Our Newest Addition

First off, I have to say.....this has been a LONG time coming! Justin and I have both been wanting a dog pretty much since we got married. But, we already had Pink, our old cat, who was basically traumatized at an early age and spent the rest of her life petrified of dogs. Not to mention, we were in an apartment and we really wanted to wait until we were in a house, had a yard and knew that there would be plenty of room for all of us.

Evidently, that took almost seven years. By the time we got our house, I was pregnant with Austin. Then Austin came and we had a newborn (enough said there). Three months after he was born, we lost Pink. We still have Lola, our other cat, but we wanted to wait a while after Pink died before we even entertained the though of another animal.

Opportunities to adopt and/or rescue dogs and puppies have come and gone plenty of times over the years. Every time I would get an email (forwards about dogs to rescue), I would either send it to Justin or call him immediately to start pleading. Every time, I would get the same answer: "Now is just not the right time."

Finally...the time was right! One of my best friends, Jennifer, has a passion for rescuing dogs. There is a stray dog that has been coming around the warehouse at her work very regularly since February. They started leaving food for her, but the dog is very skittish and won't let you touch her at all. Eventually, Momma Dog got herself pregnant and had eight puppies in the crawlspace beneath the warehouse. They kept an eye on the puppies and Jenn got in touch with Two by Two Animal Rescue in Helena, who gave her a trap and tranquilizers to catch her so that she could get her fixed. Momma Dog is black, slim and about 30 lbs. Even though Jenn gave her enough tranquilizers to put out a 75lb dog, it didn't phase Momma Dog.

A little over a week ago, Jenn saw that the puppies, who were around October 2, were almost big enough to be able to crawl out. She ended up taking the puppies and got them all their shots at Two by Two. She took them all home and fostered them while trying to find homes for all of them. She posted pictures on Facebook and even though Justin and I would talk about how cute they were, we never really went any further than that. Then one morning this past week, Justin sent me a text and said that one of the puppies was named Lady Gaga. Now, if you've read any of this blog, you know that Austin is obsessed with Lady Gaga (Justin and I are fans ourselves). Evidently, that sealed the deal for Justin. It's like it was meant to be. He finally felt that it was "the right time".

We went to visit her on Wednesday and got the okay that night from the rescue center that they were okay to be taken to their forever homes. We waited until Friday and Jenn brought her over to our house. We ended up changing her name to Luna because Austin was getting a little confused between the real Gaga and puppy Gaga. So now we have Lola and Luna. And let me tell you...Luna is the cutest little thing!! She is a tiny little blonde fluffball! She fits perfectly in the palm of your hand. We're not sure how big she'll get, since nobody knows anything about the daddy dog. She definitely looks like she's got some lab in her, but other than that we're not really sure. All I know is she is absolutely adorable! She has already brought so much laughter and so many smiles in the last two days! She is whining some at bedtime and she wakes up crying and whining VERY early in the morning. We're hoping that doesn't last long...it's like having a newborn again! We are so excited to have Luna as part of our family now! Here she is!