Ellie

Chris and I had been discussing getting another dog for at least the last year. We just could not justify the cost of what most places and people charge for a dog (We paid somewhere in the realm of $600 for Kona back in 2014). We had considered adopting a dog. I even put in an application last year for one, but it was already claimed by the time they had received and accepted our application. They kept us on their list, but we never heard back from them. I sort of took it as a sign to hold off on getting one. We had periodically checked the humane society, but it always seemed that the dogs they had were not deemed suitable for kids under the age of 12 years, if at all. There had been a couple opportunities through the year where Chris could have gotten a puppy from a customer on his route for relatively low cost, but we ultimately had decided to wait.

Monday March 4, 2019.

It was another ordinary day. I was sitting on the couch when my best friend “J” messaged me. She had sent me a picture of a puppy with the message “I want him!”

Who doesn’t love puppies? Okay, I am sure there are people who don’t, but as soon as I saw the picture I was like, “Oh my gosh I want him, too!” We had been talking about the puppies and where she found them (someone she use to work with was selling them). She had sent me more pictures of the other puppies they had available. I sent the pictures and information to Chris. Chris and I had texted back and forth about it for probably a couple of hours before we decided we would go meet the puppies that evening if the family was going to be available for us to do so. I had Chris message the woman and she said we could come that night.

Pickle was at school and knew nothing about any of this. We cleaned out the van (okay, Chris did) and headed to the school to pick him up at their regular scheduled time. When he got into the van we told him we had to go pick up “D” because he was going to come with us (J’s husband and also our best friend). Pickle was confused about why we needed to get “D” and asked where we were going. We told him we were going on a road trip to go get something. He asked what we were going to get and we thought it would be fun to let him guess. Chris told him it was something with fur.

Pickle’s first response was that we were going to go get a screaming llama. We said, no not a llama.

He said, “a fish?”

“Uhm, I don’t know of any furry fish, but no, not a fish.”

He also guessed a screaming goat and a few other things before he said, “just tell me”. So I grabbed my phone and showed him a picture of the puppy that I was interested in. He immediately made a shocked, but excited “ARE WE REALLY!?” face. It was so cute.

We wound up driving out to a farm about 2 and half hours away from us, in Iowa. The kids were so excited to see a farm. We saw some cats and a donkey.

The puppies lived in. an outdoor shelter. It was pretty cold, so we each carried one of the puppies into their garage where it was warmer. The puppies are Rottweiler, Border Collie, and Australian Shephard mixes. They had 5 of them left; 2 girls and 3 boys. We were interested in getting a girl because of Kona’s issues with dominance. We just figured it would likely be the safer option if we went ahead and got one. I immediately gravitated to the puppy that I had seen; she was the only one left that looked more like an Australian Shephard than a Rottweiler. Not that I don’t like Rottweilers, I was mainly drawn to her white socks. She immediately gravitated towards me, too. I held her and she just cuddled into me with her head on my shoulder like she had known me her whole 7 weeks of life. I eventually put her down to see what would happen. She stayed near me almost the whole time. She did chase the kids around in circles around me for a minute. Chris, however, was really drawn to the other girl that was more Rott looking. Though, her and the boys wanted nothing to do with us really. I knew I wanted the one with white socks, but I also wanted it to be a family decision.

Pickle originally wanted the Rott looking girl as well, but after the one with white socks chased him around he changed his mind and said, “mommy I want this one now”. I said, okay we need to tell Daddy and he did. Ultimately we decided to get the puppy with the white socks!

Pickle wanted to hold her on the way back home, he did for about 20 minutes or so until we stopped at the local Walmart to buy some puppy supplies. We got back in the van; I climbed in the very back. Pickle insisted on holding her again. It didn’t last long though because she tried to climb his head and puppy claws can be quite sharp. I grabbed her before she made it all the way up and she cuddled into me.

At some point, I had noticed she was drooling. I started thinking, “oh boy we have a drooler. I guess this is as close to a Saint Bernard as I am going to get (my dream dog).” Then I noticed the drool was very excessive and had started to come out in a waterfall fashion and then started to smell. She had puked all over my leg and on the floor of the van. Luckily we had one small hand towel in the van so I could get the puke off of me, but man that smell was atrocious. We eventually got home and I decided to go ahead and give her a bath since she was muddy from the farm and smelled of poop and now barf.

We had been trying to figure out a name for her. Pickle liked the name Leah or Aaliyah. Chris had said, what about Ellie? I didn’t hate the name and it seemed sweet like she had been (minus the barfing on me part), but we weren’t sure about it 100%.

The kids were helping me give her a bath and Pickle started talking to her and calling her Ellie. I said, “Oh, Ellie, so is that her name then?” and he said “yup!”

So here she is, little Miss Ellie.

Kona has been doing better than expected, but still has his moments of territory issues. Which, I knew we would have to work on.

We have had her for a week now and she definitely has gotten comfortable. On the farm, she had never been inside, but she quickly grew accustomed to being indoors and even sleeping in our bed. She likes to lay on top of our heads on the pillows.

She has also gotten quite playful. We are working on training what is and is not okay to chew on. We are also working on potty and kennel training, but so far she is a very fast learner and the accidents have been very minimal. Monkey has even been trying to train her to “stay”, which she came up with on her own. Though, Ellie has not figured that out yet ha-ha.

I thought we were crazy for wanting to get a puppy when I am 7 months pregnant, but I think she is the perfect fit for us!

-Jenn