Maximus

 

We got a dog! I still can hardly believe it myself. Randy has been wanting to get a dog for a number of years and I have always put it off, touting that we would get one someday. So, we had been discussing a dog again, and Randy had heard that the local Petco had some dogs from the humane society that needed to be adopted. We decided we would take the kids and "just look" at the dogs to see and ask questions about what kind of dog might be a good fit for our little family. 

 When we got there, they only had a handful of dogs. They had two huge dogs (which are a no go for me) and three little dogs. One of the little dogs was completely hideous and the other two were ok looking. The kids immediately fell in love with this dog named Redford. I assume he was named that because of his slightly reddish fur. We asked if we could walk Redford around the store for a while to see if he was well behaved and also to see if he would bother Jacob and his allergies. The kids were in heaven. They had so much fun walking him around the parking lot, petting him, talking to him and wandering around the store with him. We were told he was a Pomeranian mix that recently came from California and that he was about 2 years old. I learned that little dogs in California are often left behind and they are more easily adopted here in Utah, so they send them here when they find them. We literally walked around the store for hours with Redford. I turned to Randy and I said that I thought we should buy the dog. He was completely shocked! He could not believe that I would want to do that. (Side note: I may have been slightly disappointed that I wasn't pregnant this month. I am completely baby hungry and was devastated that we weren't pregnant yet. That probably had a lot to do with wanting a little doggy.) Randy said he was totally fine leaving and coming back another time to look at other dogs, but I wanted this one. Not that I thought he was cute or well behaved, which he is, but because it really just felt right to me. Like he "fit" with us or something. Strange, I know. Jake didn't appear to have any reaction to Redford's hair or anything either, that was good.

So we adopted a rescue dog! On the way home from the pet store, we were talking about his name. Nobody seemed to like the name Redford. So, in the smith's grocery store parking lot, we talked names with the kids. Lily was sorely disappointed that he wasn't a girl dog. While I was throwing out names I mentioned that we could name him "Maximus" like the horse in Lily's favorite movie "Tangled." Everyone loved the idea and agreed that would be his name, but that we would call him "Max" for short.

He has been such a good dog so far. He hasn't had any accidents in the house and when he needs to go outside, he just stands by the door and whines quietly. He is a rescue, so you never know what they have been through or how they will behave, so that makes me a little nervous. The trainer at the store said that he has been using Redford as the example dog in his training show and that he has been the most obedient dog of the rescues this week. So that's something. I hope I don't regret this decision! But for now, we are all just happy to have him be a part of our family! Welcome Maximus!