New Family Member

So as some of you might have guessed we have been on the road to puppy parenthood for the last several weeks. This was not my idea! But it was my Valentine's present to my hubby. He's always wanted a yellow lab and we are hoping that she and Koko will be good friends. They already get along really well. It's pretty funny...if Koko is in her dog run and we let Kayla outside first thing she'll run down the sidewalk to find her friend.

We did end up buying a puppy instead of adopting an animal from the shelter. We probably could have lied or found one that fit eventually, but we are not very patient people. So Joey found this little cutie on KSL.com and the rest is history. She is nearly 6 weeks old, which we've since discovered is a little young still to be separated from mamma and her litter. She has a really rough night the first night, but Joey has been playing the perfect puppy papa and she seems to be doing much better lately.

Joe bought a kennel for her so she can sleep inside since she's been inside up to the this point and doesn't have a winter coat. He slept out by the kennel for the last two nights trying to help her adjust. It seems to be helping as she's getting better all the time. We're trying to see if she'll sleep on her own out there tonight. We'll see how that goes. I think Joe's getting a little idea of what it's like to be up several times with a new baby in the middle of the night. But he's been very faithful about taking all the responsibility for her. I hope it goes OK when he goes back to work. He took Friday off because it was NUTS at the daycare and there was no way I could take care of the puppy and the kids. He'll have tomorrow off work because they are doing something with the power at SUU all day. So hopefully by Tuesday she'll be more settled down and not so high maintenance.

And I can't wait until she goes outside. I swore up and down we wouldn't have inside dogs. Now the puppy's in here, so of course we have to let Koko in at least a few times a day so she doesn't get totally jealous. Joey keeps promising this is temporary and really it has to be because we just don't have room for dogs in the house.

We've named her Kayla. We were going to do Kaylee, but with Kristy, Kelley, Katie (Maren) and Koko...plus daycare kiddos (Kiley, Rylee and Kayzley) we figured Kayla might be a little better. My vote was Maggie, but I got shot down. She's not my dog after all.

Oh and while we're on dog stories....we've been trying for at least a month now to figure out how Koko is getting out of her dog run. She's been pretty sneaky and won't get out when she figures anyone is watching. Joey even set up the tomato cages in front of the fence to see if she was jumping over. (He figured she's knock them over). So on Friday he finally set up the video camera and made me promise to watch for her to get out so she didn't end up knocking it over and chewing it up after she got out. And the verdict? She is scaling the fence, which is actually mostly chicken wire). It's pretty funny to watch her climb over this...maybe we'll post the video sometime.