30 days of beauty: Murphy the wonder dog!

This little guy has warmed our hearts, taught us much in the way of patience & added so much more to our lives. Okay, yes... much of what he added was just more responsibility, and when he was chewing everything in sight whenever we would leave the house he added a whole lot of anxiety and anger. You see, my husband proclaims himself a non-dog person. I understand that he hasn't had much experience with them, but am pretty confident that this one is growing on him. Enter the crate. Ahhhhh, so much better. At least when we leave the house we know that our stuff isn't being destroyed. Actually, Murphy has taken to it as his safe space and enjoys sleeping in it, too. The crate: a life saver. I used to think of it as a cruel doggie jail... no longer. We are careful, of course, not to abuse it. It *is* the greatest tool and has made this puppy loving experience so much better.

After roaming the house, enjoying treats and being tuckered out from some good old fashioned wrestling with the toddler, Murphy plants himself in any of the chairs he deems comfortable in the moment. We tried to keep him off of the people furniture for awhile and then decided that his comfortable happiness was ours, as well... here he is settled into my father-in-law's fabulous pink throne:

Oh, Murphy. You teach us so much and we love you, beautiful mutt. We are savoring puppy time, but do so look forward to a year from now when you are all settled and a bit calmer (though we have no illusions about you being too calm... you are a terrier after all).

Vacation!

Wow, who knew that settling into life with a puppy would prompt a much needed blog break? I knew it would be work, but the break part was unexpected. It's all good though. Murphy is fully comfortable in his new space, Sebastian is very much in love (and treats him as he would any younger sibling - complete with wrestling) and Ben and I are just flowing with the changes. Unfortunately, my break may be extended a tad bit longer. We decided to go spend the Thanksgiving holiday with Ben's mama in the Palm Springs area. Yes, we decided to take the puppy with us. Surely many fantastic photos and a few stories should result from this trip. I'm looking forward to finally having something "worth sharing" to contribute to this space again.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Hot tubs & warm weather, here we come!

It's a BOY!

A few days back I spotted this sweet little Irish Terrier on Petfinder.com. Wasatch Animal Rescue had rescued him from a puppy mill in Missouri and they were looking for a family that might be able to offer him some stability. Benjamin and I had decided that we still wanted to try to find the right dog, but that we weren't in a hurry about it (especially after our less than stellar experience with Jasper a few months back). We thought maybe sometime around Spring... Well, you know how that goes. We put the idea out there and manifested our match. So here he is: our nameless 4 month old cutie. We have narrowed the potential names down to just a few faves and are waiting to see how his personality unfolds.

Of course, being an Irish Terrier, it is only fitting that he bear an Irish name. What do you think? Fergus? Murphy? Finnegan? Clover? We're still open to suggestions... As you can see, Sebastian is in love. He is already covering the poor dog in kissins and huggins. A boy and his dog; perfection.

Our family is happy to finally have a canine friend in the house. Now we are just keeping our fingers crossed that my crazy deaf cat gives him some space and a warm welcome.

***Update: The winning name is MURPHY! We spent the day throwing names around and getting to know him a little bit. This evening we asked Sebastian what he thought the puppy's name should be. Actually, we asked him 3 times to be sure. Each time he answered "Murphy". The first time we asked he looked at us like we were crazy for not knowing; so matter-of-fact. It seems fitting that the boy would name his first real puppy friend. I'm sure going to enjoy watching them grow together.