Ten Years.

Finnegan Lucy joined our family ten years ago. Here is her story.

Excerpted from the Blog archives November 2010

How did we come to welcome this cuddly ball of fur to the family?

The kids had been wanting a dog, which is a universal childhood condition.  At age 6, Jackson orchestrated a family vote on getting a dog By orchestrate I mean in a third-world-country-voting-irregularity kind of way (Jackson held proxies for fictitious family members). Then, in his first (and only) chance to be a guest blogger, Jackson used the platform to talk about getting a dog.

Recently, I blogged about how Husband and I were getting closer to getting a dog, but we needed the kids to be more responsible. Jackson outlined his plans and a Master Plan to behave more responsibly.

Husband and I agreed that we were working toward getting a dog. The ideal time being around spring break in March, which will be 2 weeks and a perfect time to break in a puppy. Or, as it turns out, to have her break us in.

So Husband and I agreed that a good first step was to research breeds, appropriate sizes, places to get puppies. So with almost as much zeal as when Husband was looking for a flat panel TV last Christmas, we began our investigations.  I was pretty set on a poodle-something cross. A smart, good medium sized dog that won’t shed. The non-poodle part part will up the cuteness factor as I find poodles crossed take the cuteness of both breeds.

Sydney and I stumbled onto a show, Pick a Puppy where families meet three breeds of puppies and then choose one. It’s like Househunters for the canine inclined. About the second show we watched, highlighted Maltese puppies. The kids fell hard for the white balls of fluff. Husband and I were not far behind. We were sold.

We decided a Maltese mix would suit us best – perhaps poodle or shih tzu. We looked for what was available on the Internet, mindful to avoid, to the extent you can, puppy mills and unscrupulous breeders. We found a few possibilities but realized Christmas, the best time to invite a puppy into our home, was still six weeks away and we had a few busy weeks ahead. Let’s wait a bit.

But. There is always a but. There was one litter of puppies, that seemed perfect. Mom was a 15 pound Maltese-Shih Tzu. Dad was a 9 pound Maltese. Cute-as-a-button. Husband and I agreed we would pursue this one lead, and if it did not pan out, we would not pursue anything further for a couple weeks.

We heard back from the breeder and they had 5 puppies still available. We liked the idea of seeing a litter and choosing the puppy that most suited us. Monday after school we made an appointment to meet the puppies.

You have no idea what kind of energy FIVE puppies have. They were in kennels when we arrived. There were 2 girls in one crate and 3 boys in the other. I have an irrational preference for girl dogs. I did not really want to live in a world that involved a dog wiener. The girls were released and they ran circles around us. One of them was slightly interested in meeting us, the other wanted only to run as hard and fast as she could. The first one, I thought was a possibility, the puppy-with-too-much-energy fell to the bottom of the list. 

The boy puppies.

After a few minutes, the boys had their turn to meet us. One boy was obviously more assertive, but also very, playful. He had dark grey ears and I was sorely tempted. The other two boys were completely white and both more the shy and cuddly type of puppy.

How do you choose? I could have gone home with any of them at that point. I said to myself “I could totally have a boy puppy, you don’t even notice their boy parts”.

As if reading my mind, one of the shy boys peed in front of me on the carpet. While puppies will be puppies, when I picked him up, pee dripped down the fur around his boy thing.

Girl it was to be.

The boys were put back in their kennel and we examined the girls carefully. I tended toward the smaller of the girls. She seemed a little calmer. But then, as soon as I stated my preference, little miss-too-much-energy climbed into Jackson’s lap.

This was notable. What had been happening during our visit was the puppies were running madly in circles around us. Husband, Sydney and I would grab one as they ran by and would interact with them until they squirmed out of our arms. Jackson would only pet a puppy someone else was holding.

But that little girl, the one who had fallen to the bottom of my list, climbed into Jackson’s lap and sat calmly.

So, she picked us.