Our Little Girl, Gizmo

I have always wanted a dog. Always. For as long as I could remember. (So has my husband, happily!) So we finally caved and got one. We had been putting it off, waiting until we had a house with a yard, waiting until we felt we would have enough time during the week to give it attention, waiting until we were willing to plan our lives around a little thing at home needing our time and care. And we finally felt we were as ready as we’d ever be. And now we have a baby coming home to us on March 30th.

Last Monday, we were with some friends that own a very cute, very chill dog named Stan. We brought up our concerns again, and they gave us good advice “Stop overthinking it. You will always be able to come up with an excuse to not do it. So just jump in. Go on petfinder, find a cute face, then you’ll fall in love and it will be easy to just pull the trigger.” On the way home that night, Anthony and I mulled that over. They were right, we would always be able to find excuses about our social life, or our working schedule, but at some point, we just needed to get on with our lives and make it work, if it’s what we really wanted. And it was. Anthony and I have discussed at length that we would probably eventually want two dogs, so they would have company, and because I wanted a smaller cuddly dog, and he wanted a larger dog. Since this would be our first puppy ever, we decided to start with the small one so we can learn the ropes in small doses – small accidents, smaller food and care, etc. So Tuesday morning, I got to work on petfinder.com.

I was very surprised to learn that there are very few actual shelter locations. Most rescue dogs live in foster homes, and you don’t always get to visit them first. Anthony had always been looking forward to going to a “pound” and viewing several dogs and dispositions, seeing who we connected with. (I was always a little scared of that, because 1) I wasn’t sure we could leave with just one dog, and 2) it would be just our luck that we’d fall in love with the shed-iest, bark-iest, most care-needing kind of dog.) So, after getting over that little hurdle and realizing that we would probably end up adopting a dog we’d never met, I carried on, sending Anthony link after link of dogs that just stole my heart, for most of Tuesday and Wednesday. There was not one dog that stole our hearts both equally, and I think we were both still feeling the need to do a little more research on what breed would best suit us.

Wednesday night found us at a weight training class we both attend with some friends. One of the girls there had a dog, but announced she and her husband had just adopted another puppy, a labradoodle named Nacho that would grow to be huge. We excitedly told her we were considering a puppy too, and she raved about poodle mixes. They are normally intelligent and easy to train, and they don’t shed, even when mixed, but still have that fluffy curly coat. I did some research to back up her claims, and was completely sold on looking for a poodle mix. Wednesday morning I refined my petfinder search, and was thrilled to see a few poodle-maltese mixes available. I have always adored the super cute and cuddly malteses that celebrities seem to pay thousands of dollars for, but never considered it a realistic goal. My refined search led me to the cutest tiniest black maltipoo named Frances, currently being cared for in Alabama. I fell in love with her face immediately, but it was not lost on me that her name (though not my favorite dog name ever) was the name of Anthony’s dearly loved and missed great-aunt that just passed away at the end of 2010. And, I have only ever had one pet to myself (a bunny named Cocoa Puff that I had to leave behind in Germany), and Frances had the same coloring, down to the white belly lined with a brown stripe. Those two facts just felt like signs to me, I was certain this was our darling girl. I emailed Anthony the link, and he agreed!

Thursday we filled out the adoption paperwork, and Friday we were approved and paypal-ing the money to the shelter in Alabama. She will be on a transport up here in two weeks, and we’ll pick her up on Friday morning, March 30th. I can’t wait!!! It all moved so very fast once we decided to pursue it, but I’m happy to have a couple weeks to build a fence, buy all her supplies, puppy-proof the house, etc. Yay!!!

Some fun facts:
*Right now she is only about 8 weeks old, and weighs a very small 5 lbs. They doubt she will ever be much more than 14 lbs (her mom’s size), if even that.
*Her mom is a maltipoo, and they think the dad might have been a beagle because her brother looks more like a beagle. (I researched all 3 breeds to make sure they were social and cuddly just in case!)
*Her mom was actually a stray that had been “thrown out”, most likely when her owners found her pregnant. The shelter had tried to rescue the mom for awhile, but to no avail.
*Her mom gave birth “in the wild” and some passersby saw her giving birth and called the shelter to come get them. The puppies still had their umbilical cords and were in pretty rough shape when they were finally rescued the next day.
*The shelter was not sure our little girl would make it – she had an infection, and was just a few ounces and not growing very fast. They were able to save all the puppies, happily!
*She is a very cuddly and healthy little girl now, and loves chewing on everything in sight apparently, even other dogs! (We’re hoping she’s still young enough to train out of that!)
*We are hoping to leave Frances as her unofficial middle name (for when we have to scold her, haha), but are hoping to name her Gizmo. We’ll wait and see if the name fits once she’s home.