How to make Kyle a very happy boy…

Get a dog! Yes, after a month of searching we finally have found a new puppy to add to our family. Her name is currently Ellie (we might change it, but are not sure). She is a 10 month old Cockapoo and is about 12 pounds and such a sweetie!

Her family was building a new house and the home owner's association changed the rules so that they are only allowed to have 2 dogs, so they needed to find another home for her. They had posted a "classified ad" on petfinder.org and luckily choose us. Ellie came from a family with 4 kids under 7 years old so she is used to an active household with kids.

Ellie loves to run (and we luckily have a great backyard) but is also fairly calm indoors. So far she has been really good at coming when called and has not tried to run off. She is definitely still a puppy (she is partially housebroken so we are working a bit on that).

Both Jason and Kyle have really been enjoying getting to know her…especially Kyle. We had actually started looking for a dog as a present for his 7th birthday (February 18th) and I was starting to think that we were not going to find a one or would have to go out of state (we were looking for a miniature poodle mix, around 1-3 years old). But Ellie was nearby in Vienna so we could not have asked for a better match.

So now I get to have flashbacks to what it was like having a newborn…Ellie was up until about 3am last night and then up again around 5am (but I can't really blame her…her owner wound up not getting here until 9:30pm, so I am sure that affected her being able to fall asleep). Hoping that she sleeps a bit better tonight!

She seems to be adjusting well and likes to follow me around from room to room. She is very social. She is basically a little fuzz ball and her black makes her a bit hard to take good photos of, but here is the photo that her owner sent us:

Jason says that she looks a lot cuter in person then in this picture!

She supposedly loves the water and is good in the car (we actually took her with us to PetSmart this evening and she did great). She is also extremely friendly. The cats are not thrilled with her, but right now are just laying low. I am sure that they will just come around to ignoring her. She hasn't paid much attention to the guineas in their cage.

I will say that cats are much easier! (I am very much a cat person, but how can I stay in the way of a boy and his dog? Kyle has wanted a dog for many, many years). And I did know that she would be more work before agreeing to get a dog. Now just to get used to the trips outside…in the cold! But the walks are fun and you have never seen Kyle so motivated! The day before we got her, he insisted on writing out the pet store shopping list and also kept pestering me to help him clean up his room (her crate is currently in his room). He could not wait until this morning to walk her and we had a really nice time with the 3 of us.

Well, off to hopefully get some sleep. Luckily she is looking tired tonight (we ran her around quite a bit!) so wish me luck!