We have a new member in our family. And we are all happily adjusting to the sound of little paws on the wood floor. Actually our new arrival hates the wood floors and tries to stay on the rugs as much as she can… but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Our newest family member is a labrador puppy we’ve named Claire de Lune, after the lovely baroque tune by Debussy, and because her face reminds me of moonlight. She’s much more refined than the rest of us, as she is a descendant of British dog royalty (well, sort of) and we are all Irish/Anglo/American mutts with some forlorn Danish blood tossed in on my kids end of things. We just call her Claire, but you can tell she knows her whole name. Like Kate Middleton, she can pull off the whole polite-and-floppy-at-the-same-time thing. Unlike Kate she eats twice a day but we like it about her.
At this point I’m going to fawn about my dog unapologetically so if you don’t stop reading don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Claire is a different breed in several ways. I’ve been around lab puppies before. But never one that came in and sat down next to me and wanted nothing more than to do a first class impression of an adoring best friend. Puppies are supposed to bite you and jump on you and knock down small children. They’re supposed to make you cuss yourself for starting this whole process with a new dog when you know it means nothing but chewed furniture and pot holes in your flower beds.
But apparently we are housing a sweetheart. My youngest son now no longer says goodnight/I love you to anyone else in the family.
So far she heels, sleeps through the night, and hasn’t had an accident in the house. She’s nearly five months old and doesn’t even like to bark. She just makes cute little yips when we throw her a tennis ball, which she immediately retrieves.
We got our other dog Scout from the pound and he turned out great! But it took a while. Like five years. And some patio furniture. And some dry wall.
So maybe good breeding does make a difference. The rest of us will just have to keep up the best we can.
If you check in I’ll keep you updated on the princess. Next week we might be serving her tea and dog biscuits. We’ll just have to play it/her by ear.
A good dog is hard to find. Our chocolate lab passed away in July and I was devastated. He was such a good dog! How would we ever find another to match him? Then a friend asked us to babysit a stray she had rescued. Though different in EVERY way from our lab, this little maltese-poodle filled a hole we needed filled.
Dogs are the best and I love it when other people agree!
So glad you found each other. Dogs and people are made for each other!