As many of you know, we lost our dog of eight years last Spring after a brief bout with cancer; we lost our cat of as many years a few weeks later. We brought new cats into our lives almost right away – the house was just too quiet with no animals – but we waited on a dog.
Partly, I think we were nervous about how the dog would interact with an exuberant, irrational toddler (or an exuberant, irrational 32-year-old IT worker for that matter), and partly we felt the loss of our go-go-go, no-holds-barred, slightly insane, highly energetic and extremely neurotic little Welsh Corgi very deeply. Hobbes was a nice cat but he was of the sort who gives cats a bad name with some people, in that he found you on the somewhat rare occasions he wanted attention – and put me down the rest of the time, thank you very much.
Jax in January 2004 or so.
Well, Cooper the Golden Retriever came to stay a couple of weeks ago, and we’re all getting along swimmingly now. Still adjusting to the new morning routine of deflecting the baby and the cats from the dog’s food dish, and man this guy can walk compared to our last dog! It takes 2 miles before he starts to slow down, and I’ve done as much as 3 with him. Jax (the Welsh Corgi) could get a decent workout around the block, and likely would’ve been carried home on a 2-miler.
My daughter likes to give him hugs and kisses and calls him Pooper (no C/K sound yet). He’s 5-plus years old and comes to us from family who loved him a lot but just did not have enough time for him after the youngest kid left for college last Fall.
Cooper in January 2007
Cute dog, congrats on the new arrival:)