Our new dog Sweety has been with us for 2 whole weeks now. She is absolutely perfect for our family and for our other dog Weenie. She is much smaller then Pooh Bear was but she's a little bit bigger than Weenie. She is about 35 lbs. She is a 4 year old black and white terrier mix and she's got a cute little curly tail. She has the sweetest personally and she is so sweet and loving with the boys.
I saw her on a rescue sight when I first started looking at dogs but I didn't think Gunner would be all that interested because he kept saying that he wasn't ready to love a new dog yet. Weenie, ever since Pooh Bear passed, had horrible separation anxiety to the point that I couldn't leave him home alone for even the hour ot takes me to drop off and pick up the boys at school. So I just started taking him with us in the car. That started out being good. He's just a mini doxie so it's not like he takes up a bunch of room. I would just stick him in his dog bed on the front seat. But as the weeks went on he started to freak out during the 5 minutes that I left him in the car to walk Rando up to preschool. Even if KJ sat in the car with him while I walked Rando to the door he would just howl and yelp and make such a big show thay everyone had to come and look in on him to see of he was okay and then with people looking at him he'd freak out all the more and start barking and howling and it was just awful and very embarrassing!
Gunner didn't have to deal with it so he had no idea what I was going through every day. Well one day it was raining so Gunner was home from work and I said "if you wouldn't mind I'd like to run and do my grocery shopping now before all the kids are out of school. Could you take Weenie and go pick up Rando from preschool today?" He was fine with thay but when I got home he looked mad. He said "Weenie was awful! He just started freaking out, I didn't know what to do. Is he like this all the time?" So after that whole experience he started to warm up to the idea of maybe getting another dog just for Weenie ' s sake.
So I started looking online again and I just kept coming back to the picture of Sweety (Her name WAS Cherry at the rescue). It said she was very sweet and that she had injured her leg a few months ago and her former owners just gave her up at the animal hospital. So they fixed up her leg (it's all good now, she just has a nasty looking scar) and then they handed her over to the rescue. The rescue had her for a few months but no one was even interested in her because she was 4 and because of her nasty looking scar (she licks it alot so even though it is healed all the licking makes it look raw and irritated). For me the fact that she was 4 was a bonus. Weenie is 8 and I don't think he could handle a puppy full time right now and at 4 she is over the puppy stupids so I wouldn't have to worry about potty training or chewing things up (she does steal the boys stuffed animals but she doesn't chew them she just likes to walk around the house with them) and at 4 she wouldn't be as hyper and overwhelming for Weenie to deal with so I finally convinced Gunner to atleast come to the shelter and meet her.
We met her on a Monday. The boys LOVED her from the start. Gunner just sat straight faced and didn't show any signs of caring at all. So we brought Weenie in to meet her (if he didn't like her there was no way we would have gotten her). He liked her from the start and they played together and had a good time. Again, Gunner just sat straight faced and just said "well I have no feelings for her but Weenie seems to like her so if you want you can fill out an application for her" so I did. Tuesday night I got a call from the shelter. They called my vet to make sure that my animals were taken care of regularly (we have a long haired cat too, her name is Fuzzy Lady) and they contacted our animal control to make sure we had no animal abuse charges or complaints or any of that. And we were approved so I was told I could come get her that Wednesday. The boys decided to name her Sweety because she was oh so sweet.
That was 2 weeks ago and it feels like we've had her for much longer then that. She fits in perfectly here. Weenie can now stay home because he has her. They play together alot because they are more the same size then him and Pooh Bear were so they are both losing a little weight (they are both fat) Because they run and play and wrestle alot. She is great with my boys. She puts up with Colty giving her hugs and big spitty kisses on her face. She plays hide and seek with Rando under the blankets and she sits calmly with KJ while he reads her lego books and shows her how to play games on the Kindle (as if she really cared). The day I went and picked her up she was a little nervous when we got home so she fallowed me around the whole time but when it was time for me to make dinner I close the baby gate to the kitchen to keep all children and animals out while I cook. I guess Gunner felt bad for her because she sat at the gate so pitifully waiting for me to let her in that he called her over to the couch with him. While I cooked I heard him talking to her asking her if she thought she would like to be part of our family and how she needed to keep Weenie calm when we left the house. By the time I was done dinner and setting the table I could hear him telling her how pretty she was and how she had a lot of Pooh Bears qualities and he thought she was a good dog. So while I made dinner his heart had melted for her and he loves her. When I told him last week that she was officially ours for a week he even told me "You did a good job picking her out. She will never take the place of Pooh Bear but she's helping me to get over the lost of my little girl." (Gunner LOVED Pooh Bear like she was our first child. He loved her so much we had her cremated and he wants her ashes to be mixed with his when he dies because he thinks of her as his furry daughter). I think she is fast approaching "furry daughter" status because he loves to snuggle up with her on the couch and she lays right in the crook of his arm just like Pooh Bear did. She gives him kisses without being asked just like Pooh Bear did. I think she's going to end up being another Love of his life dog. He loves Weenie too but Weenie is just a "dog". He acts like a dog and is treated like a pet. Where as Pooh Bear was his "daughter". She acted like a child in a furry suit and like I said Sweety seems to be fast approaching "daughter" status.
So that's what is happening around here. Life is pretty good at the moment and I thank God that he guided me to the right dog for our family. As always, he knew best and make things turn out perfect in HIS time, not mine.
