Time to tell his story.
After the Fury drama I knew I wanted another dog. I didn't know when I would be ready, though. We still had Allie and anyway, I wanted a break.
I wanted to be a good mom for a while. A mom that didn't cry every day and spend all her time worrying about a dog. I didn't want to have to limit how long we were gone to the water park or zoo. I wanted to focus on my human children. So I thought we'd wait.
But everyone else was ready. So I started looking for a puppy.
I found one on the Facebook page for Colorado Animal Rescue (CARE). I don't even remember how I ended up there, but they had a whole litter of Whippet/Doberman mixes and they were adorable. CARE was located in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and Matt happened to be working nearby that day, so I called him and asked him to run over and take a look if he ended up having time.
He got home late that night...he hadn't finished work until CARE was closed and hadn't looked at the puppies.
I was terribly disappointed.
The next day was Friday and Matt said he would go into work early and we could drive to Colorado to see the puppies if I wanted to. I didn't! It would be crazy to drive several hours to adopt a dog. After all, there were plenty here!...except that we'd looked. And there actually didn't seem to BE plenty here.
By mid morning I was feeling a little more open to driving to Colorado. And the kids were definitely on board. And Matt said it would be fun - a road trip! So we went.
We listened to The Red Pyramid (Rick Riordan).
We stopped for snacks at gas stations.
We got stuck in construction and our 4-5 hour drive turned into a 6.5 hour drive. We barely made it before they closed.
The story was that a family had a purebred Whippet who had an "oops" litter with the doberman down the street. And 9 puppies had been surrendered to CARE just a few days before. They were 8 weeks old...ish. We got first pick.
We took 3 into a room and watched them interact with each other and with us. We narrowed it down to 2 pretty quickly. One was a chocolate-y brown female with blue eyes. The other was a boy with brindle legs and a black saddle, a white chest and 4 white paws. Their little faces were identical other than color. We chose the boy...for no real reason other than his 4 white paws.
When we got into the car to head home I sat in the passenger seat and Matt drove. But I was irrationally uncomfortable. Not ready to love. And before we'd gone 2 blocks I made Matt pull over and change me places. I drove the 7 hours home (including the moment that I backed our brand new car into a pylon at a gas station) and he held the puppy. It was a love affair for Matt and the kids from the beginning.
It took me a few days, but in the end there was no resisting this.
We narrowed name choices down to Marvel and Newton and put a vote on Facebook. Newton won. So that's what we named him...for a few hours. Mr. Puppy had 6 or 7 names over the next few days before I finally settled on Zip. Zipper. Zippy. Zippity do-dah. Darth Zippinous.
We took him tot he vet, who estimated that he was perhaps a week or so younger than CARE had thought. We enrolled him in training classes with Robyn. We just loved him so, so, so much.
My whole life I loved dogs. a lot.
And then I had kids.
And I didn't STOP loving dogs, but I forgot how much I loved them, because I loved my humans more, and they needed me so much, and I only had so much time.
But now my humans were older and more independent and they loved dogs, too.
Over the last (almost) year Zippy has become so important to me. And I'm so glad to have him. Here's his Birthday movie.
He's such a smart, good boy. And best of all, we've done (and continue to do!) the training and socialization that make a good dog great. Love my Zip. Happy Birthday, Doodle!
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