The Newest Fair

 

If you're new here, read this and this so that you're up to speed and not completely lost!

At the beginning of February 2018, we welcomed a new Fair into the family - Lily. Lily was born on November 29 (she's our Thanksgiving babe) and she's the sweetest girl. After losing our other lab, Lucy, there was a very obvious void in our house. You see, for the past 3 years our house was full of dogs running around, dog toys all over the floor, cuddles on the couch, and so much more. When Lucy left us, it was so so quiet. It was so quiet that I'd find myself walking from room to room looking for a chewed up shoe or other mischief only to be reminded of my new reality. My husband knew that my heart was broken and he wanted nothing more than to take my pain away. He knew I'd want another puppy and had planned on surprising me with a puppy on Valentine's Day. He ran the idea past a few family members only to be told "Maybe you should tell her first, just in case" or "Are you sure she's ready?".. I, on the other hand, found myself checking websites for new puppies. I'd ultimately end up closing the browser and going on with my day without giving it another thought. Was it too early for a new puppy? Do I want to start over? What if something happens to this puppy? These were all questions that I asked myself and asked my husband. He assured me that he would be 100% on board whenever I was ready to entertain the thought of a new puppy.

We had tickets to go to a Gary Allan concert on February 17 with my husband's sister and I didn't want to get a new puppy before then because then I'd have to find someone to watch it. My mom was in Florida and I didn't want to stick my dad with a brand new puppy by himself. A week or so prior, my husband and I were texting back and forth while at work. I happened to be on Facebook and saw a posting for Black Lab puppy that was ready for her new home. I kept going back to the post throughout the day. Eventually I told my husband and he told me to reach out to the person selling her to see if she was still available. SHE WAS! I told my husband I was leaving work and heading to Fergus Falls (2 hour drive) to get the puppy. I had all the emotions on the 2 hour drive, but when we started our trek back home I knew it was so worth it. My husband texted me saying that he liked the name "Lily" and we went with it. She laid on my lap the entire ride home and didn't make a peep. I wasn't sure how our basset hound, Blu, would react to a new puppy. My husband ran to the store to pick up a dog bed, a couple toys, and food. When we got home, his face lit up. I knew this was the right decision. I, however, didn't know how tough it would be to start over from scratch.

  

Lily was NOT a fan of her crate. AT ALL. She absolutely hated it. She barked and whined the entire time she was in it, so I finally put her in bed with me downstairs in the guest room. We both needed sleep. She woke up every few hours to go outside and by morning, I was E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D and crabby. She was the tiniest little thing, but man she was a lot of work at first. Potty training our previous pup was a breeze, but Lily was not about to make it easy. She's about 5 months old now and still isn't 100% potty trained, but we're getting there! I think the toughest part is the biting. My goodness this girl likes to bite. I brought her with to work at the fire station a few times and everyone has loved on her. She just soaks it up and then passes out from meeting everything. Being a puppy is tough work.

Passed out at the fire station <3

I finally decided that she needed to go to some sort of obedience class to help us train her, so we started Puppy Kindergarten. She has a mind of her own, so she doesn't do half of the stuff they want her to do. It's funny and not funny at the same time, haha. Love her to pieces, but boy she's stubborn. I will say, though, that she is the most behaved puppy whenever we go to the vet. She lays down on the bench beside me and watches everything that's going on around her. The vet has even commented on how well-behaved she is. We're at the 5 month mark and she's doing a lot better with training. We still have quite a ways to go, but we're headed in the right direction. Right now she knows how to shake, sit, lay down, fetch, touch (kind of what a dolphin does, hard to explain), and knows "leave it".. whenever the weather finally decides to warm up, I'll be teaching her how to walk on and off a leash. We're also learning this in Puppy Kindergarten, so we're just waiting on the weather to cooperate before we can put it into action. She goes into her crate whenever we say "kennel" and she only wakes up once or twice a night. Daylight savings really screwed her timing up, so it's not uncommon to be up at 0430 hours with her... we're working on it.

 

All in all, she's helping us pick up the pieces to our broken hearts. She has brought laughter and love back into our home and has helped us fill the deafening void. Blu has a love/hate relationship with her, but he's slowly getting use to her. She is always in play mode and he's always in chill mode. She's getting big and loves being outside. We can't wait to take her up to the cabin this summer to play in the lake.