We Got a Dog! :)

Meet Luna.

She is OUR dog! :) I can't believe I can say that! I never thought this day would come...it's a dream come true! 

Seriously....Jake is NOT a dog person. He was avidly against the idea for years. His only dog growing up was a mangy mutt whom he didn't bond with, apparently, so he didn't have the same love for dogs that I do. Ever since I was born, our family had a dog. First Chelsea the miniature poodle, then Tobi the cute German shepherd mutt, then Abbi the blonde chihuahua mutt, and then Phoebe, our yellow lab. Dogs just make a family complete in my eyes. So when I got married to a non-dog lover, I knew it would take some work to wear him down. :) And some kids to soften him up. Cami worked on him pretty religiously, especially in the past year. She begged and begged, wrote letters, asked Santa, pooled her money, cried, pleaded her case, and finally...FINALLY...Jake's heart softened to the idea a little. But he still wasn't sure of the expense, the work, the mess, and the responsibility. He said to wait until after our vacations at the beginning of this year were over, and then he would think about it. 

Lo and behold, after we got home from our cruise, he started looking at dogs online. He looked up Humane Society dogs for adoption, and wanted to even go visit and see them in person. I started looking on KSL classifieds at dogs for sale. We also invited a nice lady in our ward over to our house- the Dog Expert, we call her- to tell us how to go about looking for a dog. This was on Feb. 20th. She gave us lots of good info and asked us why we wanted a dog and what we were looking for- a dog to add joy and fulness to our family, who is good with kids, and not too much work or mess. :) If such a dog exists. 

We went to the humane society because Jake found a cute mutt named Bashful he wanted to meet. But when we got there, she wasn't there, and apparently was at a Petco on the other side of town. He was bummed that we missed her, but we said we'd keep looking. That week, I found an ad on KSL for a cute black dog for sale, and I texted to ask about her. The owner said she was 14 months, black lab/beagle mix, really good with kids, and her name was Luna. When I went to look at the ad again the next day to show Jake, it was nowhere to be found. When I asked if she had already sold, the owner said she had pulled the ad because she was having second thoughts and that it was really hard. :( I told her I totally understood! 

So imagine my surprise and delight when she texted me a few days later, asking if I was still interested because they were going through with it. I said uhh sure, we'll come look at her! I told Jake that we were going to meet a dog the next night in Eagle Mountain, which is a good 45 minute drive away. He said ok, whatever (I'm glad he was compliant...just wasn't super excited about it). Soooo we got to this nice new neighborhood, found their nice big new house, knocked on the door, and heard a little barking doggie inside. As soon as they opened the door, this little black wiggly pup came bouncing forward to meet us, the barking stopped, and licking and tail wagging commenced. She was sooo long! I said "Wow, she's got some wiener dog in her!"

Good things I noticed: The house was beautiful and clean, it smelled really nice from a candle warmer, and the family was adorable with 3 little girls. Little Luna was super sweet and soft with shiney black fur, and she smelled really good! We sat down on the couch in their living room, and she came and sat right at our feet and let us pet her and pet her. Lexi was SO excited, and giddy, and let Luna lick her hands.

Cami was more nervous, like she is around new dogs, but she sat on the couch and watched Luna, and assessed her from afar. :) They put on her harness so we could see how she did with it.

We went outside in the backyard, and while all the little girls had a blast together on the swingset, we played Fetch with Luna and talked to her parents about her. They showed us her doghouse, and said that she came with everything- kennel, beds, blankets, toys, food, leashes, supplies...all for $200. They were really sad to let her go, but they want to have another baby, and couldn't give their attention to both. They got Luna as a puppy from the "Puppy Barn" in Utah County, named her Luna because she's black and it means Moon. (And they also liked that name because there's a My Little Pony named Luna).and trained her really really well. She uses poochie bells on the door to nudge her nose and ring the bells when she needs to go out to go potty. She comes when called, stays off furniture, does tricks like sit and stay, sleeps all night in her kennel, is spayed, up to date with all her shots, is great with kids, etc.!

We were sold! We just didn't have any money on us! Haha. So we ran to an ATM and got out cash, and let them say their goodbyes while we were gone. Jake had fallen in love with her, as had the girls, and I was like whoa, are we really doing this? We're taking home a dog tonight?? It all seemed so sudden and huge. I'm not good at making big decisions. :) But we went ahead and said ok, let's do it! I almost cried for the family when they had to say goodbye to her, thinking "They're crazy! Why would they ever let her go?" She excitedly jumped into our van after we had loaded all her things in, and we said goodbye and were on our way home with our new puppy!!

