The Low Down on Dublin

~He is Amish.

At least, that is the culture in which he was born. He and Big D had a nice long talk on our visit to pick him out and he said he was willing to join our pack...er, family... even though we do drive cars, watch t.v., and have more cell phones then kids. (At least it feels that way when the phone bill comes!)

~He is a Golden-Doodle.

Half golden retriever and half poodle for the un-initiated. Some might call him a mutt, but his price tag begs to differ. But this was extremely important to us to find a non-shedding dog (or low shedding...we shall see!).

~He is medium.

He was neither the runt nor the fattest in the litter. He wasn't the shy-est and he also wasn't the most extroverted and playful of the litter. He was right in the middle with size and personality. We have done the sympathy card before and we have fallen prey to the "cuteness" factor before. This time, we were calculating, observant, and purposeful in our choosing. (Oh, I sure hope he doesn't turn out to be a socio-pathic dog! We have done that before too.)

~He sure better be a good traveler!

'Cause we are about to spend 16 hours with him in the car and that is a heck of a long ride if the dog doesn't do motion well.
(Can I hear an Amen, Kellie?)

We are Dog People!

So it has been a couple months since Truck has been gone. Our poor sore hearts miss the big black galoot, especially with it warming up outside. We still have Hidey Cat to comfort us, but we are finding that kitties are poor comfort when deep down we are dog-people. So the search is on. Take a look at what we are thinking may just be our next "pain in the neck".



It is a golden-doodle, thank you very much. They don't shed (so he could be inside with us all winter), they hunt and swim (not that D gets to hunt that much), they are adorable (just look at that face), and they are big (why that matters, I am not sure but for some reason it does). What more could our family want?! We even have a breeder, an Amish farmer up north who comes highly recommended by a family in our church.

Will let you know if anything comes of it.

PS In case you didn't know this about us, WE LOVE PUPPIES!!!

Truck's Adventures

About a month ago, Truck left home for another one of his adventures.

He has had many adventures over the last 5 years. So many in fact that I was once inspired to write a series of stories about his wanderings back in our Texas days. They mostly had to do with character issues that I wanted my kids to begin to notice in their own lives and work on. Over-turned garbage cans around the neighborhood and over-night absences were just the creative springboard for getting those points across to them in a fun way.

Don't get me wrong...the kids weren't exactly turning over the neighbors trash or running away for long periods of time, but I managed to make it work!

This latest adventure was his last for us as a family. We couldn't find him this time around.

It is a little easier knowing that this is just how he was. We couldn't train him out of that sense of adventure and the radio collar wasn't always effective enough to keep him close to home. But with his wander-lust, it really was only a matter of time.

So in this final post on the big goof ball, I just want to say that as much of a pain as he was to us, and as much pain as he caused us, he was our pain, and he is missed. His little personality quirks (digging holes, stealing little girls' mittens off their hands, marking our visitors' tires...) were all part of the story of our family's life these past 5 years because Truck was ours. Everyone was considered a friend, he hunted with D, and he was a gentle beast of a dog with our children. He was ours and he is missed.