Since Samson passed away about 18 months ago, ours has been a very feline-heavy home. Tuck died in 2010, and shortly after two cats – Monkey and Zion – rushed in to fill the rather large gap left in his absence. Sam likewise left a really big hole, and we’ve talked many times about when and how and why we would eventually adopt another dog.
I don’t know that there’s ever a good time for anything, really. There are plenty of bad times to do things. But that one perfect, stellar moment? Meh. That happens in movies. In real life, you pick a gap in traffic the best you can and just go for it. The ideal circumstances never arrive.
Even by that measure, Eden was a lining up of planets of sorts. And a rather adorable one at that.
Eden is a purebred yellow Lab girl puppy, about eight weeks old as of this writing. We’re her guardians via an arrangement with local Lab breeder Rooster Valley Labradors. The general idea is that Eden is our dog, and RVL will breed her when the time is right, and after a couple of litters she’ll be fixed and will remain with us for the rest of her life.
After long discussion, her name was either going to be Chloe or Eden. Eden was a much better call.
So for the last week, we’ve been housebreaking and trying to keep the peace between her and the cats, switching shifts each morning (3am, 7am) because she can’t be crated for more than a few hours at a time, and generally getting run ragged by a puppy with boundless energy and a bladder the size of a walnut. She hasn’t had all her shots yet, so we have to keep her in the house or in the backyard for now, which luckily offers her wide expanses to run around and get into closely supervised trouble.
She’s coming along. We’re now at a point where she knows to head for the back door if she needs to go out. When an accident happens, it’s because we didn’t move fast enough when she headed for the kitchen. Eden behaves well for the most part, and in another week or two we’ll start her training in more earnest. For now, though, it’s Eden’s world and we all just live in it.
She’s a beautiful dog, and very sweet. I’m looking forward to writing more about her in future R&K entries.