you know dasher...

Happy Monday, loves!
This is going to be a very "puppy post" as I said a few weeks ago that I'd explain the story behind our reason for getting a new puppy right before having a baby (crazy, I'm aware). We got Dasher Fullwood on the Friday before Christmas from the Conroe Animal Shelter. He was a rescue that we adopted and he didn't have a name; we originally named him "Boss" but after 3 days Bear decided he didn't like that name and wanted it to be "Dasher". Fitting considering he was a Christmas present, and he likes to dash off at times :). I'll explain more of how this all came about below, but first some pictures in chronological order from the day we got our new puppy. He has sure grown over the past month!

Let's backtrack a little bit...Bear has been asking for a puppy for over a year. We have Donut the hamster who he loves but Bear is crazy about dogs and has always been really sweet with them. We put off getting one because we knew training a puppy would be a lot of work and when we found out we were expecting last June, we definitely didn't think it would be wise to get a dog. But Bear kept asking, as any persistent little boy would. Around Christmastime, his only real wish to Santa was for a puppy. It would tug and Zach and I's heartstrings because we knew he wanted a dog so badly but we just didn't see how we could do it with having a new baby in a few short months. However, a dog was still the only thing he was really asking Santa for and we were afraid that if Santa didn't come through on this wish, we'd have a heartbroken little boy who might not believe in the magic of Christmas anymore. And this Mama (and Daddy) couldn't stand that thought.

So, we caved. We decided that as with anything in life, there's never going to be a "perfect time". We'd always have an excuse as to why a puppy would be a bad idea or difficult transition, so we just bit the bullet and started researching puppies. Zach scoured craigslist for weeks but in the end, after looking at local shelters online, we both felt like we needed to adopt the puppy. Especially because the amount of strays in Houston are at a record high after Hurricane Harvey and shelters are literally busting at the seams with dogs. As you can imagine, this doesn't end well for a lot of them which is absolutely heartbreaking. I'm not trying to convince anyone who's in the market for a dog to adopt as everyone has their preferences and knows what's a best fit, but if you're considering adoption I can tell you that it is a great choice and we've had a positive experience thus far.

Conroe Animal Shelter has dogs up for adoption outside at The Woodlands Mall every Friday so 3 days before Christmas, we took Bear to look at puppies. We all 3 fell in love with Dasher but we weren't the only ones- he had 3 sisters and 2 of them were adopted within the first hour of being at the mall. People were eyeing Dasher and we knew we had to make a move quickly, so we filled out all the paperwork and took him home with us! Not without a pit stop at Petco first for all things puppy, which Bear loved splurging on. We told Bear that we were just adopting the dog for a few days until we could find a home for him, which he was satisfied with (and just so happy to have a puppy in the house, even if for the short-term). We still wanted to surprise him on Christmas morning so Zach and I tried to think of the best way to do so.

On Christmas Eve, Zach stayed up late making a "doggie adoption form" from Santa stating that because Bear had taken such good care of Dasher, he had Santa's permission to keep the puppy and give him a loving home. Bear was so surprised and thrilled that Dasher was his to keep, and the rest is history. Best Christmas morning ever. Of course it's been a trying month at times considering I'm 8 months pregnant, scooping up poop and cleaning pee out of the carpet 87 times a day. But we are working hard to train Dasher and he is such a sweet puppy. We did have one emergency room visit when Bear was playing with the puppy on the floor and got his ear lobe bit- he had to get a couple stitches but he was a tough boy and wasn't mad at his dog for a minute. He is so good with Dasher and it makes Zach and I feel like we made the right choice. Just check with us again in a month when the new baby comes and I'll let you know if that thought still stands. ;) 

I hope you all had an amazing weekend and that your week is off to a great start!
xo, Britt