New Year, New Puppy

Welcome to the family Ajax!  

On the second day of the new year, we were excited to bring home our new puppy.  Ajax is a 4-month-old, 45 pound, phantom Bernadoodle puppy.  The kids (and mama!) have been wanting a second dog, several kids were especially wanting a large dog - Ajax is a gentle giant and will likely reach 90 pounds full grown.  He's a big boy!  

Midas, our 2-year-old goldendoodle, has adjusted incredibly well to his doggy brother.  Our King Midas with the Golden Touch and Ajax the Great (from the Illiad) a fast becoming buddies, and the kids are loving having another snuggle puppy to love on. 

Happy New Year!

Puppy Kisses

Midas is 7 months old ;) 

 

He has a super cute summer haircut but doesn't pose well for pictures . . . 

Although he is very good a giving puppy kisses!

Midas (9 weeks)

9.5 pounds :)

Midas

 

We have a new puppy in our family!

Welcome Midas, our 8-week-old mini goldendoodle.   

Midas was the most hoped for and best Christmas gift ever.  Midas wasn't under our tree Christmas morning, but a picture of him was - the kids were so excited to learn a dog would be joining our family in just a few weeks. 

After lots of suggestions and lots of debate, we settled on the name Midas - from Greek Mythology:  King Midas and the Golden Touch - a fitting name for our golden boy.   

Just two days home, he's the sweetest boy :)

(*Midas is expected to grow to 30-35 pounds)

Kota

We very unexpectedly lost our sweet Kota Monday afternoon, October 7th.

She had been an awesome dog for our family for 14 months - not nearly long enough.
Kota, a German Shepherd, joined our family as a young puppy just after our "Dakota" trip last summer.

14 months ago, Kota was a roly-poly snuggle puppy.  She quickly grew into a high-energy pup - chasing her tail non-stop, tearing off branches from our backyard bushes, and occasionally running out of the yard - oops!  As she matured, her energy mellowed (slightly), she was house trained and yard trained (she was amazing at staying in the yard!), and she was once again a sweet snuggle dog with a super cute personality.

Kota loved to be with us, usually sleeping at our feet in the kitchen or joining us on the sofas.  She was super patient and tender with highly affectionate little kids.  She went crazy playing her favorite game of chase and would fetch balls (and rocks).  She was an eager leash walker (pulling), but always walked well with Hiwot or Tesfaye.  She hardly barked, excitedly greeted visitors, licked hands (and faces), would lie down under the table during meals, loved being outside, and learned basic commands (sit, down, stay, come).  Kota loved sneaking upstairs or downstairs to jump on beds and cover the kids in puppy kisses.

She was a great dog.

Her death was extremely unexpected - we're still in shock.  Kota had been sick a few days earlier but we had no indication her condition was so serious - she never made it to her vet appointment.  We don't know what happened.
She was so sweet and especially snugly her last few days with us.  We will remember her fondly. 

Kota

A sweet German Shepherd puppy joined our family at 8 weeks old, and her name is Kota.  Prepping for her arrival, the kids created a list of names options and voted on the chalkboard.  Following our dog name tradition of place names, Kota's name is in memory of our recent Dakotas trip.  (Other options were "Dora" from Medora, ND, "Georgia" for Addy's birth state, and Maclaren's pick: "Patty" for the Bison patties we saw on our recent trip).   

Kota's spunky and snugly and super fuzzy and so sweet.  

We were careful introducing Kota to Layla - Layla is a shy dog, so we were thrilled she accepted Kota so quickly and has stepped into the mother role just as we had hoped.  

The kids are excited to work with this new puppy, training and socializing her carefully.  Kota has been sleeping in Hendrick and Tesfaye's room and the kids are all stepping up to help with the house training and clean up.  We have high hopes for this little, soon to be big, pup.  Her official training starts next month! 

Doggy!

Dabney's current favorite:  Layla (!)

She squeals and giggles with delight when Layla's in sight - "La-la!" - and crawls around after her.  Dabney loves to get puppy kisses, eagerly sticking her hands in Layla's face.  Layla is so good, accepting Dabney's enthusiastic affections and patiently licking fingers. 

I'm sensing the start of a very special relationship :)

(Layla is mostly inside with us, but she does love to run and explore outside.  She barks at the door when she wants to go out, and comes to the deck door to wait to be let back in.)

Layla at Home

Our sweet Layla has been home with us for over a week and transitioning beautifully.  She seems to be a perfect fit for our family.

Layla arrived a little shy but is blossoming at home.  As far as we know, this is the first home this beautiful girl has ever had - we're leading her through lots of "firsts".
While she was kennel trained at her shelter, house training is a whole new ballgame.  But after a week, she seems right at home: going up and down stairs with ease, sleeping at the foot of our bed, and pottying outside.  We have set up a wireless invisible fence and she is enjoying the freedom of an acre of run space.  We've seen both "collie" and "hound" sides come at as she sniffs and chases squirrels and herds the kids.  She's still a bit jumpy around new sounds, and a little scared of the TV, but she's calmed significantly.

She is extremely affectionate and very generous with her puppy kisses: licking the kids faces, fingers, and toes.  This past week, while our household was battling illness, she rarely left the side of our sick kids.

Layla is a treasure.  

She is the family dog we had been hoping for: snugly and sweet. 

Layla

Adoption has grown our family!  We are thrilled to have a new 4-legged friend in our home.

Please, allow us to introduce "Layla."  Layla is a super sweet 36-pound, nearly 2-year-old Foxhound/Smooth Collie mix who has joined our family via adoption from a local animal rescue.  We knew she was ours when she started "puppy kissing" all of us.

We have always given our dogs place names with some significant meaning to us.  We named this pup "Layla" as a tribute to the orphanage home of Hiwot and Tesfaye.  Layla is an Arabic name meaning "dark beauty" - it seems to fit her. 

We're smitten :)

Banks - moving on

A week before Christmas, we made the tough decision to send Banks back to his breeder, who (thankfully) is really excited to have this handsome boy back.  

We miss him.  We had high hopes for Banks.    

We still want a dog.  We love dogs.  We dream of having a dog that can walk the neighborhood with us, run and play with the kids in the yard, curl up at our feet while we're reading stories, snuggle and wrestle with the kids, sleep in their bedrooms, and allow us to pet him . . . unfortunately, after a year of trying, we've realized Banks will never be that dog. 

Banks is a sweetheart, but is overly energetic.  He was never able to calm down enough to allow us to pet him, or let him loose in the house: he responded to any touch with a strong desire to jump, wrestle, and mouth, knocking down kids and causing bruising.  He wasn't never aggressive, just energetic.  An energetic dog was not a good fit for our energetic household.  He also had a strong desire to run.  At any opportunity, he'd take off running despite our attempts at yard training.  At 85+ lbs he was too much for our children to handle, dragging kids across the yard by the leash.  The last straw was when he took off after the UPS truck: the kids found him a few streets away.  We really tried with him, working with a trainer for 8 weeks and seeking lots of help during our first year together.   Banks tried too.  It just wasn't a good fit.    

Banks is now living far out in the country on large piece of land with several other German Shepherds.  One day, he may even become a stud dog.  I think this new life will be a much better fit for our handsome boy. 

I wish it had worked out for us.  He was our family dog.  We certainly wish him the best.