Making it

Making it through the first week with a puppy is an accomplishment.  I feel like I've run a marathon; if I can do this- I can do anything!  It's easy to see why so many puppies are given up to shelters; they're TOUGH WORK!  Their cuteness is really a great disguise for all that goes into making them an obedient part of your family.

We've learned some things this week-

1) Puppies love to sleep on your lap.
2) Puppies love to chew on anything and everything.
3) Puppies are curious, even more so than cats at times.
4) Puppies don't sleep through the night.
5) Puppies whine when they want something.
6) Puppies need to be taken out frequently to eliminate.
7) Kids will complain about how frequently said puppy needs to go out.
8) Puppies love feeding time.
9) Puppies never learn the first time.
10) Puppies require repetition for learning.
11) Puppies are unconditional in their love for you.

Each day is an improvement over the last; she's learning and growing and playful.
We love that she is a part of our family.

                                                       Where's Ester in this photo below?

Adventures with Ester (part 1)

I'm exhausted.
I'm out of sorts.
I'm wondering what I can get done while she's sleeping.
I'm wondering how long she'll sleep.

On the other hand, she loves to burrow in the crook of my arm, and settle in like it's the perfect place for her.  When she whined in the middle of the night, I got on the floor with my pillow and she nestled on my arm and went fast to sleep.

Oh to be needed again.

Then came shower time this morning.  Thinking that locking her in the bathroom with me was a good idea, I proceeded to hop into our walk in shower.  Ester watched, and enjoyed the spray coming out on the floor.  Not satisfied with that, she waltzed right into the shower with me as if it was the most natural thing in the world. God love her.  As cute as it was, pack leader mentality kicked in, and I spent the next ten minutes training her to stay out.

All kinds of fun.

And it's only day two.

Tomorrow, you're only a day away!

Tomorrow our lives are all going to change.  For the better.

Except for the cats.  They're about to have a really long vacation in the cat lair, if I can predict anything.

E-dog will arrive around 11:30 and I also predict I'll be a bit like a first time mom.  How do I hold her? Can I feed her this way? How often should she go out?  Is it ok if she....and on and on it goes.

Puppy parenting isn't for the faint of heart.
And puppy parenting a future Seeing Eye dog is only for the very brave, I'm discovering.
Today I finished reading the 100+ page manual that tells me all the things we need to do or not do in the next year.  My head just exploded a little- alright-, a lot.  If she were our dog, we could blow it on the training and live with the consequences.  She's not our dog, and therein lies the difference.  The foundation is expecting us to do certain things that will manifest in her being ready to move on to phase two of her training.  Can you feel the pressure I'm under?

It's like that age old question: "How do you eat an elephant?"  "One bite at a time".  There's comfort in this truth.  I'm overwhelmed by this manual that tells me all the things I must strive towards in the next year with her.  Of course it's good to have goals but when you try to take them on all at once, it's bound to weigh you down.  So for now, I will pray my way through this (as I should) and learn to take it one day at a time.  For this here planner, it's going to be a tough lesson to learn- to take each moment, each hour and each day slowly.

I will fail, I know this.  There will be many times that she won't make it outside in time, and it will be my fault.  She will find some crumb of food that she's not to have, and it will be my fault.  She will chew on a piece of furniture when I've turned my back, and I'll be to blame.

But she will succeed too, and those moments will surpass all the failures, the trials and the stress.

I can't wait to begin this adventure tomorrow.

She's coming soon!

There's just something about a puppy for Christmas that melts my heart.
As in the real mushy, almost in tears, melt my heart.  That new puppy smell, the big belly, all of it combined to be one ginormous package of LOVE.  I feel like a kid.

"She" is the 7 week old black lab that's been bred to be a Seeing Eye dog.  A working dog, in no uncertain terms.  A dog that will be the eyes for a blind person.  A dog that will be freedom for one that is saddled with a disability.  A dog that will be accepting of this person because they only know to love, not judge.

"She" will be ours to love, train and socialize for the next year or so, until which time she heads off to the next phase of her training.  We're all in this, humans AND cats- although the felines have no idea what's about to hit them.  Can't say I'm envious.

Dogs are unique pets in that they give unconditional love.  Cats could care less if you're around, as long as you give them food and a nice place to rest, they're good with life.  But dogs demand our attention, our love and our patience.  A puppy demands even more.

I love the idea that all this love and effort we're going to invest in her will be of some greater good for another person.  Animals have this amazing capacity to change people's lives, and we want to be a part of that for someone else.  My kids need to understand that it's not about us.  Teaching them to love and serve others is easier said than done.  For the next year we'll be living out the verse "And above all things have fervent love for one another" (1 Peter 4:8) and it will take much prayer as we endeavor to love this person we don't even know, as we raise their future seeing eye dog.

And yes, it will be tough, very tough to give her up at the end of our time with her.  It's amazing that almost every person I've spoken to about this, comments on that ONE fact.  "It would be so hard to give it back" they say.  As if this should keep us from serving in the first place?   What would my children learn if every lesson in life was an easy one?   My children  need to understand that we give because we have been given much.  It's that simple.

Christmas time is the perfect time to remember that principle.  How paws-itively timely!