Never a dull moment, part one

Emma Rose

This little beauty came to live with us last Friday. She's now 10 weeks old, and we chose to name her Emma Rose because she's so pretty. And, yes, she's as sweet as her face looks.

Seal Pup

Two toys for Emma

When we first decided to get a puppy, I thought we should get a male and female from the same litter. I wanted to have two puppies because I never, if we can avoid it, want another doggy to go through the horrible grief that Indy has suffered since we lost Koda. (And just as Indy grieved, Koda grieved when Buffett died. That, too, was awful.)

For eight years, Indy had Koda. She was his girl, and that was clear. They had 10 gorgeous puppies together. When Koda died, he changed. The puppy in him left, for the most part. He stopped eating. He moped.

We showered him with love and attention and have continued to take him on two walks a day. He loves his walks, and he seems to enjoy the extra attention he gets from us.

But he's not the same. (I get it, Indy, I do.)

Several people told us that sometimes, getting another dog breathes new life into the dog left behind. We decided to try it, but like I said ... I wanted two to avoid the terrible awful.

I thought I had found my brother and sister puppies, but it turns out those people were scammers. (No puppies; they just wanted deposit money. Jerks. I turned them in to Craig's List.)

Everywhere else I looked, there was only a male, or a female, or two males. We thought getting two males from a Waco litter would be OK, but Dorsey wasn't so sure. He wanted to meet the doggies first, but he was going out of town. And I knew deep down, he wanted another little girl dog.

So, I took a chance and went back to the people who had the one female left (kinda pricey, so I passed her up at first).

I sent Dorsey her picture ... he was upstairs and I was downstairs.

All of a sudden I hear him shout, "OH! She's so BEAUTIFUL!"

So, I said, "You want her without meeting her, don't you?"

The answer was yes, and so little Emma became our puppy that day. She came from a litter in Lubbock, and the owners met us in Plainview.

It's been so much fun since then. Indy has been unsure, but he's coming around and seems to enjoy her when she's not nipping at his face. (The cats are horrified, and Allie hasn't figured out that if she doesn't run, the puppy can't chase her.)

He's already teaching her bad habits. Koda never ran through sprinklers or stuck her face at the base of one while it was on. Emma is following in Indy's paw prints. 

See? He's coming around.

Still ... having only Emma doesn't take care of my concern of future unbearable grief for the doggy left behind.

So puppy No. 2 — a male from Oklahoma — is joining us July 1. He will be eight weeks. We figure that someday in the future ... way future ... we will breed them.

Our job for now is to make sure Indy stays No. 1 Dog and Pack Leader. We will continue to give him "Indy Only" time with us. And maybe the puppies will play with each other, rather than nip at and annoy Indy?

We shall see as the adventure continues ...

While we can never replace Koda and don't want to, we know life can be great moving forward ... for both Indy and us. As long as things work out, the plan for us after experiencing Indy's terrible grief is to have three dogs at a time. It might be extra work, but I think it will be worth it.

To be continued ...

She's so amazingly cute!