A Different Kind of Healing...

Good Evening!

This last week has been full of fun for our family. I have been perusing petfinder.com over the last several weeks, sometimes out of a strong desire to adopt a puppy, other times just because looking at four footed little ones is fun. Last week, I stumbled across a litter of shepherd/lab/retriever mix puppies that happened to be right here in Liberty at the local animal shelter. Uh-oh.

With Brandon's blessing, I showed pictures of the puppies, who had been dumped on the roadside, to the kids. They decided they'd like to go and meet the puppies (big surprise). I talked with them about the responsibilties a puppy brings along with it (I could almost hear my parents delivering the same speech to me when I was a kid), and they both decided they were open to the challenge. Last Tuesday, the kids and I went and looked at the litter. There were five there...two yellow males, one yellow female, and two black and tan females. One of them, in particular, caught our eye. That very evening, we adopted and named Buster, an 8 week old male lab mix. He came home with us on Wednesday afternoon.

The next two nights quickly reminded us why we had originally decided not to get a puppy. Buster whined, scratched, and whimpered in his crate. However, the loud noises and lack of sleep at night was easily made up for by watching the joy in Connor and Kylee's faces as they played with Buster. Wicket, our eight year old mutt, although slightly less enthusiastic about the new addition, has handled it well.

Over the last several evenings, Buster has come to be okay with being in his crate, and is coming out of his shell (which means chewing on everything in sight). He seems quite happy here. It is nice to have something vibrant, cuddly, and adorable in the house for the kids to play with. Now, if only we could convince him to go to the bathroom outside all the time....but really, training a puppy seems a little easier after potty training two children.

It feels good to do something that allows us to move forward. We had put off doing something like this, believing that we just didn't have the time or energy to invest in it. I personally came to the point at which I decided I was tired of waiting...and was tired of asking our kids to wait...for something to bring a new sort of joy into our lives.

We are glad Buster is here.