Introducing Lucy

She's so pretty, isn't she?

So this is Lucy.  She is Dave's 40th birthday present - arrived 2 weeks early.  She will be exactly 12 weeks old on his actual birthday, the 17th November.  She was born on the 25th August and was one of a litter of 3 - 1 golden girl, a chocolate boy and her.  She's awesome, so placid and as you can see... so pretty.

When we moved into our house, we were originally told that we were not allowed to have dogs.  Then in January, I approached the landlord again, asking for his permission if we put certain measures in place, namely baby gates so as not to allow her access to upstairs (even though all of upstairs is laminated flooring, except for the landing and all of downstairs is carpeted - even the kitchen!).  Anyway, he agreed and I kept it a secret from Dave.  I told him about 2 or 3 months ago that I had managed to get permission to have a dog and his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree - he was ecstatic!

The next obstacle was trying to work out when to get her.  We go away quite often, so it's a toss-up between still being responsible pet owners (which we are) and not allowing our movements to be ruled by our pets.  So I set about trying to find dog sitters and dog walkers, because until she's old enough to be left alone, we want her to continue to be socialised whilst we're at work.  So I have some time off work from the end of this week and will be able to stay with her and in the meantime, we're looking around for a puppy sitting service.  She is starting training classes next week - that should be fun!

We originally wanted the golden girl of the litter, but missed out on her by about 10 minutes, after we were delayed getting to the house to meet the pups.  During the 20 minutes we were there, Lucy just plodded around the kitchen, very curious, but very placid.  The golden girl, on the other hand, destroyed the corner of a massive bag of dog biscuits, shovelled about a kilo of them, then proceeded to tear apart a sock!  I'm beginning to think that we got the easier end of the bargain!

We had a really hard time naming her, resorting to Facebook to ask for suggestions for names for her.  We got a lot of really good suggestions (and a couple of not-so-good ones!) and after just over a day of being with us, she eventually had a name.  Lucy.  She is now starting to respond to it, which is very sweet to watch.  Now onto the house training... should be FUN!  Although... with eyes like this, who could be cross with her when the accidents inevitably happen?!

 

We're really looking forward to all the years of joy this little girl is going to bring us and I have no doubt that she will feature quite regularly on this blog in the days, months and years to come!