A New Addition

Last weekend we added another family member when we brought home 3 year old Vader - a 60 pound black dog who we adopted from a local rescue group.  More than once in the past week I've wondered "what the hell did I do?" even though I've though long and hard about the pros and cons of dog ownership for a very long time. We had some home break ins a few months ago that scared the entire neighborhood and terrified Finn - it was that fear which led me to decide it was time to have a dog in the family, even if I wasn't quite ready for one.  The first morning after he came home, Finn said, "I wasn't scared at all last night.  Do you know why? Because we have a dog now!"

Vader looks fierce, but is actually quite timid - and of course he still needs time to fully adjust to his new home and his new life. While I knew the adjustment period would be hardest, I still didn't quite expect it to be much of a challenge, and so I'm trying to readjust my expectations of the next month. He is very good with the boys, and very patient with their initial nervousness around him, but now that they aren't nervous anymore, he's the nervous one as he has to get used to the sheer volume of noise the two of them can create (it is amazing how much noisier my house is with two boys instead of one - I swear the noise level has quadrupled, not just doubled). I can tell he's going to settle in eventually, though.  Last night we were playing "Kissing Monster" and Vader joined in the fun, with wagging tail and lots of licks for the Kissing Victim.

Then there was the night this weekend when he got away from me after being scared by fireworks our neighbor set off and was gone for 3 hours. That was drama I did not anticipate as the rescue group and some neighbors came out at 9 pm to help me look for him while the kids slept.  It was sometime after 11pm when I was sitting out on the front porch, wondering what I was going to tell the boys, when he came walking up to the house, all on his own.  So clearly he now knows where home is - and so I guess we're stuck with him.  And him with us.

Right now - this time in my life - feels like the start of a new chapter. It's not just the dog, though Ifee like he's the start of it all. I've been making some changes over the past few weeks and I'm feeling really good about them.  I think I'm just about ready to share what I'm doing, but still figuring out how to put it all down in words.  In the meantime, I'm going to get to bed at my actual bedtime tonight, because someone is going to be waking me up for our morning walk at 6am, and it's hard to say no to that sweet face of his.