puppy love

Meet our the newest member of our Wolf pack (har har)!

We picked up this little ball of sweetness on Saturday after only a couple of fairly brief conversations about whether or not we were really ready to get a dog. I mean, we have both really wanted to have a dog, and I miss our dear family dog Angus sooo much. But neither of us have ever actually had an indoor dog of our own. It is a big deal, and we KNOW that it is a big deal and a big commitment. But we also know that we could give a homeless pet a lot of love and a happy place to live. So. We proceeded.

We decided to take the plunge anyway, especially after we met this sweet (yet to be named) little man. We learned that he had been found wandering around the city and brought to a neighborhood doggy day care by the teenager who found him. The day care agreed to foster him, and called the Red Door Animal Shelter (which is really a cat and rabbit shelter) to help find a home for him. He's somewhere between 4-8 years old, according to the vet's rough estimate, and only a couple of people have come to look at him in the more than 2 months that he has been homeless. He was obviously someone's pet though, since he knows some basic commands, is house trained, and is totally nonplussed by other dogs, cars, people, kids, squirrels, or rabbits. He is remarkably chill and is warming up to us quite nicely.

I'm sure we have no idea what we have really gotten ourselves into, but for now, we are enjoying his affectionate gentleness, and feel happy that we were able to give him a permanent home after a couple of months of the nomad life.

Yale is positively smitten with him. I am quickly becoming the "Bad Cop" in our little family, with my insistence that the bed is for people, and that treats are a sometimes food. But it does make my heart all melty even more for my adorable husband, whose big heart and patient gentleness extends so lovingly to all creatures, from pups to bumble bees.

I confess that I did have a bit of a panic episode on Friday night while trying to fall asleep. The only real hesitation I had about getting a dog turned to be my fear that a dog could complicate options for following the call to EPIC in my life. In OUR life. What if we are supposed to move to who-knows-where to serve and minister to people? What if we want to at least keep doing short-term mission work? Would Nameless cause us undo distress? Are we better off unencumbered? I mean, I think we are both smart and rational enough to realize that if God says "GO" we will say "YES!", but figuring out what to do with Nameless could be a real troublesome kettle of fish.

Ultimately, we decided that whatever the Lord has for our life together will provide for the needs of this little pup somehow as well. That God cares for all his creatures, and if we need to find a temporary or new home for him in order to follow our call, that we will. Or, in Yale's mind, we will bring him with us where ever we go.

It's a big deal, this dog parent thing. It feels like a whole new layer of our life has just been sewn onto our skin. But it's also amusing/amazing that even in two days, I feel like I am seeing new things I love about Yale, and that we have both noted on a couple of sly, under our breath occasions, that caring for this little life could be good training ground for any possible, maybe, someday, we'll-see, dare-we-say-it...baby.

Dogs and babies are NOT the same. For sure. But there is something sort of parallel about it that has gotten us both thinking.

Ready or not, here we go!

(with the dog. not the baby.) (yet).