Our Surprise

Here he is. Our new furbaby. I know, you're all thinking "You people have lost your minds going and adopting another dog!" While that's true, this had nothing to do with it...I for one had lost my mind a long time ago. But, here's how this all came about:

Last Summer we lost our Nikki, and Gabby was really sad. She seemed to age over night. We decided she needed a friend again, so last Fall we adopted Molly through Smalls Paws Rescue, an awesome organization that rescues bichons. Molly is great and we love her. She and Gabby have bonded and love to sleep next to each other. But the playfulness in both was leaving more and more each day. A couple of months ago I said to Jay "So what would you think about getting another dog. A younger more playful dog to help bring the youth back out in our own". We discussed the pros and cons and decided we would look around, but not rush into anything. I knew I would want another bichon and definitely wanted to go through SPR again. I looked on their site, but wasn't seeing anything that caught my eye or that sounded right for us. Then about 2 weeks ago I saw this dog's profile. I showed it to Jay and we both agreed it sounded like a good match. I applied for adoption of him and long story short...here he is.

His name at the Foster home was Little Buddy, but that reminded me way too much of Gilligan (remember the Skipper always called him that), so we tossed a few names around and somehow Tucker popped into our heads and stuck. We picked Tucker up from the airport last night. He arrived in a crate wearing a little shirt his Foster mom had put on him in case it was chilly in the plane. He slowly came out of the crate on the drive home and was content to either lay right beside me or on my lap. He is a hoot. He cocks his head from side to side as you talk to him. LOL

Here's what little we know about his background...He was a year old in April and was used for breeding. He was in a home, not a puppy mill, so he is well socialized and loves to give kisses. The owners decided to retire from breeding and put Tucker and a couple of females in their local shelter (they really loved them didn't they? *sigh*). SPR rescued them from the kill shelter in Texas, and put him in one of their foster homes in Ohio. He is very playful and has already ticked Gabby off by stealing her toys when we play fetch. hehehe He is fully housetrained (BONUS!) and has already learned how to go through the doggie door. The biggest shocker so far has been Ringo. Mr. Cool Man ("don't call ME a dog") usually ignores every other dog he sees, but he got down in the playful pounce position and barked like a wild man. It was so funny to see! Here's some pictures we took after we got home last night:

Tuckers meets his new brother and sisters.
They were all very curious about each other,
but not sure they were totally thrilled with
the new guys energy level.




Before Tucker was sent here, the Foster mom asked how we wanted him groomed. We keep our dogs hair cut short, because long hair just isn't practical on the farm. Well, they groomed him short alright...basically bald. They even shaved his tail!! Bichons are known for their big fluffy tails and you never ever cut the tail. Oh well, at least it's warm outside and the hair will grow back.




Tucker wasn't sure he could figure out how to work the stairs. It took a few times of him jumping off the side to figure it out, but now he runs up and down them along with the other dogs... especially since he knows those stairs lead to the doggie door (which he has also already learned how to use).



Gabby says "Listen kid, lets get one thing straight -
these are MY toys. Got it?"







Tucker decides to leave Miss Crabby pants and her toy alone and go get his own toy to play with - and nothing is off limits to be considered a toy. He especially seems to love to run around with any stray socks he finds.




So there you have it...our surprise. The main reason we didn't tell anyone ahead of time was because he didn't have a name officially until after we got home last night. There were 3-4 we were tossing around, and while Tucker has always been a favorite, we wanted to wait and see which name seemed to fit him the best.

Welcome home Tucker. Welcome home.