Our newest family member

You know me... I gotta tell the LONG version. So, here's the story.

Alex is a total animal lover. I wanted to surprise him on Christmas Day with a couple of gerbils. I had done the research and I knew that they would make good pets. They would give Alex something to play with, something to be responsible for... and apparently, they would be something for Indy to EAT if they were ever out of their cage when Indy was in the house. That was Jeff's response to my fabulous idea. His alternative was a puppy. I thought he was kind of kidding, but I wasn't opposed to the idea.

We talked more and more about it and Jeff decided to let Alex in on the idea so he could pick out his own puppy. Alex was beyond thrilled! He did the research and decided on a golden retriever. By this time, I was just as excited as Alex about it, so I began searching for breeders online. We found some 6-week old purebred golden retriever puppies just 3 miles away from us! It must be fate. The boys and I went to look at them and they were SOOOO cute!!! Nine little puppies running all over the place... playing, licking, tumbling, investigating, chasing. We knew we wanted a male, so we did our best to pick out the best male of the litter. We still had to talk to Jeff about it, so we sadly left the puppies. That night, we were still wild with excitement about the puppies. We convinced Jeff that he MUST come take a look. When he saw the way Alex's face lit up around those puppies, he was done. We talked to the breeder for quite some time about the puppies and his dogs. We didn't intend on coming home with a puppy that same night, but that's what ended up happening!

During the ride home, Alex named his new best friend... Cody. When we got home, we took great care to introduce Cody to Indy. Indy has been very good about having this new little critter in the house. Cody knows now that Indy doesn't like him taking his bone away (even though the bone was actually Cody's to start with!). Cody knows that Indy will tolerate him following him around (while Cody wags his tail like crazy), but if he invades Indy's personal space, he'll get nipped. Cody also knows that Indy is very likely to get up and move if Cody decides to lay down next to him. It's quite funny to watch them interact. I think they'll be buddies in no time and Indy will appreciate having the feisty little puppy around to keep him active.

So, that's the story of our adorable new family member. He is worth the middle of the night potty breaks and accidents on the carpet. Those will go away in time. The memories we are making with this little puppy and the impact he has already made on Alex will last a lifetime!!!