The girls kept saying, "I can't believe this is our dog! Is she really going to live at our house??" She sat in my lap on the way home, and kept shaking like she was nervous and knew a big change was happening. We also forgot the poochie bells, so we had to wait in a parking lot while the previous owner drove them out to us since she'd trained Luna on them and really wanted her to have them. They were so sweet- we couldn't have asked for a better family to get our dog from. Cami was over the moon, and slowly getting more comfortable and brave with Luna when we got home.

Just look at that ecstatic face! :) She got her longtime wish! Dreams really do come true!

It was really surreal having a little animal running around our house all of a sudden. This would take some getting used to!

Kisses for Cami. Awww BFF's already.

That first night, Luna barked at Jake a bit because she wasn't so sure about him- this big, looming man on the stairs. He had to earn her trust over the next day or so, but he did! Lexi is just crazy boisterous Lexi, and treats Luna like a little sister. I had to train Lexi more than Luna! Haha...on how to act and treat her, not to grab her tail or legs, not to smother her, etc. Ohh Lex. We had fun going through Luna's box of things, finding this cute t-shirt sweater and trying it on her.

She looks thrillllled.

Total wiener dog! (And lab). No beagle, no way. Sorry pet hospital who put her as a beagle on her papers. Yeah right!

She loooooves belly rubs...(what dog doesn't??)

And we got her acquainted with the backyard, and where to poop, and played fetch with her. She's really good at bringing the ball back and dropping it at your feet. She'll even stay after you throw the ball until you tell her to go get it!

Cami felt SO lucky to be able to go to school that Friday morning and tell her class that she FINALLY got a dog! The week before her 7th birthday...Perfect!

Luna doesn't like riding on the floor of the van- the vibrations make her nervous and she whines :), so she likes to sit on the girls' laps! Luckily she's not too big to be able to do so. After Cami got home from school, we took Luna to the trail by our house and took Luna on our first walk!

She uses a harness because she's very strong and fast, and loves to pull! We're trying to work on that...getting her to walk beside instead of lead. Right now while she's an energetic young pup, I think she'll mostly lead. We all got great exercise, and the girls loved riding beside their new dog! Aww look at that face.

Dachshund at its finest! Looooong and skinny!

And then I love when she curls up in a little ball.

She settled right in and quickly became part of our family. I could tell, in the first couple of days, that she missed her other family and was a little anxious. But she did great, and followed all the rules and loves going outside when she's not sitting at our feet. Her dog house is outside, although she doesn't pay a bit of attention to it. At least it's cute!

This was so sweet...on Sunday when Jake left for his meeting, Luna whined and laid by the door, waiting for him to come home.

Lexi is a good tug-of-war partner for Luna!

And a good riding buddy, although she looks huge on Lexi!

We sure do feel so blessed to have this little lady in our family now. I love that my girls have another "sibling" to love and play with, and I love the joy and companionship she brings me and Jake.

Haha she's super patient, very well-mannered and good tempered, and puts up with just about anything!

She also has a sense of humor, and loves to lay right in the middle of our games. :)

Oh and she does have a little spunky side, too, like the week after we got her when she did her first naughty thing. She hid under the girls' bunkbed and chewed up their train whistle and wooden snake. Whaaaa? I don't blame her, though, because we took away all her chew toys. Her rope fell apart, and then we were worried about her bone, so poor little pup was left with nothing else to chew on in her first anxious week in a new home. It was pretty funny when I put her in her kennel to go to bed, laid down in my own bed and was almost asleep when I heard her door squeak open, toenails clicking on the kitchen floor down the hallway to the sleeping girls' room, and then crunching sounds. Incredulously, I got out of bed and went down there, and out she came, sheepish and sly, wagging her tail and acting playful. I found the evidence of her sneakiness the next day, and had to do a dog shaming picture. All in good fun. :) I love the wood speck on her nose, and the little wooden snake bits.

Thankfully, this was the only incident! She got new chew toys to play with, and has been an awesome pup with no accidents and lots of love to give! We lucked out, for sure. Love my little Luna Lou...she's been with us for a month and a half now, and I couldn't imagine life without her!