My birthday girl

I know I’ve missed some other birthdays and events because I haven’t blogged in a while, but I couldn’t miss Feb 2nd because it’s my puppy’s birthday – and there’s a special bond between a boy and his dog, right? GiGi turns 1 today and OMG has she grown the past year. She’s grown into a 58 lb lap dog, but she’s still all puppy – always wanting to play. I think she’s a bit stubborn too, but my parents say she is nothing compared to how stubborn I am – we’ve agreed to disagree on that one. The one thing that is clear – she’s my dog because she is always wanting to be right near me even if it means being a beanbag hog.

 

It’s a girl….

Yep, after years of having emotional discussions about whether or not we were ready for another mouth to feed…..it would complete our family……the sleepless nights……the joy it would bring……the potty training……and how it would mean I would have to share my parent’s attention……my parents finally concluded the positives outweighed the challenges we could face and decided we could get a puppy!

So then, we had to decide what kind of puppy we wanted. It had to be something we all agreed on. I wanted a little puppy so I could play and cuddle with it and also have it sleep with me — we’ll get to that later. So my dad didn’t want a little dog like a Chihuahua — he wanted a Labrador Retriever like Old Yeller (of course, I think he was hoping for a better ending). Mommy didn’t want a big dog — she wanted a little dog that would have little poops. So here is where I came in and said we should get a medium-sized dog — it’s not rocket science people. So we researched which breeds were good with kids, personable, and easy to train, then we went to the SPCA (Russell H. Perry Animal Care Center) and just picked the prettiest one we saw — research out the window.

We did luck out though because we got a Boxer mix. Mixed with what? Who knows – papa was a rollin’ stone. They think she is most likely mixed with an Australian Shepherd or Australian Cattle Dog because she has a blue eye. The Boxer side of her means she will be very smart, personable, playful, and puppy-like for longer than most dogs. The Aussie side means she will be even smarter, but needs to be challenged mentally or she will create her own little tasks that we may or may not like. Oh, and the Aussie in her means she likes to herd so she has a tendency to nip at our feet when we don’t do what she is wanting.

Remember all of the cute little expectations I had for a puppy — cuddling, playing, sleeping, yadda, yadda, yadda — well, she certainly loves to play, but there is no chance I would let her sleep with me because she uses the bathroom too much. AND it has been raining ever since we got her so she always smells like a wet dog. She also likes to chew a lot even if it’s on me which is natural, but she doesn’t know how sharp her little teeth are so I have to be careful about that. Overall, she’s been a good girl and lots of fun.

Oh and as for how big she will get, we are telling mommy she will be smaller than an average Boxer, but her poop is definitely bigger than a Chihuahua’s.

And now, here’s GiGi — stands for Good Girl, but daddy calls her DD sometimes for Darn Dog (PG version)….

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