Em and the Gang: Our Newest Addition (recovered version)

One fine Spring day, I took the kids and a friend out to do some shopping. I just wanted to get out of the house, and I knew the kids liked browsing at PetSmart, so that's where we went.

It turns out on that day there was a rescue group with a pile of precious puppies! (Like the alliteration, there?)

Of course we had to go visit and pet the pups, and of course we had to take one or two out to visit, because they looked SO SO LONELY in their pen with their siblings.

We decided to take one little girlie out, she looked so cute and cuddly. She was so shy and unsure. The rescue group told us her history, as well as they knew it, and I got to thinking about how I had been wanting a big dog to go running with me. You know, for when I get up at 5am and want to go out for a few miles before getting the kids and myself ready for school... I thought to myself, "Hey - these dogs typically have a lot of energy and get to be a good size."

We walked this one little girl outside to see if she would 'open up' a little. And she did, although she didn't want to make eye contact, and was still clearly nervous. I took a few pictures and sent them to Mike in a text message...or two... or three...

"Isn't she cute?"

"What do you think about getting another dog?"

"She should be a good size for me to run with when she grows a little."

We ended up deciding to take her home.

No name, 20lbs of fluff...

She peeked over at me from the passenger seat as we drove home.

Buster greeted her like a champ. They were nearly the same size. She licked his face, and he sniffed her all over. They were friends instantly.

We took her to visit the backyard, and she seemed to like it.

She loved the attention from the kids, as long as they were calm and quiet.

We ended up naming her Piper. Apparently it's one of the top 10 dog names this year!

She started to grow... and quickly got bigger than Buster.

She got her own crate.

Then one day I thought she was broken... Turns out she just likes to sleep this way.

She learned that Taylor Anne rides horses,

and she had to get used to horses and people at the barn,

although it was hard for her to trust people for quite a while.

It turns out that she was basically neglected for the first 3 months of her life. The rescue group we got her from didn't really have room for her litter, but took them because they were at a high-kill shelter in Sampson County. The dogs at that shelter have a 98% kill rate, and cats have 100%. The rescue group that took the litter also had another litter of younger puppies who had Parvo - this is a deadly virus for pups. So they wouldn't be contaminated, Piper's litter got little human contact even after being rescued. Luckily, there are people willing to work with these dogs, and all of Piper's siblings are in loving homes now.

They're all working on trusting people again.