Baby Gurl

On Saturday, we welcomed a new member to our family.
Meet Baby Gurl:

No, I didn't choose her name and yes, I hate it. It's too ghetto for such a pretty girl. But she's a registered lab, so J says it sticks. I say we come up with a nickname :)

Baby Gurl is an 8-month-old registered black lab who was GIVEN to us. You see, we love our Hank but he's 9, so we know his time with us is limited. We wanted to get a baby boy out of him, so we put up a sign at our vet's office looking for a female, and all we wanted was pick of the litter.

Well, BG's previous owners are breeders and had both American labs (what Hank is) and English. BG is a mix of the two. They decided to focus on the English and were giving away BG and a four-year-old chocolate, Buster. They saw our sign and called.

We debated taking them both ... but in the end, we couldn't make our Hank feel replaced. So, last Saturday, we brought home BG.

She and Hank LOVE each other. See:

If you know anything about labs, then you know how much they crave attention. So we let them into the basement where they fought over our love.

Of course, Hank had to remind Daddy that he was here first and, thus, deserves the most love

So far, trying to "raise" an eight-month-old has been quite trying. While I attempted to nap Saturday afternoon, she cried the entire time - and of course her pen is just below our bedroom. While we let Hank run, we don't let BG for two reasons — 1, she's young and not familiar and 2, she's not fixed. We want pups, but its not good until the female is about 2, plus we want to ensure they are Hank's pups, not any of the other dogs in our neighborhood. 

Well, the first night she escaped the pen. We put her back in on Sunday and she's been in since, but somehow lost her collar and she keeps jumping up on the fence. She also chews anything she can, including plastic buckets. So I have to go buy a metal feeding/water bowl today.

If this doesn't prepare me for children, I don't know what will!