My little girl

I talk about the boys quite a bit, but haven't really shared much about my little girl.  

Nah, she's not a daughter in the traditional sense, but she's my furbaby.

After I had Logan, Stuart and I decided we wanted a dog.  Not a puppy - a dog.  We looked at a few different websites, and on Petfinder, we found about 4 dogs we were interested in.  We did a little more research on whether the dog would be a good fit with our family.  A couple of the dogs were given new homes before we could get to them.  We had given up hope, decided to just wait.  We thought that maybe it wasn't the right time.  

I'm gonna let you in on a little secret:  If I'm told something isn't going to happen, but I really want it to happen, I keep looking.  I accept that the timing, finances, and/or practicality isn't right, but what does it hurt to look?

Then I found the most BEAUTIFUL dog.  She was a boxer mix - the breed Stuart and I both loved.  She was brindle, and favored Stuart's dog that he had growing up.  She was good with kids, and had good reviews.  I was SO afraid we wouldn't get to her in time.  She was over 3 hours away.

In e-mailing back and forth, I got to know a little more about Dutchess.  She had been surrendered with another, smaller dog.  The smaller dog was adopted quickly, but she'd been there a while now.  She had a great personality and was really patient.  They were able to take her in the kitten room with them at the shelter and she just sat quietly.  She was fixed, and would be microchipped before she was able to leave the shelter.  

The kicker - if she wasn't adopted by the end of the week, they were going to have to put her down.  She was half price to try to entice someone to take her.  I e-mailed every possible question and BEGGED them please to just hold her until Stuart's day off.  

We got there and took the kids inside.  She walked right up to Logan, who was almost 5 mos and sniffed him and gave him one little kiss.  She played with me and Chase.  She sat.  She was well behaved.  

She was ours.

We have been SO blessed to have this animal in our lives.  I wonder about her background - her past.  I know she has stories in there that I wouldn't believe.  I'll have to write about that another day, though.

She was housebroken.  She was PERFECT with the kids.  Never aggressive with her food or toys.  She still is great with them.  She has a little growl especially for Chase if he's climbing on her or annoying her.  It clearly says, "Please, leave me alone."  She's much nicer about it than I would be.  LOL!  He loves her dearly, and calls her always "Dutchie", never "Dutchess".

Oh, and Stuart says she's MY dog.  Let me show you something:

 This is a picture of "my" dog when Stuart has been gone for a few days.  She's at the loveseat by the front door pouting for him to come home.  The other day she was on the back of the loveseat while I was online with her head on my shoulder pouting because she missed him so much.  Mmmm hmmmm.  My dog.

Today we had such fun.  Stuart was home for a whopping day, so it was tough on all 3 of the "kids" when he left.  We decided to play hide and seek.  Every time it was my turn to hide, though, Dutchess would cheat!  If I hid in the closet, she'd crouch right at the closet door and bark to alert Chase.  If I was behind the door, she was at the door, tipping him off.  It was quite unfair.  

I decided to let her play hide and seek, if that was what she wanted.  I took her orange toy (it's a rubber dog toy that looks like a jack) and hid it.  I'd have her sit and stay in the living room, and then I'd hide it in one of the bedrooms in the back.  She was SO happy to play hide and seek with her toy.  We played two different times today.  She was smiling and so pleased with herself.  There was only one time she couldn't find it.  She was hysterical to watch!  She even thought I'd hidden it on the bookshelf in the boys' room, so she stood up on Logan's bed on her hind legs trying to sniff up there.  It was adorable.

I can't wait until Daddy gets home so that he can see my pretty Dutchie's new game.  :)