What to Expect the First Year...

I know a lot about babies. I know how to convince them to eat, how to cure a bad diaper rash, how to sooth a teething child and most times can figure out what is wrong when a baby cries..... I imagine the day I bring my own baby home for the first time things won't be quite so easy because that is the just the nature of life but for the most part I do know babies....
Let me tell you something I did not know though..... dogs.

Before Wilson I did not know anything except dogs bark, pee and poop, eat from bowls on the floor and sniff crotches of people and other dogs....
so when Keir uttered the word "dog" i thought.... ummmm NO. But a dog was just what he needed and deep down I knew that. I have always been an animal lover and hey if I can do babies how hard can a dog be?

Much like Ollie, Wilson was as cute as can be. When I held him for the first time I was instantly IN LOVE. His big paws and ears that did not yet stand straight up... he was an absolute miracle..... and so we scooped up this little furry bundle of joy and off we went.... our new family....
Wilson is what made Keir and I "us". to some that might sound crazy and hell maybe it is but I believe Wilson is more than half the reason we will say "i do" in a few months. We shared the joy and tears of training this little puppy.

Day 1 was not to hard and honestly neither was day 2,3 or 4. Yes he did pee and poop on the carpet but we did not care, we were renting an apartment that was built in the 1800's and I imagined their was much worse on the carpets than a little puppy poop.... Wilson pawing me to take him out at 2am never bothered me and neither did his demand to go on a walk or run most everyday. It did not even bother me that I spent the first 9 months saying "no bite" at least 200 times a day... all the headaches were not nearly so bad when I was able to hug and praise all the good he was doing. Yes being a dog mom was awesome... that is until we came home to an eaten window sill and a torn up kitchen floor. Wilson lost all freedom after that and him and his puppy cage became best friends. It was not until we upgraded him to a big boy cage and he became Houdini though that I started to think i was in over my head..... But $800, two bed sets and a basement door later we secured Wilson into his new dog cage in our basement and we have since (minus a few hiccups) have lived happily ever after.

To some a dog is insignificant and unimportant... to Keir and I, our dog is our family.... The joy we have gained from loving a pet can not be explained until you are the one picking up your puppy and failing when he poops on the rug. Owning a dog is like having a baby because your family is growing... Enjoy every minute of Ollie when he lays down at his food dishes to eat or drops his ears in his water dish. Enjoy him learning that he can not eat other dogs tails and can not poop on the rug because the day will come that he will be all grown up and you will miss that tiny little puppy that you had to train and teach and looked to you for safety and for love....