Dogs

For months before Dan and I got married whenever Dan and I would talk (we lived in different towns) or when we would see each other Dan would just randomly say "SURPRISE!"  It drove me nuts... but I loved it of course too.  My "Surprise!" was our dog Buddy who we had for 11 1/2 years.  He was my wedding present from Dan and we had him our whole marriage until this fall.  He was a great low maintenance dog for a growing family who, since having kids, really didn't have much time for an overly needy dog.  He knew his place was on the floor and was happiest there, could wait 12 hours (we didn't do that often) to go outside if we ended up having a long day away from home, he'd "walk" himself when we were camping (we just attached his leash, or not, and let him go out first thing in the morning while we continued to sleep) and was just a great dog who was oh so cute.  He was truly a member of the family and I miss him still.  

People are sometimes surprised that we don't have a dog yet, because we are totally dog people, but after you have loved and lost (to death) a dog, replacing it is not the first thing you want to do.  The grieving process was actually much longer than I thought it would be and I still tear up when certain things about Buddy come to mind.  That said we have begun our search for our next dog.

Yesterday I spent some time on Kijiji and it is going to be so hard to know which would be right.  I don't want to be stuck to a certain breed, just the right temperment.  We thought for awhile that we would go the outside dog route, but I know it would just end up back in the house and then we would have a hairy, inside dog.  So, inside it will be.  The kids can hardly wait and you know, I'm really excited too!  The only one we have to get on board now is Dan.  Of course knowing that he'll be home a lot more during the day in a week definately helps me be excited because I know I won't be the only one to be running the dog to the bush to house train.  (Didn't I just do my last kid?)