My First Puppy!!

All my life I have wanted a pet of my very own.  My mother on the other hand, distained animals of any kind.  My grandparents (and next door neighbors) always kept a cat and a dog and said they belonged to all of their grandchildren, but it just wasn't the same. As children my sister and I would catch giant house flys and keep them in shoe boxes.  They had all the comforts of home of course, a little piece of cloth for a bed, one soda cap full of water and another full of crushed up crackers.  I know what you are thinking, "eww gross"....and yes, looking back on it, I have to agree.

After the flies we moved onto tadpoles and frogs, but they were harder to feed and we usually let them go after a day or two for fear of starvation.  Then there were the few times we plucked a nest full of baby birds from a tree convinced that they were abandoned, and it was now our job to take care of them.  Many tears and dead baby birds later, we realized that probably wasn't the best idea.  Baby birds couldn't live off of "Cream of Wheat" and no matter how many old socks we bundled them with, they weren't warm enough.  The real score was when at 12, I was allowed to have a turtle!  I named him Colby James and thought he was the best thing ever.  The downfall was that my mom thought he was gross and stinky and made him live in the basment.  The basement was far too cold for him and he never really did anything other than sit on his rock.  I let him go in a pond by my house a few months after I got him because I thought he would be happier.

My first real pet was a kitten I rescued from the Humane Society.  I got him when I was living in my little studio apartment in Albany.  I had him for about 3 days when he started getting sick.  Being young and never really having pets I just thought he would get over it.  I took him back to the Humane Society a week later because he was having trouble breathing.  They ended up having to put him down because he turned out to be really sick.  So as you can see my track record with pets hasn't been very good thus far.

After my husband and I got our house we knew we wanted a dog.  I wanted one not only for myself but for my kids as well.  I wanted them to have what I wasn't allowed to have as a child.  The thing was, I didn't want just any dog.  I wanted a GIANT dog.  I researched all the large dog breeds and came up with the Newfoundland as being the best match for our family.  So in August of this past summer we became the proud parents of our little furbaby Cano. 

He came all the way from Texas and his flight was delayed 3 hrs.  We anxiously awaited his arrival at the airport and when we finally saw him it was love at first sight.  My husband and I were like new parents all over again, fussing over him and mauling him with our love all at the same time.  He settled in with us quite nicely and after a few weeks of waking up every few hours to let him out to "do his business" he was potty trained.
                                     
Cano really is the perfect dog.  At only 7 months old he stands up to my hip and weighs about 85lbs, and he's still growing!  He loves the kids, will not let them go anywhere without him, and even thinks he has to protect them from Daddy when they are being tickle tortured.  Unfortunately, he has absolutley no idea how big he is.  He would climb up in my lap if I let him, and yes, he tries several times a night.  When he wants to play, he brings over one of his toys and drops it, along with a glob of slobber, in your lap.

As I sit here writing this, I am thinking about the tumble weeds of hair rolling across the floors of my house.  How I will never again be able to wear a pair of socks around without stepping in a puddle of drool or keep the covers off of my new sectional.  But I am ok with that, because I finally have MY pet....I mean we have OUR pet.