with a B, so its close enough :). I think it fits him. He is super cute and such a good puppy. Only had one accident so far. We are working on crate training him. He did cry a lot last night while in the cage so that is definitely going to take some time getting used to and for him to grow out of that. We didn't necessarily want a puppy, because of all the puppy stuff you have to deal with, we would have preferred a 1yr old or 2yr old dog but it just kind of worked out that we got Bentley and we will get through it. He is so smart so I think we will be able to train him quickly. Gracie is enjoying him so far. She gets annoyed every once in awhile and tends to play a little to rough. She doesn't know her own size so we are having to watch them carefully. We think it will be really good for Gracie once we get them on a routine and used to each other. The walk with both of them tonight was very interesting. Again, something to work on.

Below is a picture of cute little Bentley. He won't be this small for to much longer. Look at his paws!!