puppy.

We continued our journey of dog fostering this winter. We fostered an adult bully mix next, and had her for two weeks. She’d been found as a stray with a big thick collar and chain that had broken. She had the sweetest, happiest nature in the world, and was house-trained, but that’s about it. She was a handful! And amazing with people, but acted aggressively to any and all dogs. This made walking her stressful, and certainly alarmed our neighbors. The folks at the animal rescue promised us she did great with dogs there, so maybe she just switched into guard dog mode on a leash. Anyway, we decided she needed more experienced trainers than us to work on it and that maybe a younger dog would be a better fit.

So she wasn’t the dog for us, but the day David took her back to the shelter, I surprised us all by bursting into tears. I cried that entire week because I missed my dog. I thought I was losing it — I am not typically a cry-er. There definitely could’ve been some seasonal depression mixed in there, which I often struggle with in January and February.

 

 

David and I had a heart-to-heart. I wrestled with telling him how I felt because there are a hundred reasons we should not get a dog. We have dog allergies in the house. It’s expensive. We’re very busy people, and dogs are a lot of work. We love to travel. But I also knew that if I told him, “I really need this,” he’d make it happen.

So we talked it out, made our pro/con list. As you know from Amie’s post, she’s been dying for a dog most of her life, as well as Gabe and Noah. Judah has definitely not been dying for a dog and wasn’t thrilled with our decision to foster. Mostly because of dog allergies, but he’s also just not a pet person. David was on the fence. He loves dogs but worried owning one may just come to be one more stress for us. That’s where everyone stood on the issue. And that week I got an email from the shelter asking for a foster home for a four-month old bully mix puppy. After asking them a few questions, I picked her up two days later.

 

 

 

We fostered her for two weeks, and fell in love. She was found as a stray with a broken leg and was recovering from surgery when she came to us. We did some leg exercises, carried her up and down steps, and tried our best to keep her from running too much until she had her stitches removed and the all-clear for exercise.

Allergies were actually great, I’m happy to report, which is why we were interested in this breed. They have very short hair and almost no shedding. No one has needed to take Zyrtec even once.

 

 

 

At the end of the two-week mark, we had a big family meeting to hear how everyone was feeling about the puppy, and the next day, Amie and I went to the shelter to sign papers to adopt her.

 

 

We named our pup Kira, and if you’re wondering where we got the name, I’m not even sure. Amie and I presented David with a list of girl dog names we’ve heard that we like, and Kira was the only name he liked. I guess a lot of the names were a little too cute for him; he said she needs a strong name because she’s a strong woman. We couldn’t argue with that, given her already traumatic life history. So “Kira” she is!

 

 

Kira has a very sweet, mellow personality, and enjoys stretching out in a patch of sun. Of course she has typical puppy hyper-ness but I would call her a medium-energy dog, rather than high-energy. She loves people and is very friendly and eager to please. Amie and I are going to be her primary trainers, and have started with a clicker, lots of treats cut into tiny pieces, and a few basic commands. Our favorite trainer we’ve found is Zak George, and we’ve been watching his YouTube videos religiously.

Truly the biggest challenge is Kira’s puppy biting. She doesn’t often try to bite things (mostly because we keep a near-constant eye on her), but she loves to nip at us when she’s wound up. Those sharp puppy teeth hurt! So we’re using lots of redirection and chew toys. We’ve taught her tug of war and fetch to try and get some of that excess energy out.

 

 

She’s mostly house-trained, with just one or two potty accidents a day. She is also fully crate-trained and can sleep through the night. A puppy that woke throughout the night would’ve been a deal-breaker for us.

We got a great hand-me-down puppy crate from some friends, and move the crate to our bedroom to have Kira take 2-3 crate naps a day. She doesn’t love going in there, but if we tire her out well enough beforehand, she doesn’t whine or bark.

 

 

Her favorite place to nap though is on or next to one of us, so when we can be sitting still and she can settle herself down, we let her. That’s another reason I wanted a pit mix. They are such cuddlers. And, if raised and socialized well, they’re truly the happiest and sweetest dogs. A couple that used to live in our neighborhood had a pit mix named Rufus, and I used to say, “If I ever have a dog, I want one just like him.” It was impossible to be in a bad mood with that wide, smiling face and his boundless enthusiasm for playing fetch.

Now that Kira has her stitches out, we’re encouraged to socialize her with other dogs as much as possible — cats too, even the family guinea pigs. I took her down the street to our friend McKensie’s house to meet their cat, Castor, and, while Kira was very eager to make friends, Castor was mortally offended by her impertinence. He hissed and nipped at her nose twice. Oh Castor. McKensie said it’s good for him.

Kira is very nervous around other dogs thus far. We have to laugh taking her on walks; she’s the dead opposite of our last foster dog, who seemed to want to eat every dog she came across. Poor Kira just backs away and puts her tail between her legs at every bark. Thankfully, we have several friends in the neighborhood with laid back dogs that we’ll start her playing with.

 

 

One of the biggest surprises of the year has been how happy having a dog makes me. I didn’t see that coming at all — I never thought we’d be a dog family. I’m now realizing that I am a dog person; I just had my hands full for so many years with moving overseas and starting a church and raising kids. I had no extra brain space to imagine our lives with a dog.

I don’t know when the switch happened, because, even while faithfully listening to my favorite podcast, Raising Boys & Girls — where the hosts regularly recommend that every family own a dog — I thought, dubiously, Hmm, well that will never be us.

Once we started fostering though, I realized how much I actually love having a dog around. It makes me more active, having to jump up and walk them or play with them. It gets me outside more, even in the cold or rain. It gives me someone to cuddle with on the sofa each night with my book (I know I know, I have David and my kids to cuddle with, but for an introvert, it’s just really nice sometimes having someone who doesn’t talk to cuddle with).

And of course it brings me so much joy to see how happy the three younger kids are. Judah is coming around. We’ve agreed to give each other space in the transition — he won’t blame me every time the puppy is annoying, and I won’t hover, anxiously asking him if he’s starting to bond with her.

 

 

I’m definitely tired though! In the last couple weeks, I’ve suddenly had all these memories of having babies and adopting the boys. Cups of coffee sitting cold on the kitchen counter, very short quiet times where I just manage to read a Psalm, and that stack of books I got for my birthday is sitting mostly untouched. After an early wake-up call with Kira this morning, the big kids found me later on fast asleep, sitting up in my bed while trying to listen to Noah’s read-aloud.

But somehow, just like with really young kiddos, I’m making better use of my time with less of it, and I’m just . . . happier. I can’t explain it. Having a puppy just brightens our days.