We Got A Dog!!!

Say hello to Charley! I wanted this name for Katie originally, but if I can't have a girl named Charley, then at least I can have a dog named Charley. :) One day I may get another animal that's a boy and call him Warner since I won't get away with that one either. Warner Wardle wouldn't really go well for a kid.
We picked out Charley at the Humane Society here in Tucson and she won my heart. I saw her laying down in her kennel and she looked so depressed. It looked like she thought she'd never get out of there. She was all the way in the back and I almost passed her by to keep looking at the other animals on the other side, but I decided to spend some time with her so I crouched down and started talking to her. Her eyes lit up and her tail started to wag slowly. She stood up and came nearer to me. She has dark markings above her eyes that are very expressive when she looks at you, so Mason referred to her as "eyebrows" for a while.
Other dogs began barking loudly and she didn't bark at all. We looked at one other dog, but then he started biting a blanket, and we thought, "Let's go look at that quieter sweet dog in the back again." We spent some time with her, and she's just as sweet as can be. She's extremely submissive and cowers.
We want to provide her with a happy home where she won't be afraid.

So we picked her out on a Saturday night and had to wait until Monday evening to pick her up. She had her special operation and is now on pain medication. Right when we brought her home she perked up and was sniffing everything like crazy. We've only heard her bark once and growl when cats enter our yard. I love her!

Picking up Charley on Monday, February 8, 2010.

She's great with the kids and has never nipped at them. She actually reminds me of the dog, Nanny, from Peter Pan who looks after the children. She's always coming down the hall and peeking in on the children when she hears them crying from their rooms.She hasn't had any bathroom incidents in the house, but the more comfortable she's become, the more "tricks" we discover that she knows. She's 1 1/2 years old, so she still likes to chew. She also likes to lay on our couches which I will not allow. Tonight I caught her putting her paws on our kitchen table.... gross! But when I tell her to get down, she listens.... she just returns for more when she thinks I'm not looking!
We've been having trouble convincing her to come in her crate, so I've been picking her up and forcing her in. I left her there for about 30 minutes to an hour to go and do an errand. When I returned, I found that she had chewed up the carpet in front of her crate throught the padding down to the cement! At this point I called my mom to declare that I hated having a dog. It has been an adjustment.... the responsibility, and smell, gating parts of the house up so she won't eat our food, or so the kids won't eat her food or play in her water bowl, but the kids love her, and the more I think about her good qualities, I'm glad that we got her. Plus she's still a puppy. There isn't a lot of hair from her (so far) and the smells aren't strong often. Each day that passes, I find that I like her more and more, and she is such a sweetie.
We put the crate in the backyard, and she's fine sleeping on a blanket in the corner where her crate used to be. Now we're trying to get her used to being on a cable line outside when we're gone. She can jump over our wall, and also wiggle out of her collar. I had tied her up on a post with her nylon leash which she chewed through in 5 minutes, of course. But luckily with my sewing skills, I fixed the leash and we got the cable set up. If her collar is on snug enough, she can't squirm out of it, and she's not very happy about it. Hopefully in time she will learn to be content with it though. She sits as close to the back door as possible and won't walk around with the cable on.
The first couple of days I was regretting our decision to get a dog, but now the situation is brightening, and Charley's teaching us to lighten up a bit... which we've needed for a while. It's fun to watch her dream. Her legs move a little like she's running and her mouth and eyes twitch, and sometimes she has low growls or little "Ruff's" come out of her mouth. She's such a good dog, and our family has fun spending time with her. We're anxious to do more exciting things with her (like run around in a park) once she's recovered from her surgery.