Squishy Puppy Face

Today marks our one week anniversary! Of having 2 dogs, that is!  Last Friday, we welcomed Arya to our home, and a week later, here we are. She is not kennel trained and sleeping through the night on her own. And she is doing well, although not perfect, with the potty training. We're getting there. For the first few days, she did nothing but sleep. Now, though, the stress of the travel and the change has worn off, and she is spunky and feisty and sweet as can be!

I found her online through PuppyFind, which is also how we found Dublin. I have had puppy fever for...well, about since we found out we really enjoyed having Dublin... it's been months! And for the past month at least - probably longer - I have stalked Puppy Find for a blue Weim or some other such super cute puppy that I could love and hug and call George (or Arya). Well, the breeder where we got Dublin had a litter with 2 blue females in it, but they were gone within hours. When I saw we had missed out on those, I was heartbroken. We had a small window of time to be able to get a puppy and work on getting her trained before the kids are back in school and I am back to work. That meant, the puppy had to be the right age right now, and we had to be able to get her ASAP. Well, I did one last search, and found two female blues... in Miami, FL. *sigh* It was a loooooong shot, but I figured I could at least call the breeder to see... 

To my surprise, he came back with a pretty decent price for the puppy and shipping. Cheaper than if I were to have purchased the same puppy from our local pet store (trust, me, I looked into that option). So, after MUCH back and forth of do we / don't we, we decided to go for it. 

We picked her up from the airport last Friday afternoon. Her flight got in at 11:15, and we were supposed to pick her up at 11:40. But at 11:20, on our way to the airport, we completely blew out the right front tire on the van. We were turning in to get gas, and I heard a huge explosion and the van shook. Errr....truly, NO idea what happened, but it looked like the side of the tire had been stabbed and slashed.  Luckily, it happened right in front of our service station, so I didn't have to drive far on my rim. As soon as I got the van in for service, I called the airlines to tell them we would be late. They promised to hold the puppy in the office for me, no worries.  An hour and $180 later, we had our new tire, and we were back on the road.

So, we finally got her home after what seemed like a day-long fiasco.  We set her up in the front yard, and then Isaac went into the house to get Dublin. There was lots of sniffing and curiosity, but nothing else really. He wasn't sure quite what to think, but he was gently and sweet with her. Over the course of the last few days, though, they have begun to develop into buddies. They constantly look for each other, hang out in the same room, and even sometimes lay down by each other. If one goes outside, the other has to be right there too. And Dublin has gone to great lengths to teach her how to play... It's funny because he looks and sounds like he's being rough, but if you really look, he is being very gentle with her. I love it.

Okay, some pictures... you may have seen these on facebook already. But if you missed them on there...

 

As for her name... Arya is a character in Game of Thrones. She is a little girl who is born to a noble family, but who doesn't want to be a lady, she would rather be a warrior. This was the name that all 3 kids liked the best of all the names we came up with as options. I guess if you can get 3 kids to agree, you go with it.