And introducing....

This morning started out great!

It was like Christmas. I woke up at 6:30 a.m., and as soon as I remembered what was happening today, I could no longer sleep. So, I began to deep clean my oven. Isn't that what everyone does when they can't sleep?

I was half-way through the racks and the bottom of the oven when Kevin and Grig woke up at about 7:45. We were planning on leaving at 8:30, but with the mess I made, we didn't manage to take off until 9:00.

We drove the hour and forty minute trip with our GPS giving us bogus directions, and we found our destination with no problem (it helps that we had been there only a month before.) We did, however, have a miracle on the way.

Since my sister's wedding, I haven't been able to find my wedding ring. We've prayed and searched everywhere. However, as we were driving to pick up the pup, Grig was searching for snacks for Kevin in the diaper bag. Suddenly he said, "Hun, guess what?"

He pulled out my wedding ring! It evidently had been in the diaper bag the whole time. I was so grateful. We immediately said a prayer, and after Grig had cleaned the sticky-candy-juice off of it, I was able to put it back on. Heavenly Father is very kind.

As we drove down the driveway to my aunt's home, we could see the puppies running in a field to the side of us. They had grown quite a bit and were quite fast. They raced us to the house and all six (mother included) greeted us with happy faces and wagging tails.

There is still one (maybe two) puppy(ies) available. She's the whiter one. There may also be a boy with similar coloring available too.

We said hello for a few minutes, and then we went and knocked on the door. My aunt answered, and we spent the next couple of hours fawning over our puppy and talking to my aunt. All of her kids were at school, so we didn't get to say hello to them; which was too bad.

We had a scare at one point. We had been playing with our boy, when suddenly he wandered off and disappeared about the time that my uncle drove in with his truck. We couldn't find him anywhere!

Visions of him lying crushed under a tire floated through my brain, but luckily, after half and hour or so, we found him in the den where his mother had given birth. He was pretty far underground with some boards covering the entrance. We had worn him out, so he just went to take a nap.

What a relief!

After that, my aunt was kind enough to fix us some lunch, we packed up our pup and the other dark male, and loaded everything into the car. The box we had brought was far too small for both puppies (though it might have fit them a month ago), so my aunt also supplied a new box. It was still a bit small, but it was big enough. They were cozy all the way home. Also, they were very cute.

The one on the right is our neighbor's pup. The one on the left with the broader white blaze is ours.

Kevin was pretty excited about the puppies being in the car. He kept wanting to play with them, and would get mad if his dad (who was in the back seat monitoring the situation) would touch them. He was tired and needed a nap. Grig was sure that he wouldn't fall asleep because he was too excited.

I guess he wasn't as excited as he was tired.

The puppy crashed too.

Other than a little car-sickness from our new pup (he threw up four times), things went really well. (Our neighbor's pup wasn't sick at all.) The pups slept most of the way. Grig thought he had the better end of the deal by sitting in the back while I drove, but at least I didn't have to clean up puppy-puke. :)

We reached our home and introduced Dakota to the new pup. We took them both outside so they would be on neutral territory before we brought him into the house. He was a little scared of her, and she didn't really care about him. She gave him a casual sniff and went back to what she was doing.

They've warmed up a bit, though Dakota still isn't sure what to think about the little guy. They'll get used to each other.

A long day for a little guy.

Next we brought him in and gave him a good bath. He did really well, and seemed to enjoy it. He seems to be a water-dog. He loves to splash in his bowl and in puddles outside. There goes the bath.

Oh well.

The pup is doing really well with house-training. He has only had two spills, and we caught both before he got very far. He finished up outside both times and has also defecated only on the grass. We have high hopes. He seems to catch onto things quickly.

Our neighbors seem to really like his brother and they were pretty happy to see each other when we ran into them later. We have plans to get them together and let them play.

Finally, we have officially picked our pup's name. We'd like to introduce:

Arkhon

After his long and exciting day, Arkon has spent the majority of it sleeping.

I'm tired too. I think I'm going to head to bed. I decided that I've been living off adrenaline for the past week, and when things got peaceful and I relaxed, I became exhausted.

Good night, all. It's been a good day.