So Sweet!

Molly is almost 13 weeks old. She has been in our family for a month now,although it seems like forever! It is so nice to have a dog again. We only went for 3 months without one but I have to say those 3 months were very lonely. It is amazing the joy a dog brings to a family. She is already a family member,one that I am treating like the daughter I never had. She loves being outside and she loves the water. We have a kiddie pool in the backyard for her and she loves to splash around in the pool. I also can see the little bit of Labrador Retriever in her,she loves to chase birds. The other day she actually stopped and pointed,just like a retriever! She is very smart and learns quickly. She already can sit and stay,go to house,and we are working on come and leave it. The potty training is going well as long as we remember to take her outside often. We are going to start teaching her how to ring her bells to let us know she has to go out. She is so cute and I wish she would stay like this forever. But,she is growing so quickly and pretty soon she will be a big dog. I'm sure she will still be a cute big dog but I just love the size of her and her cute puppy face.

Busy,Busy week!

There is a reason I don't blog,because I don't. A true blogger writes everyday. Obviously,it has been over a week since we brought Molly home. Molly is very comfortable now. Her true personality is beginning to come out. Most of the time she is pretty laid back. She sleeps much of the day. She has been staying in her cage at night from 11:00-6 in the morning. She only went potty in her cage on the first night here and has not gone it it since. After I let her out in the morning she wants to PLAY! She is pretty wound up and rambunctious. So I spend some time playing with her until it is time to eat. She eats at 6:30 and then we go outside for a while. For the first hour or so she is very playful. Eventually she finds a place to lay down and nap. Molly LOVES being outside. We have a pretty big backyard and at first she did not go very far. She has become super comfortable and will venture to the very back and sometimes work her way around the house to the front. If you go after her sometimes she thinks it's a game and will run away from you. SHe likes to find a shady spot and just lay in the grass. She also loves her little pool we got for her. At first she was not so sure but now she will go in it on her own and splash around. The problem with that is that she doesn't know the difference between her pool and her water bowl. I caught her playing in her water bowl more than once. This is why I am not a blogger,I'm done writing now. This has exhausted me. More to come later,I suppose.

The first 24

The first 24 hours went great! Molly slept in her crate (house) all night. I think she was up at 5:30 am. Andy was with her so he got up and let her out. Everyone was up early to play with Molly. She had her first appointment with the vet at 9:00. The whole family went with her for her first visit. This is a new vet we are using. I never really liked the one that Andy took Zack to so I decided to ask around and see where all of my dog loving friends go. We ended up in Dexter at Village Animal Clinic and I love the feeling there already. I really liked the vet we saw today. Molly weighed (almost) 11 pounds! 2 weeks ago when I met her she only weighed 5 pounds. I could tell when I saw her yesterday that she was a little chunkier. I guess so! She did not get any shots today. We will go back in a week to get her shots and to get her micro chipped. I guess we don't want to scare her on her first visit to the vet. Because it was SO HOT today,we stayed inside the air conditioned house all day. The only time we went out was to let Molly go "potty". She popped 3 times and went pee every time we took her out. She really wants to get in my garden and we have to shoo her out every time. We've had no problem with deer or rabbits (go figure) but we might have to put a fence around it because of our dog! After we returned from the vet appointment,Molly slept away most of the day. She would wake up for very short periods of time and slept for longer periods of time. I think the kids were worried about her because she was sleeping so much. I had to explain that they are like newborn babies and anything and everything they do requires so much energy. Plus,when she was up she played hard with the kids. Also,yesterday was a very busy day for her so I am sure the stress of a new home really wore her out. She is in her "house" sleeping right now. She only barked for about 10 minutes and I bet she is out cold now. Hopefully she will catch up on her sleep and she will start to settle into a routine with us. Pictures to follow soon.....

It's Official!

Molly came home with us today,she's ours. We were on vacation for the week and to say that the kids (and I) were in anticipation all week,waiting for this day,would be an understatement. We did manage to have a great time but not a day went by that we did not mention Molly. I woke up today much earlier than I had all vacation. Most of the week I slept until 9:00 (one day until 10:00) but today I was up at 6:00 am. I was packed and ready to go by 8:00. We finally got on the road about 10:30,stopped for lunch and arrived at our destination by 2:00. The kids were so excited to get her and Blake was even more excited because he had never met her. Since Colin had to chance to meet her when she was 6 weeks old the agreement was that Blake would be able to hold her for most of the ride home (2 hours.)We stopped twice,once for gas and once because I had to go. Both times Molly drank water and went potty. (It was 100 degrees today,by the way.) The rest of the time she slept in the car,on Blake's lap. HE was in heaven and Colin was a little jealous but handled it well. When we got home we walked her around the yard to let her check out her new yard. We took her inside to check that out and she was very curious and happy,just wagging her tail the whole time. We never left her and the kids just loved playing with her. She loves to follow you around when you walk to another room so you have to be careful if you leave to go somewhere else in the house. Sometimes you don't realize she is right at your heals. I had a hard time getting the kids to bed tonight and now Andy has fallen asleep next to the dog kennel. Molly is sleeping peacefully and I think I'll just let Andy stay put so he can get up with her if she needs to go out. By the way,Andy usually falls asleep in the basement in front of the nicer TV. Tonight he just happens to be upstairs,in the family room with the old TV.

Awaiting Molly's arrival

We went to Grand Rapids this week to meet Molly. She is 6 weeks old and we get to bring her home in 2 weeks. Unfortunately,Andy and Blake did not get to meet Molly because they were held up on a camping trip up north. So Colin and I met her. She is so cute,and very active. Now,we are so excited to get her and can't wait to have her home. The boys and I have done a little shopping this week. We have Molly's collar and leash,a few toys,a dog tag,and a few of Zack's things. We are using Zack's water/food bowls and a few toys that we still had plus his dog crate. We bought a kiddie pool for Molly to play in the water. I can't wait to see her in that!

Another blog....

On April 16,2012 we put our 14.5 year old black lab down. It was the hardest thing I've done and on my birthday to make it even worse. Zack was my engagement ring. Andy was too nervous to get a ring for me (in case I didn't like it) so he got me a 6 week old black lab and we picked the ring out together later. Zack was also our first "baby",and he certainly was treated that way. Zack was about 5 when our first son,Blake was born. Our kids have known Zack their whole life. It has been so difficult without Zack. We miss him so much and still talk about him almost every day. When we started talking about another dog (almost right away) Andy was not ready. He wanted to wait until next summer to get a puppy. The kids and I were ok with ANY dog but we did not want to wait until next summer. After much discussion we decided we should get a labradoodle because of Colin's allergies. I started doing research. I found a couple of breeders with available puppies. However,I was drawn to only ONE puppy,Molly. I found Molly at www.elegantpuppies.com and she was available July 2. Perfect,since we would be coming home from our vacation July 6. I finally called the breeder. I felt so confident talking to Laurie about her dogs. She knew what she was doing,it was obvious. Even though Laurie was going to send me more pictures and a video so I could see Molly and make a decision,I put the deposit down before Laurie sent me the pictures and video. When we got the video,we all fell in love with Molly.