"our new addition..."

It has been requested that I introduce our new addition... in early February we adopted two lab/boarder collie puppies.

We have always been dog people....our old faithful companion of 8 years, Max (affectionately know as Max-er the Moose) left this world while we were in Kansas for fall break at the end of October.  Max was a 130 lb. Labrador and truly our boys best friend.  He had a "sweet tooth" for cat food and would scour the subdivision, carrying home the dishes of feline kibble and enjoying them in the comfort of his own yard.  When the snow would melt from a long Indiana winter I would find dozens of pet dishes.  Max's guilty pleasure became his demise .... death by cat food. He asphyxiated on it.  It was a blessing, he had developed a leg cyst and we would have had to put him down this winter.  The boys took it hard, that their faithful companion had passed while we where gone, leaving the neighbors to feed & water him.

I think I took it the hardest of all.  This is the first school year in 7 with kiddos in school full time & Max kept me company.  The boys started working on us in early December.  My kindergartner said, "I've never gotten to experience puppy ownership Mom."  Max was 2 years-old when our youngest was born.  We had finally relented, agreeing to get a puppy in mid-June after we return form a family adventure to Yellow Stone.....


Fast forward to late January.  Indiana winters are tough on this Kansas sunflower.  The weather man reported that we had 11 minutes of sunshine in January.  There just isn't a break from the cloudy monochromatic scape.  So in late January I mentioned that I was feeling lonesome and had contacted a friend about their labra-doodle.  My husband, the problem solver, began researching dogs, but the price tag for a labra-doodle made the Kansas farm boy in him choke.


He contacted a veterinarian friend that consults on livestock nutrition about breed that are not too big, don't shed too much, yada yada..... our friend recommended an adoption.  In less than one week we went from browsing for a puppy to adopt in June to bringing home two.  Yes, two puppies.  They are brothers.  The black one is very bright & resembles a boarder collie in manner.  The black & white spotted one in mirror image of our old Max-ers personality and mannerisms... very much an affectionate Labrador.


My oldest selected the black pup and named him Slim Chance after the "Hank the Cowdog" series of books he has read this winter.  My youngest selected Mudge, the spotted Labrador with one blue eye & one brown eye.  Mudged is named after the canine character in Cynthia Rylant's series about a boy and his big dog.


They are each other's playmate: wrestling, nibbling on each other, kenneling up in the same crate at night. They ride with me to take the boys to school & pick them up in the afternoon.  They are my running buddies and tag-a-long with me many afternoons.


I needed to stop at Halmark to get a birthday card and I had the pups with me.  I had just taken them running, chowed a McDonald's cheeseburger and didn't want to drive them all the way home.  So I left them in the car, what harm could they possibly encounter?


When I returned to the car Mudge was in the driver's seat being the "look out."  When I opened the car door, Slim was on the floor and had shredded the bag & burger wrapper to bits... he has a sweet tooth for ketchup.  There were empty ketchup packets in the bag.  Slim had punctured them a dozen or so times with his incisors and sucked all the ketchup out.  I just had to chuckle, getting mad wouldn't do any good.

This had me thinking about the need for the companionship of a pet... the longing of our soul.
In Genesis Moses tells us the word of the Lord and what he said about animals.


Genesis 1:25 (New Living Translation)  ²⁵"God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals .... And God saw that it was good."

Pets give humans responsibility, needing to be feed & cared for... in return they give us their un-divided love.  Pets are good for the soul, they fill our lives with giggles over their 
un-human inhibitions.  We have providence over them in this world ... just as the Lord has divine providence over us.  The Lord is our governor, meeting our needs of this world... even the need for companionship.


I am so thankful that my boys are having the chance to grow up as dog owners... to govern over their pups well being, and being payed back in endless wags & kisses.