A New Family Member

We have a new member in our family. Her name is Benelli. She is short, brown, cute, and doesn't sleep through the night. She's a chocolate lab and she's stolen our hearts. 

Our oldest has wanted a puppy for as long as she could know what it meant to "have a puppy". We stalled as long as we could. Finally, last fall we decided she could get one this spring. She saved up, decided what she wanted, found a breeder and yesterday we brought Miss Benelli home. It was a long night for Kaitlynn as she slept downstairs by the crate Benelli was sleeping in. I'll gauge what I say here carefully because there are so many strong opinions out there when it comes to having pets. Boy, are there opinions. So let's just say my Kaitlynn is excited to have a puppy. It is so much like having a baby. 

This will be quite the journey. In our 20 years of being married, we have not had pets. I'd kind of gotten out of the swing of having pets so this is like starting all over again with not a clue what to do and hoping you do everything right. 

I just realized I don't think I ever finished this post. Must have been the lack of sleep. We've now had Benelli for almost two weeks. She is doing fabulous and she has grown. She's becoming more brave in exploring, faster when she runs (getting a bit harder to catch her), learning commands, helping in the garden and dig for moles, loving to dump out her water, loving her kennel and her toys (especially balls). She's a great puppy. It's a lot of work to ensure you have a well mannered dog, but we are working at it. I'll share a few more pics from this last week. Oh, how funny...it is now almost 5 months and I still never got this posted.

We love our puppy and she is wonderful...sometimes it's a good thing she's so cute because there are days it works in her favor. She's still learning, testing her boundaries and curious as all get out, but she's great. Here are some more recent pictures of her. 

She  has always loved playing with the soccer balls. This is her about a week after we got her. Such a cutie pie.

Someone suggested we get her nose checked...haha...she fell asleep like this. Silly girl.

 Hubby was trying to rake leaves and she wanted to "help"

 She also likes digging in mole holes then sticking her face into the hole.

 She is such a beautiful girl. I love her eyes and her coloring.

 This was just yesterday. I had just got done spraying her with the hose, which she loves. Too bad I didn't wipe her eye goopies. It's amazing how quickly they grow.

With Joy UNquenchable,