PUPPY! Puppy! Puppy! Puppy! Puppy!
Mooch the Wonder Pooch
Yes we have a new puppy. How did you guess? It all happened rather quickly and serendipitously. We already have an almost-eight-years-old Labradoodle who is a fantastic dog and I’d been thinking for a while about getting a new puppy next Spring.
The woman who teaches J swimming, has been bringing her Australian Labradoodle puppy to classes and we have very quickly fallen in love with her. Bella is an absolute sweetie pie and just gorgeous. She was thinking about breeding her next summer and I asked her to put us on the list. Then, this past Thursday, she mentioned that the breeder she had gotten Bella from, had just made available a pup from Bella’s litter. One that had been held back because they had been planning on having him trained as a service dog for a young boy. The boy couldn’t take him right now and so he was available. Hmmm.
My immediate reaction was “An older dog? Not for us” but then I thought about it for 30 seconds and realized that an older dog would be PERFECT for us. Already crate-trained and we would skip a lot of the annoying ‘puppy things’. Again. Hmmmm. I spoke with the breeder that afternoon and we hit it off. She and I made plans for us to come up on Saturday and take a look at the pup. Then I broke the news to Derek. Almost in the exact same way I broke the news about Pippin. “Hey honey, you know how I’ve been thinking about getting another dog?”. What a guy my husband.
We drove three hours up into gold country Saturday morning and spent a delightful couple of hours with the breeder and her dogs. Took the pup about 10 minutes before he warmed up to us and then it was like he had known us his whole life. It was just perfect. Just meant to be. The breeder, Jeannine, is warm, friendly and outgoing and loves, really loves, her dogs. The time literally flew by and we probably would have been there till dark if acouple hadn’t shown up to look at another puppy. Jeannine helped us put the pup into the car and she said her goodbyes. I could tell what a difficult time they were having letting this fellow go. He has a pretty special place in their hearts. We made the three hour drive home with only a little whining and crying from J (and the pup).
Introductions to Pippin went very smoothly. First night in a new home went very smoothly and this dog has very quickly become an integral part of our lives. It’s amazing how quickly it happens but I can’t remember life before him. We now play rousing games of fetch, my hands are busy petting two dogs, J has a snuggle buddy and we are just a happily number-increased family. Some people have a second kid. We got a new dog 
He’s a shaggy mop of a love bug and it just feels like everything fell into place perfectly. Sigh. Happy, happy, joy, joy.
And his name? Mooch. We had been thinking Flynn (for Errol Flynn) or Flint (for Derek Flint) but there is no sleek, suaveness about this dog. He is all fluffy, snuggly, softie. I was petting another dog and he mooched in on her for a head scratch and I called him a mooch and it stuck. Mooch. Mooch the Moocher. Mr. Mooch. Moochy Smoochy. You know you’re in when you have nicknames!
It’s so rough being the new dog.