The Adventure Begins 2

It hasn’t yet been 2 weeks but I can tell you that our lives have already changed, a LOT, and (for the most part) for the better.

The same day we put the downpayment on Molly we went home (elated) and I got busy making sure that we would have everything ready for her when she arrived at her new home.  I ordered a crate, the breeder told me what size to get, and what to look for.  I ordered a lambs wool ‘bed’ for the inside of the crate so she’d have a nice soft place to sleep.  I ordered bowls for her water and food.  I ordered the special puppy vitamins the breeder insisted on.  I got a couple of toys, a leash and a collar.  When I realized that we would be bringing Molly to work with us for the first few months I realized I’d need to double most of the order    The next day, Wednesday, I went to the pet store and purchased the food the breeder had told us to feed her and a couple more toys….  I can tell you that just from the vast amount of money I spent, not counting the puppy, that puppies are quite expensive.

Since my husband’s birthday was on Thursday and there would be little time for us to celebrate it as we normally would I had a cake made by a local bakery.  That was a fun pick-up but it took me quite a bit out of my way to get and I had to leave work early to get it done in time.  When I went home there were a bazillion packages there filled with the products I’d ordered.  I lugged all those in the house and put them in a corner for when David came home.  I figured he could open them as part of his present and then we’d have the cake a bit early, he never objects to cake at any time so I knew this wasn’t going to be an issue 🙂

When David came home he was amazed by all the things a little puppy could need!  It took us awhile to get the first crate together with the divider placed properly and since it was so big (and heavy!) I decided we could just use our cat carrier for awhile until I ordered a bigger carrier for our new ‘kid’.  I returned the second metal carrier but with shipping it still ended up costing me almost $20.

All told just getting ready to bring Molly home cost us almost $500.  Wow!  A few years earlier, when we brought home our cat, Clint, it cost less than $200.  Regardless we are already in love with our puppy and can’t wait to bring her home.  To Be Continued….

 

The Adventure Begins!

My husband has wanted a Labrador Retriever puppy for almost as long as I’ve known him and my dog-sitting has only increased his longing.  His birthday was May 11th and about a week before that I suggested that we visit a couple of breeders and talk with them, maybe see some actual puppies, and he jumped at the idea.  We planned the trip for the Monday before his birthday.

The day of the trip we were both pretty excited and wondering if we were ever really going to get one.  The first breeder on our list (of two) did, indeed, have 2 puppies available.  They were both brought upstairs for us to see and play with and that’s when it happened:  we fell in love.  Apparently someone had put a downpayment on them and never came back with the balance so they were, again, up for adoption.  We asked a lot of questions and then David and I went out to the car to sit and talk about it for awhile….  It’s a big decision and I wasn’t convinced we were ready for it since we’d only just begun the process of looking but David was head over heels in love and the little boy longing was in his face.  I caved.  We went back in with our checkbook but quickly was told that they didn’t accept anything other than cold hard cash.  Wow.  We totally weren’t prepared for that but she told us she would hold the puppy for us with a downpayment of $100.  Incredibly, between the two of us, we actually were able to scrape up the $100.  Since we had to be at the office on Tuesday and Wednesday our next available time to come and pick up the puppy would be Thursday, David’s birthday!  We were only days away from being puppy “parents”!

To be continued….