Playful Rooted

Did I make it clear enough that the title was a joke and we will no-way-never-ever-not-in-this-lifetime ever have a fourth child? 😉

But we do have a new puppy!!!

Her name is Mocha, and she’s part German Shepherd, part Labrador. A Sheprador! She’s 14 weeks old and we adopted her three weeks ago. She’s feisty and sweet and such a fast learner; she already knows lots of tricks and we are working on more every day.

Now I know what you’re thinking. A puppy, right now? Don’t they have enough on their plates?! And yes, we do, but hear me out.

After Scout and Shiloh both died, our house just felt so empty without a dog. (Can I be honest? I thought I’d be thrilled. No barking. No dog hair all over the floor. But I wasn’t thrilled. It was quiet and weird and sad. And, most shockingly, there was no one to pick up the food the kids dropped on the floor. I had to pick it up. Me. Unsustainable.) We fostered a senior dog from KC Pet Project for a while, and she was very sweet and great with the kids but too aggressive with our neighboring dogs (like she would have busted through the fence and eaten them if given the chance) and too destructive in the house.

After we were finished fostering, I told myself for weeks that we don’t need another dog. Particularly a puppy. We have so much to do every day already. I have zero free time. There was no way we could handle a puppy. You know what puppies are? BABIES. They’re dog babies. We already have a human baby, thank you.

And then.

And then.

I saw this face.

Insert heart eyes/drunk face/hypnotized emojis here. She made me feel every emoji.

I saw that photo on the Wayside Waifs site on Sunday night. They’re not open on Mondays. So I spent the next 36 hours hemming and hawing. We don’t need a puppy. BUT! German Shepherds and Labs are my very favorite dog breeds. What are the odds we would ever find this mix of breeds at a shelter again? (We’re not “buy from a breeder” kind of people.) And as a puppy? And a girl? (I really wanted a girl this time.) And she was soooo cuuuute. But we don’t need a puppy.

Or do we?!

I resolved that on Tuesday morning, I would take the boys to the shelter and we would just see if she was still available. If she was, we would consider it. If she wasn’t, then that was a sign that she wasn’t meant to be ours.

We walked in RIGHT when the adoptions office opened, and it’s a good thing we did because another person who was also interested in Mocha showed up less than five minutes later. I’m always telling Ben that punctuality matters, and look at that. I was right! (I did feel slightly bad for the other person, but guys, we’ve had a really tough year and we deserved a win.)

The adoption coordinator took us back to a neutral location room to meet the puppy, and the second Mocha was brought in, I knew she was ours. She ran up to me and laid right in my lap, then ran around and licked the kids. There was excited puppy tinkle. Shouts of joy and huge smiles. It was essentially a scene from a movie where the family gets a new puppy on Christmas morning.

About fifty seconds into this meeting, the coordinator said, “So, it looks like you’re good then?” YES WE’RE GOOD WHERE DO I SIGN?

The shelter allows you to place a hold on a pet and then bring them home the next day, which Ben had wanted us to do. But Luca begged me to bring her home that day. Plus I wanted to, too. 😉 I texted Ben this photo from the parking lot and said, “Sorry babe. It’s puppy time!” Don’t send a lady and two excited kids to look at a puppy and then expect them not to come home with a puppy. Sheesh.

From the minute we arrived home, it has felt to me like she has always belonged here. She’s so soft and cuddly and sweet and a little bit naughty (as all puppies are). She has the CUTEST little white toes on her back paws and such overall beautiful coloring. I personally love that her body resembles a Lab but her coloring is all Shepherd. She’s going to be a big girl – she’s already a lot bigger than she was three weeks ago – and I’m excited to see the beautiful dog she grows into.

I’ve had so much fun teaching her tricks (this and this are both great YouTube channels for dog training). However, I’ve learned that early spring is truly a terrible time to try to housebreak a puppy! The day we adopted Mocha, it was cold and rainy, and she kept looking at me like, “Uhh yeah….I’m gonna go out there to pee. Right.” We’ve since had some great weather days, but this week has temperatures back in the 30s, so it’s going to be another tricky one for potty training. (This is the best carpet cleaner I’ve found; this is the runner-up; we haven’t used this yet, but once she’s fully trained, we’re going to give all the carpets a nice deep clean with it – it has great reviews, so hopefully it will do the trick!)

Okay, so back to the “Can we really handle a puppy right now?” issue. I’ll be fully honest, it’s a lot of work, what we’ve got going on at the moment. Ben’s extremely busy with his full-time job plus another Master’s program, we’ve got two awesome but needy boys — one of whom I’m kinda-sorta homeschooling at the moment — and one high-maintenance baby, plus all the cooking and cleaning and errands and regular maintenance of everyday life. It’s a lot! But here was my thinking: our house is already a disaster. It’s going to be a disaster for months. Life is a circus right now, but if we just add one more thing to what is already a circus, then in a few months when Mocha is fully potty trained and Luca’s in his school enrichment program and Pria’s a little less needy (hahaha), things will hopefully feel slightly more settled. If we waited until things were more peaceful and then added a puppy, I might have gotten used to the peace and then felt overwhelmed by the stress of a puppy. I know it’s feeble, but this is my best justification, so just go with it, okay?

And how could I possibly say no to this creature??

Welcome to the circus, Mocha! You fit right in.

xo!