This wasn't a milestone that was really on my radar, but Kevin found a brown Boston Terrier puppy earlier in December that he thought would be perfect for our family. We talked about it, prayed about it and I said yes to the puppy. We got a babysitter for the kids, headed to Petsmart to buy all the necessary puppy supplies (A LOT) and went to pick him up about 30 minutes away from our house on December 22. I was nervous and kind of anxious about the whole thing. Kevin was really excited.
A little background on us...
Dogs love Fletcher (maybe because he is always covered in crumbs?? :)
Olive has been asking for a dog for months. Fluffy white dog with a pink bow in it's hair. Not exactly what Kevin picked out, but I hoped it would be fine.
Kevin always dreamed of getting a bull dog or something like that. He grew up with dogs.
Whitney is a cat person. Has always loved cats despite being allergic.
Back to puppy pick up day...
We picked him up from the breeders. Found out his birthday and let his mom give him a lick goodbye. I brought a cozy quilt to snuggle him in on the ride him and we stopped to get some ice cream and chat about puppy things before introducing him to the kids. We talked over names. Originally, we'd planned to name him Rocky, but that didn't seem to fit him.
We told the kids we had a Christmas surprise when we got home. They closed their eyes and Kevin snuck Cooper inside. They heard his jingle bell collar jingling and had no idea what to expect. I'll never forget their surprise and sweet reactions. They giggled and laughed as he licked them hello. We came up with a list of boy name options and all agreed Cooper seemed right.
Olive was the cutest little puppy mom. She snuggled Cooper any chance she got.
Kevin took the lead on all things puppy - potty breaks, potty clean up and puppy watch 24/7.
Cooper loved all of his Christmas toys. This squeaky piece of pizza was his favorite.
We took him on our Christmas road trip to visit family.
Merry Christmas Eve!
Our entire families loved on Cooper all Christmas long. Look at that sweet face!!
I wasn't kidding about Olive loving to snuggle a sleepy Cooper. She asked to hold him all day long.
The kids played and played with Cooper. I lost count of the tiny toys I fished out of his mouth. We made an emergency call to the vet over a marble. Not sure if he ate it or not. Probably not. And he liked to carry cars around in his mouth.
He went for walks and met the neighbors.
Cooper went to work to visit Uncle Tyler.
We all took turns taking him out for countless potty breaks. He was slowly, but surely, winning my heart over a little more every day.
He was like a baby. We had to make sure he stayed up a fair amount in the evening so he would sleep at night. Kevin ended up sleeping next to his crate a couple different nights.
Lots of Christmasy fun with Cooper!
And now the puppy story takes a sad turn. I wish that I could give you a happy puppy update, but this story didn't work out as we had planned.
Cooper no longer lives at our house :(. We ended up having to return him to his puppy parents on December 30. We went back and forth about it, weighed the pros and the cons and ultimately did what was best for everyone.
SO many tears were shed over this little pup.
I probably cried more than anyone else over this sweet dog that I said I wasn't so sure about. We were all super sad things didn't work out, but he just wasn't a good fit for our family. He was so busy and into everything all the time. We felt like we wouldn't be able to keep him safe and give him all the attention he'd require as he got bigger. We had many scares of him choking on things, so many messes and accidents, the cats were not thrilled with him along with some other personal reasons.
We knew we had to make the best decision for him long term and return him. This was probably one our hardest parenting decisions yet. And now I'm crying again. I am glad we were able to give Cooper LOTS OF LOVE while he was ours. We had a great Christmas with him! We learned a lot throughout this whole process so maybe I'll talk Kevin into doing a post with me on how we helped the kids say goodbye to Cooper. It wasn't easy, but I know we aren't the only ones this has ever happened to or the only people who've lost a pet that they loved.
