I wrote my last post insanely excited about all of the delicious treats I devoured throughout the workday, and in anticipation of the ridiculous amount of food I was planning to eat at my birthday dinner that evening. THEN, Dan picked me up at work, I talked his ear off about my day... and next thing you know I realized we were parking in the lot of the Anti-Cruelty Society. You see, on top of dreaming about throw pillows and trendy jewelry, I'd spent a lot of the last few months telling Dan that all I really wanted was a puppy for my birthday. And, because he's amazing and wonderful and all those good things... he got me one. (Insert me squealing here).
Now, it would have been far too simple for us to have found a puppy at the Anti-Cruelty Society right off the bat on my birthday Thursday. While I did (of course) instantly fall in love with one, he just wasn't right for us... and our crazy whirlwind puppy search began. Since Thursday, we've driven HOURS upon hours checking out nearly every shelter and humane society within 50 miles of Chicago, spent part of our afternoon today walking the streets of Bucktown for an adoption event, drove to towns I'd never even heard of (Shorewood anyone?), and chatted with employees at half a dozen Petco's. In the end, always-trusty craigslist saved the day when I spotted an ad for a litter of lab-mix puppies in Chicago Heights that just became available for adoption yesterday! With Manda and our garage sale dog crate ($10!!) in the backseat we drove the hour out to the South Suburban Humane Society, and within minutes we were faced with 7 adorable puppies to choose from! The age was right (I wanted a young puppy that we can train), the size was great (they're expecting our pick to be around 50-60 pounds), there were 4 boys (we wanted a male), and they were all absolutely PRECIOUS (of course I wanted a super cute one). We took two of them out, agreed that one was perfect for us, and after an application and interview process, we were the proud owners of "Brian", the newest member of our family and 9-oh-6!
Isn't he adorable?!?!?!?
Rightfully terrified, the puppies were timid and quiet - they don't even know how to walk on a leash yet! I'm anxious to get our little guy home tomorrow evening and give him some time to adjust to his new home, and I can't wait for his personality to start showing through as we take walks and play games with him in the yard. Most importantly for me right now is settling on a name for him... so far nothing seems just right, but I'm sure we'll think of something as we spend a little time with "Brian" tomorrow night.
The best part of all? My dad has been thinking about getting a puppy for quite some time now, and if all goes as planned he and Manda will be driving back out to the center to adopt one of "Brian's" brothers tomorrow! In all of our hunting around I've also done a TON of reading, and loved an article I read about two different people adopting puppies from the same litter and getting together with them over the years to maintain a relationship between the dogs. How great would it be to have our puppy's brother right over at my dad's?!?
Lots more pictures to come when we get our puppy home! For now, a big, huge, sappy, loving THANK YOU to Dan for being incredibly generous and surprising me with such an amazing birthday gift. I love you!
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