Have I Mentioned We’re Cray?

So because building a house and moving in before our rental lease was up wasn’t enough, we threw a puppy into the mix! On my birthday, we went to go meet a litter of German shepherd/husky puppies…otherwise known as shepskies. Apparently they are a registered breed right now. Anywho, I didn’t care about that though…they were cute!

After a couple hours of puppy cuddles, licks and piddles, we finally decided on one of the boys they named LJ. Because we’d be in the new house by the time he was ready to go home so it was perfect timing! Right? Don’t judge my cray.

It was a rough month waiting but they sent me photos of him while we waited for him to be big enough to leave mama.

We moved into the house on October 9th and then picked him up the next day while the boys were in school. He was two months old that day. And, OMG a whiner. He cried all the way home.

Checking out the digs and meeting the girls

And like that we were a family with three dogs. The girls weren’t thrilled. He wanted to play play play and Hayley quickly told him nowayinhell while Shadow outran him and yipped every time he even looked at her. It was a rocky start.

But he’s so cute!

And those paws…

What’s in a Name?

We had to name him something…Mason wanted to keep LJ and Matthew “teenager cared” (ie: shrugs shoulders and says idunno). But right around the time we first met him, the Eagle Ridge fire had just started. That fire had jumped the river and created a secondary fire on Archer Mountain. I thought that Archer would be a nice, strong name. It’s actually quite appropriate now that I think of it that we named him after a WILD FIRE that took over a week to contain. Har har.

But so cute!

Ruff Times

I won’t lie…the first few weeks were hard. We didn’t get much sleep. He was up at least 2-3 times a night. He whined. A lot. Still does. Biggest baby. We were home the first week moving and unpacking and figured out a crate (aka the cagedom) that was less scary for him to be left alone in. And we were successful in having him go in it willingly (treats ftw!).

I give you the take up half of the living room cagedom!

But he’s so cute. And tiny.

When it was time for us to go back to work, I came home at about 11:00 and worked from home the rest of the day. Two weeks was the most my work would tolerate that without saying so (they really are great) so I was able to find a “localish” dog walker to come in the middle of the day for an hour. So.much.energy.

Then he got bigger….lots bigger

In a minute, he was bigger than Haley. She was not too happy about that. Then another minute later, he was the same size as Shadow….she still had not warmed up to him at all. But she was definitely the alpha and put him in his place when he got too close.

But Archer found sticks to play with instead. And had some ear issues…

And all that growing made him so tired.

Snoooooore…so cute when he’s not whining…

Eventually he figured out how to get up on the couch. But that was tiring too. Poor archer.

He grew…

And grew…

Until he finally grew into those paws…or did he?

He grew to about 80 lbs and double the size of Shadow…she’s still the boss though.

Saying Goodbye

Haley sure was a trooper through all of Archer’s growing and shenanigans. But in April, after her last trip to California, she’d lived enough of her 16.5 years and was ready to go be with her sister in heaven. Knowing that she was ready didn’t make the decision any easier but we knew we had to make it.

Pets are lifetime commitments….not your lifetime but theirs. We go in knowing that there will be hurdles along the way and eventually heartbreak at the end…but we know it’s so very much worth it. I don’t know that we’ll ever be a petless house…I can’t imagine life without them….even when it’s cray.