They call it puppy love...

Introducing the newest member of our family:

This is Oakley Woofy Bowser.  He was born on July 11, 2008 with 5 brothers and sisters.  Mom is a lab/rottweiler mix and Dad is a lab.  He is a little over 6 weeks old now.  Here is how Oakley came to be part of our family...

Last Friday one of my co-workers received an email offering 5 lab/rottie mix puppies, free to a good home.  Attached to the email was an adorable picture of one of the puppies.  I knew that puppy was going to be my puppy.  Jarrod and I have been talking about getting a dog off and on for awhile, but he hasn't taken me seriously because I am a clean freak and well, you can't have an "outdoor" dog in Arizona.

After I got the email, I called Jarrod to tell him about it and I forwarded the email to him.  I also told the girls that we might get a puppy if Daddy wanted one lol.  Jarrod tried really hard to be "billy bad ass" about getting a dog, but deep down, he wanted one as bad as I did.  I called Jarrod's mom and told her I thought we were going to get a dog.  She, knowing my "clean freak" self, was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to adapt to having an indoor dog.  I told Jarrod's brother online and he nicely said "are you sure you want a dog...you are very particular about things" lol.  So, I emailed the lady giving the puppies away and told her we were very interested and to please call me, we could pick one up on Saturday.  I was really confident that I would hear from her Friday night.

All evening on Friday I checked my email (at least 25 times) and checked my cell phone to make sure it was working.  She wasn't calling.  We FINALLY are at a place where a dog would be a blast in our family and this lady wasn't calling!  I was a little sad when we went to bed on Friday night.  Taylor was too.  She was confident that "the puppy lady" would call on Saturday.

We started Saturday with Payton's gymnastics class.  I was sure that the puppy lady would call before 10.  When she hadn't called by 11, I sent a second email, just in case I sent the first one to the wrong email address.  Taylor asked 20 times each hour if the puppy lady had called.  By the time 1pm rolled around, I was certain that we would not be hearing from the puppy lady since she said in her email that the puppies could be picked up on Saturday.  I was SO bummed out!  We all were!  I started looking at lab rescue sites on the net and my cell phone rang.  I didn't run to get it because I was sure it was a friend or my cousin.  Taylor said to me "MOMMY!  It could be the puppy lady"!  So, I went to check my phone and I had a voice mail.  IT WAS THE PUPPY LADY!

The puppy lady said that all 5 puppies had been claimed, but that the 5th one, a male, hadn't been picked up.  The person that was supposed to pick him up didn't show and hadn't called.  She said that we could have him if we still wanted him and if we got there before this other person showed up to get him.  I told her we'd be right there.  I felt like we were on an adoption list and that we had just got a call from the adoption agency that our adopted kid from Hong Kong was on a plane and scheduled to arrive in 30 minutes.  We all loaded up in the Explorer and off we went.  Puppy Lady lives down by my work, about 30 minutes away from our house.  We were on a mission.  We had to beat the mystery lady to Puppy Lady's house.  Just our luck, one of the freeways we were traveling on was restricted down to one lane.  We had to take side streets and zig zag across town, but we finally arrived. 

Once inside puppy lady's house, I felt like we needed to grab the dog and run lol.  I didn't want mystery lady to show up and say it was her dog.  Our first meeting with Oakley was a funny one.  He had just decided to take a bath in the water bowl and he had dirt on his nose from some outdoor fun that he had earlier in the day.  He was so sweet.  He was OURS!  We stayed just long enough to make puppy lady and puppy man think we weren't complete whackos and then we said our thank yous and goodbyes and we got the heck out of dodge!  Oakley rode home on Jarrod's lap and we all tossed out names for our new puppy.  Jarrod and I threw out things like Oakley, Thunder, Coach, Sabbath, Bartholomew (He'd be Black Bart...the pirate), Morgan (after the Captain) and Vader.  Taylor and Payton threw out things like Tinkerbell, Ice, Purple, Tree, Woofy and Blackie.  We compromised and agreed that Jarrod and I would pick the first name and Taylor could pick the middle name.  So, Oakley Woofy Bowser was named.

We love our little puppy.  Our "free" puppy became "not so free" after our family trip to Pet Smart hahaha.  We've set him up out where our kitchen table is in the corner.  He has a crate and a pen, lots of toys and two kids that are deathly afraid of his claws and teeth lol.  Oakley is teething.  He chews on EVERYTHING.  His claws are like talons and we've all been branded with scratches in the past 24 hours.  Oakley did NOT sleep through his first night in his new home.  I was up with him from 3-3:30am and he continued to cry until 4:15 am.  Oakley peed wherever he felt like it last night (not by our choosing and yes, I already mopped all of my floors today).  But today...I'm so proud of him...he went #2 twice on his puppy pads and he's done like 5 or 6 pees on his puppy pads all day long.  Taylor has already nicknamed him "Oakey" and Payton calls him "Oak a Lee".  Jarrod calls him "war dog".  He is such a cutie.  He is all black except for a little white patch on his chest and a little white patch on one of his back feet.  We are starting to notice more Rottie in him...he is a stout little sucker and his cute little butt has the Rottie swagger.  His jowls also look Rottie to us.  It will be interesting to see how big he gets and what he looks like.

So...this is our new baby!  We are so excited to have him and we have bets going on what furniture he ruins first :-)

Comments

[Rebecca]

LOL! I can't believe you got a dog! He's ADORABLE!!!!!! Congrats!

[Lara]

OMG, he's adorable!! And God bless you! I am so excited to vicariously live through you on having a dog - lol!

[Auntie Roxy]

Welcome to the family Oakley Woofy!! I am proud to have you as my fur nephew and I cant wait to get my hands on you!!! :) you will love your cousin Sammie! cant wait for you two to meet :)