Meet Shelby

Friday evening, one of our neighbors dropped by, asking if we wanted her puppy. She needed to find a home for it that night and thought of us as we have children and she knew we would be a good home for her, a 5 month old shitzu. Chris had answered the door, I was upstairs doing Ashleigh's hair while Justin was in the bath tub. I soon heard, "Caroline! Come here please...hurry!" My reply was, "I'm busy!" Chris then came to the bottom of the stairs and said, "Can we get a puppy?" My response was something like this,"augh, noooooooo. I am not ready for a dog right now. My plate is quite full with Justin and Ashleigh and I really don't want to take on more".

He said, "come see her".

So, I came to the door and saw this little fur ball and of course Ashleigh came along too and adored the puppy.

Chris kept saying "please"? and I kept saying, "no".

The owner really needed an answer by that night and I said we'd give her one. She could tell I wasn't thrilled about the idea and didn't want to stir up trouble.

I then remembered that Justin was still in the bath tub!!!!!! So I said I had to go and Chris took the lady's name and phone number and we all went upstairs. I think Chris asked Justin if he wanted a puppy and I can't remember his response.

So after getting Justin out of the bath tub and much begging from Chris and pouting from me (boy was I set on "no"), I agreed to take the puppy on a one week trial.

Chris left the room to call the lady and I immediatly thought of her name, "Shelby". You see, it is a name I have always loved and since we didn't use it for our children, I figured, now is my chance to use it on our puppy. Ashleigh helped we remember it when she kept saying, "let's call her Shiny".

So, within a few minutes, the lady came over with a bag of food and our puppy. She was so dirty from being in an orchard where this lady worked and her hair was all matted, so I immediatly gave her a bath.

Justin and Ashleigh were in their rooms, playing. We had already put them to bed, so I snuck Shelby in the bathroom, hoping they wouldn't see her until morning.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. It was Ashleigh. I forget what she needed, but just for fun, I thought I'd poke Shelby's head out the door.

Ashleigh smiled and I don't think she knew what to think at first.

I just started laughing and coulnd't stop. Ashleigh went to get Justin to see the puppy.

I said, "we are just taking care of her" and he was fine with that.

So after some great excitement around the house, I put Justin and Ashleigh back in bed and finished towling off Shelby and took her outside, or did I try brushing her hair first? I can't remember.

After a few minutes, when I was outside with Shelby, Justin came running outside and said, "Mom, look!" He was pointing to his mouth and there was a hole where his tooth had fallen out! He said, he bit on his toy drum stick and he pulled it out a bit too! I was amazed as this was not his first wiggly tooth (middle left), but the one beside it!

We quickly came in the house to look for thist lost tooth and it's a good thing it had some blood, because it blended in well with bluish white carpet!


We went outside to tell daddy, who was 2 doors over at the neighbor's, and then tucked Justin and Ashleigh in again.

After some more bonding time, just me and Shelby, Chris came home and we went to bed. We thought of blocking off the living room so we wouldn't risk an "accident" on our new laminate flooring, but the couch wasn't going to work, so we said, "good night Shelby" and went upstairs to bed.

The next morning at around 5am, we awoke to her licking our feet. I got up with her and took her for a little walk. There were no puddle of pee or poo in the living room or kitchen! Yeah!


Chris awoke a little while later and we thought we'd try to cut some of the matts out of her hair. After about 10 minutes, Chris said, "I want to know how much dog grooming is and when do they open?"

I do remember it was only 7am, so we thought we'd give it some time and check it out after going to a garage sale at 8am. Our neighbor had offered to help cut her hair with some doggy clippers, but we weren't sure when she could.



Here is a before picture of Shelby.


Soon Ashleigh and Justin woke up and were thrilled to see Shelby.


After taking some pictures, we quickly had breakfast, so we could dash out the door to the garage sale that started at 8am.


Oh, we had some play time first.


Here is Shelby and Justin on her first truck ride with us ;0)

Ashleigh held her leash.

At the garage sale, guess what we spotted? A doggy carrier! There were 3-4 to choose from and they even came with doggy dishes! We were so pleased. This could be her little bed at night too.


The pet store wasn't open until 9am, so we went out for coffee and juice while Shelby sat in the truck. She was so cute, looking out the windows.

At 9am, we went to the pet store and it happened to be the one that our neighbor worked at. The one that offered to help cut Shelby's hair with some doggy clippers. She wasn't sure if the pet groomer was going to be in that day and it was going to be around $40 to get Shelby groomed, so we decided to just buy some doggy treats and take her offer to help us out trimming her hair when she got off work.




So now I'll bomb you with pictures of Shelby and the 4 of us during our venture to a lake yesterday. It was about an hour drive and it was so beautiful! Shelby took turns riding in the back seat with the kids and up front on my lap. She was so cuddly, a true "lap dog".




We had our picnic lunch on these rocks, right on the lake..


Justin and Shelby were the only ones that went swimming.

Justin and Chris had a blast throwing rocks, big and small, in to the lake. Ashleigh threw a few too.




I have learned that I like Shelby and Shelby likes me. Having a puppy isn't all that bad. We're having sooo much fun with her.