Puppy Love

I know everyone already knows this, but I absolutely love my dog, Bailey. I just couldn't keep blogging without devoting a blog post to her.

We have had Bailey for almost 4 years now. I still remember the day we went to get her. I wanted a dog so bad - Dan... not so much. I had begged and begged and promised everything under the sun in order to get a dog. Dan wasn't really interested. He had all kinds of reasons - they tear up the house, we didn't have time... the list went on and on. But I was persistent and of course he finally gave in!

We did a ton of research. We wanted a dog that would be good with kids, was a larger breed, didn't shed, and wasn't territorial.After a lot of deliberation, we landed on Labs. We looked online and saw a couple ads in newspapers. We even went to look at a couple litters, but nothing really stuck. I was beginning to worry that we weren't really going to get a dog.

Then Dan found an ad in the newspaper from a breeder and we made an appointment to go see it. For me, it was love at first sight. As soon as I saw her, I knew she was ours. Dan wasn't quite convinced. Bailey was 5 months old at the time. She had been bought by a family who had a baby at home. When they took her home, they realized the baby was allergic to dogs, so they had to bring her back. Now, because she was a little older, they were having a hard time finding her a home.

After a little convincing and finding out that she was already house trained, we agreed that she was the one we wanted. She was already named Bailey and we didn't want to confuse her, so we kept the name.

The night we took her home, we didn't have anything for her - no crate or dish or food. I guess we really weren't expecting to get a dog. On the way home, she peed in the back of my car. I thought Dan was going to turn around and take her back. Maybe he would have if it had been his car! :)

There have been some struggles - like when she peed on our bed twice or when she would get out and we would spend hours wandering the neighborhood trying to find her, but mostly it is good. I love her so so much. I talk to her like she's a person and I swear she understands every word I say. She is great with the kids in our family and everyday she makes me smile. Sometimes Dan says that I love Bailey more than him... it's a tough call sometimes :)