a new puppy

We picked up our new puppy from the animal shelter yesterday. We recently lost our big dogs this past December. And since that time, the deer have been chomping on our landscaping like you wouldn't even believe. They are demolishing it. We've never had a problem with deer even eating our gardens before, and I never realized that it was because our dogs would roam around the property and keep them away. With our beloved property guards no longer here, I was predicting a very dire gardening season up ahead. I was imagining all of our crops being totally destroyed by the deer.

And that's when I started to think that maybe it would be a good thing to get another dog. We have Molly, our inside dog. And I will say that she does a fine job of standing guard at the front windows and scaring away the deer that come to our holly bushes out front. She's been scaring many a deer away with her ferocious bark.

But for this new dog, we were imagining more of a farm dog. One that would watch the property, keep any animals we may have in line.

Our local animal shelter received a litter of lab/spaniel/mountain cur pups so the kids and I went down a couple of times last week. We applied to adopt one of the female pups (affectionately named Sassy by the foster family that raised her as a newborn pup and rightfully so.) We found out on Saturday that we had been approved, so yesterday we drove to the shelter and picked up our brand new puppy.

I'm relieved to say that she seems to be acclimating well to our family. She just wants to be with someone all of the time. And she loves Molly. Sadly, Molly hasn't proved to be as equally loving back, but I suppose that will take time. Molly's been the family's spoiled dog for the last five years, and now she must learn to share her humans with this new, spunky puppy.


I was preparing for the worst last night as far as the amount of sleep I would get, but I was surprised to find that I only had to get up once with her through the night. She started whining around 2:30am. I took her out, she went potty, and then I brought her in and played with her for about 20 minutes. Then she fell asleep on my lap so I put her back in her cage, and she slept until 6:00am. (Sigh of relief.)

And even my hubby, who wasn't sure he was very thrilled with the idea of a new dog, has become rather smitten with our new puppy. She has been following him around, cuddling into him. And I can tell by the tender look in his eyes that he's happy we have her.

And we renamed her. I wasn't keen on the name "Sassy." I mean she sure is a hyper little thing, but Sassy seemed like such a delinquent name. Lol. So we chose the name Midnight, but we've been calling her "Midi" for short, because I do tend to favor shorter names for my dogs.

Right now she must be feeling quite played out because she just fell asleep sprawled across Ian's lap. Adorable. And now Molly feels free to roam about the house without the threat of an inquisitive puppy nipping at her heels.