Families are like fudge, mostly sweet but there's a few nuts...

When I was in grade school, we lived with my grandmother for a few years. She lived down the road from the same school my mom and most of her 11 brothers and sisters went to growing up. My brother was 4 years older so he went to school by himself without his snot-nose little brother tagging along. That was fine by me because I had my own companion to walk me. Our dog Kelly was a Border Collie mix and pretty much the reincarnation of Einstein. Every day he'd walk me to school a couple kms. through traffic lights, over a bridge and passed numerous other dogs, cats and scrambling animals and then, at lunch, he'd come back by himself, get me and walk me home. Twice a day he did this, he was never late, never forgot and never complained.

For whatever reason we moved to an apartment and had to give Kelly away. I had no vote in that decision and was devastated, but I never forgot how great that dog was. I vowed to one day get another Border Collie mix and they'd watch over my kids too. (This was reinforced by an article I read recently about BC mixes being best dogs to own) D and I presently live with 2 cats in our condo, both are rescues. Mojo would be mine and BiBi (aka Scarface) would be hers. Take a guess as to which one is the cuddly genius and which one is basically a rug we feed and clean up after...

Bibi "relaxin"

Mojo "chillaxin"

So when D and I were midway through our courtship I casually let her know that one day we would have a BC mix. The idea was to wait til our kids were 5ish and then find a pup. D has had dogs before but we both knew this condo was no place for a K9 so I shelved the idea but brought it up here and there to ensure it worked it's way in like a bad jingle. Again, D takes the bragging rights when she comes home a couple weeks ago and she found a guy who has BC and Blue Heeler cross puppies 2 hours north of us. This is the kind of thing that makes me love her more. I had no idea she was even scouring the net watching for this. 

Obviously when you're just buying a farm and starting a family, throwing a dog into the mix is just a bad idea. However sometimes if you're going to mix it up in life, you might as well get it all over with at once, especially when it carries with it the trifecta of positive points:

1. This guy up north had a fresh a litter of 11, which is important to me. I like to have a choice of many. I'd do a fancy whistle or kissing sound to see which one responds, runs over and ends up being the lucky winner of our family unit. 
2. His price was reasonable compared to most we've seen around. (see previous post about saving $$) 
3. Because of the puppies birth date, we can't even have the dog til 2 weeks after we move into Keltic Kreek, giving us time to settle in before he/she craps all over the place. 

Short story long, we drove up today and went to find our newest family member. The guy was a nice enough older gentlemen farmer type with ducks running wild and a few cows gnawing the fence line here and there. He had the pups all caged up with the parents watching closely nearby. Overall we were pleased that it didn't seem like a puppy mill but my attempt at an ultra primal link with one specific puppy via whistle or kissing sound went out the door because they were all constantly chewing at my jean pants and growling playfully. We ended up deciding we wanted a male which narrowed our choices from 11 to 3. Next I wanted one that stood out in terms of markings and didn't seem too runty. And if they could look like a pirate or little rascals dog that would be a bonus.

And then there were 5... We are happy to announce, to our 3 readers, the newest member of our family, we pick him up in 4 weeks.
**(Name Withheld for Security/Indecision Reasons)

Future Chicken Wrangler

Life Lesson #112: Children aren't that different from puppies. When it comes to raising good ones, start early, be firm and stay consistent.