Paw Patrol

Months ago, our neighbor Lauren invited us over to play with her friend's Maltipoo puppy.  She was four months old and a ball of joy and I fell in love and instantly thought it was a good idea to get one.  Brady and the kids all agreed and we started the process with a breeder in Oahu where the puppy came from.  It was a little nerve-wrecking: apparently everyone wants a COVID puppy and they are in high demand.  I never got the complete reassurance that we were getting one until August 1st when the litter was born and we were able to select our little pup via FB Messenger.  We were even more nervous to send the money via Venmo to the breeder for the full price eight weeks later but this story ends well and we have her.

A week before she arrived, we purchased all the must-haves for a new puppy.  It was a lot of stuff and a lot of money.  Owen kept taking them out of bags and organizing them.

He and Kate told everyone they knew that we were getting a puppy.  They insisted we set up her playpen and he even took a nap in it.

We pulled up our rugs and remembered how much we love our floors.

Collar engraved!  Roxy. 

Kate was terrified something would go wrong.  She had heard about our friends' inquiry into a dog that turned out to be fraud and stressed that would happen with ours, too.  Typically, the breeder would meet us at the airport, but with COVID and 14-day quarantine restrictions for any outer island travel, she planned to ship her on Air Cargo, which arrived at 11:35pm at night.  We knew Kate would stress until she knew the puppy was safely in our home, so we told the kids we would wake them up to see her.

When I first saw Roxy, I understood how tiny two pounds actually looked.  I thought it was terrifying to hold seven pound babies so two pounds seemed ominous.  The breeder was worried for us, too.  We had so many conversations about rules with kids and helping them not kill the pup, which included ice skating around her rather than picking up feet, never letting the kids pick her up, and watching out for any surface Roxy could jump from, as she has no sense of cause and effect for high areas yet.  

I had to sign papers for Roxy at the airport, so they had me take her to the car and come back in.  I placed her so gently in the kennel and her her cries as I left to sign.  I came back to a giant pile of poop in her sectioned-off crate.  That seemed like a bad sign from all my puppy training reading, but now seems like a normal, scared reaction.

First photo with Roxy-girl.


The reactions were priceless, and I'm so happy we woke them up.  Oohs, ahhs.  We were all as excited as Christmas.  My heart soared with happiness during this moment with our kids.

We have video with Zachary but no photos.  He was in the room for exactly 90 seconds and went straight back to bed.  I confused that with disinterest but he is just a kid that needs his sleep.

The next morning was more coos and giggles as we worked to navigate day 1.  I was happy for my kids but also exhausted from a late night, a wake-up to take the puppy potty, and an early morning wake-up with her whining.  I was anxious about reinforcing bad habits, and most especially the potty breaks.  Our breeder emphasized that under no circumstances should we take her outside to pee until she had all three rounds of her immunizations, but there was no way I was going to train my puppy to pee inside the house. It was all new for her--kids, new adults, lawn, gravel, cement.  All the smells.  She was so excited and surely nervous.

She quickly found her new favorite toy--a pink pig Kate picked out at Petco.

It was hard to get Zac out the door that morning--he was so jealous we all got to spend the day with Roxy.

My terrified-of-dogs just months ago girl completely and totally won over by the pup in a matter of minutes.

It is wild to me that I write this post 10 days later, and Roxy already looks older and bigger.

The kids both crashed on the way to pick up the boys from school.

After school and before soccer, Zac had the time of his life.  She of course loved Zachary's playful nature and ran to him again and again.

This picture makes me so happy.  

There are so many smiles in these photos and I was so happy and trying to be relaxed, but oh my.  Day 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were high-intensity for me.  I felt so much responsibility to training her not to poop and pee on the floor.  Day 2 and 3 had so many accidents despite my vigilance.  I worried when she whined, even though everything I read said to ignore her.  Driving to pick up kids, I worried the whole time that our dog had to pee or was thirsty or lonely.  I stressed when I went to surf that weekend and had a hard time enjoying myself in the water.  Text messages from our dog family and friends went a long way toward calming my nerves.  Roxy is fine.  Keep her kenneled.  She will be okay.

We had a parade of visitors--Clarks, Hadleys, Smiths, Presley, Penelope, Stebbins, and it continues.  I love all the people coming, although when Roxy gets overwhelmed/tired/overexcited, her nippiness elevates.

Her first bath was the moment I realized how tiny she actually was--a tiny, wet rat with giant Disney eyes.

This puppy has to be shampooed, conditioned, and blow dried.  She is more high maintenance than me.

Just a boy and his dog.

The kids beg for their own turns with her ten times a day.

Just over a week in:

-I can't believer how many times a day she poops.  I'm hoping we figure out her rhythms soon.  Today, she pooped on my floor twice. 

 

-Even with that sorry stat, we have very few accidents now, especially pee.

-She tried burger yesterday after we had friends for a BBQ.  We did not give it to her--she found remnants on the grass.  She is not vegetarian.

-She nips like crazy and I realize that is normal for a puppy but we are attempting to teach her by putting her in the playpen and ignoring her when she is too feisty.  It is hard to ignore a puppy.

-We know what her bark sounds like.

-She almost never whines in her kennel.

-I set up a nanny cam on her when I leave the house and check it about a dozen times.  I will figure out how to relax but I'm not there yet.  Tonight in the shower, I realized that I can't go back to work in the next 13 years because then she would be alone and I'd feel too sad for her.  See?  I need to relax.