Bringing Home Baby

Here I sit on a cool and bright Wednesday morning at 5:42 AM, with an exhausted husband regretfully schlepping to work, a very jealous 5 year old that needs constant re-assurance and attention, and a new puppy! I can most decidedly take 90% of the responsibility for this committed endeavour, with the other 10% lying with my husband for simply not stopping me...

We went to Home Depot a few weeks ago to get a pot for a palm tree that is quickly outgrowing it's modest housing, and out in front of Pet Smart next door there was a rescue organization with puppies. We decided just to take a quick look, ever present in my mind that a diamond-in-the-rough could be waiting right underneath our noses for us and not willing to loose the right opportunity. We approached a play-pen with 4 Chihuahuas and 1 Yorkie-Poodle mop-of-curly-brown-mess looking puppy in it. The Porkie (sorry, just can't do Yorkie-Poo) and a little caramel colored guy were rolling around ferociously and playing passionately. We asked, we held, we searched our souls to find a place for this sweet dear stray 7 month old mix into our home and into our lives. She had been rescued from the pound just days before her lethal injection and displayed a horrible fear of people. And for whatever reason, having been in this situation many times before and never having even been tempted, we decided to go for it.

So the puppy frenzy ensues, a mess of adoption forms and puppy supply orders, fear and doubt that we are making the right choice, concern for our A-#1 golden-child 5 year old Yorkie and his feelings about the whole thing. But something inside caught us...and she has been home with us for 3 whole days now and is amazing! She is such a dear and sweet thing, so scared and unexposed to civilized life. And so smart!! As I watch this puppy slowly let her guard down and collapse into the heap of exhaustion that has been kept at bay by her constant fight-or-flight survival instincts, I am falling in love.

Now the kind of love I have for the two men in my life is rich and complex, seasoned with experience and deeply bonded. I know this will take a while with her, but she is everything my baby boy is not. He is clean and shiny and entitled and stocky and perfectly behaved. She is so scared of her own shadow it is taking her days to slowly learn to trust us. She is skeleton-skinny and shy and lithe and tired and dirty. There is something about her that is just plain grateful, though. With a fresh shave and clean bill of health we are moving forward to make this her home. But she is damaged. Weary. Not unlike we are. And while she deeply sleeps and constantly eats and potties all over my house, she seems to be fitting in with us just fine.

Thanks for joining,
Leah