GRATITUESDAY!-

I''m so grateful, for soooo much, this GRATITUESDAY!

Please let me share one precious little treasure!

Some of you may have noticed that I wasn't around much during the month of December? Well, there were many , many reasons and I as promised...I'm gonna tell ya more about 'why'!

Well, for starters, you guys know I was busy with half a dozen kiddie winkies, right?

And I told ya about the infection, right?

K, well.....do you guys remember my story about our Poodle, Captain?

Well, the little guy kept developing more and more -uuhhhhh...behavior issues.

We tried all of that nicey-nice pet behavior-management stuff and still he remained unpredictable.

Now, before I go on, let me just say that I have never been one of those kind of people.

You know, the ones who would throw their kids out for their pets? Or perhaps not that extreme, but the kind that would do weird stuff like chew food up and feed it to their little poopsey-woopsey?

Well, anyway, just for the record: I HAVE NEVER BEEN ONE OF THOSE!

:-)

So, having said all of that... I must add that I'm also not one of those who just think people with pets are completely insane. I think and hope that I am moderate and 'normal'. :-)

-and not without natural affections while regarding the life of my beast as per Scripture-Rom 1:31, 2 Tim 3:3,Prov 12:10

Now that you know me a little better...... I'll now get on to the rest of the story like Paul Harvey! (Did you hear his voice in your head? Yeah, I did too!)

So- back to Captain and his issues.

We made the tough decision to re-home Captain. We were so perplexed about it because of our little girl (remember the one who wanted him because she's "the only girl and doesn't have a sister"?). Despite the aggravation that this little creature was causing the rest of us (growling at the boys and snapping at them at times), and the fact that she couldn't even pet the little grumpy guy anymore...she still loved him! But the final decision was made after the 3rd professional warning. (The vet warned us (to get him away from the kids) and 2 groomers; one groomer that he tried to bite and another that he did bite -mm-hmm and yes, he drew blood.)

...and I want you to know that after he made it to his new home, with an older, single lady....he turned into an apparent angel! 'magine that? Maybe he found someone who would chew his food up?!?!

You guys know what happened for the next 3 nights straight, don't you? YES, tears, tears, and more tears from the eyes of our dear little daughter. She even wrote little heart-wrenching notes to me and DH with these words : "Can you please, please go get Cap-um back? I miss him real bad. Oh sob! Oh cry!"

So while my husband was thinking of ways to go get that critter back, I was wishing that I had waited to teach her to write!

But, in this one, I had to be the strong one and say "We are NOT getting that dog back! He's not happy here, he's happy there, and if he were to hurt someone here- it would be real bad." (Daddies! they just melt don't they?;-)

Yeah they do.....listen....

DH said, what on earth can we do to stop her hurt? And me being the all-knowing, investigating, searching and seeking, wife and mom that I am said, "Get her another one." :-)

...I went on to share what I had learned about different breeds, which was better with children, which didn't shed, prices and places to buy, proper training starting from puppy-hood, and where we could find one right away! :-)

So....we are now the proud family/owners of a sweet little puppy named Penny.

She became our "December Christmas Family Project"!

The kids and I worked very hard coming up with items to post on ebay to help raise funds to buy her. I got elected with the special job of caring for her during the night, which was like a new baby for the first couple of weeks. We have also began lots of behavior management training with her to hopefully avoid any form of problems with her in the future.

She already has been able to learn and respond to more commands/tricks and training than we were able to accomplish with our other dog, yet we don't have to chew her food up!

Would you like to meet her?

Here is our little sweet heart:PENNY!

AIN'T SHE CUTE?

And now my little girl writes notes about "making your dog happy" but I don't know if she's wrote one that said "thank you"...hmm. But she has helped me during the late night hours with little Penny and it has been a very precious thing to watch her be so doting and loving towards this little pup and to have the little pup give that love back to everyone in our home. She has truly brought a sweet and joyful spirit to our home! An answer to prayer!

Wanna know more about Gratituesday?

Please visit LAURA'S!

And you can be sure that I'll be posting about some frugal pet-care tips!