How Griffin Came to Be....

I know....Chelsea was only gone for two days before we got another dog. That is NOT the way it was intended. Just the way it was meant to be, I guess. We put Chelsea to sleep on Tuesday. Then, Wednesday afternoon, I saw a "wall-to-wall" conversation between Julie (Diana) Blouin and one of her friends on Facebook. Something Julie said in that conversation led me to believe that they were looking for a new home for their 10 week old Shih Tzu, Griffin. Something in me clicked. I WANTED THAT DOG. As a matter of fact, several weeks before when Julie first posted pictures of Griffin, I knew I wanted him. Well, maybe not HIM, but his clone. And, coincidentally, a Shih Tzu is the type of dog that we wanted after Chelsea. Anyway, I tried to get a hold of Julie...cell phone, Facebook, home phone, and then I texted her. She called me during Young Women's and I stepped out of the room to answer the phone. She told me that they just didn't have enough time to spend with Griffin. She didn't feel good about this, and so they were looking for a family that would love him as much as they did, but had more time to spend with him. That's us!!! So, I said "We'll take him!" I didn't ask Hugh what he thought....I just sort of told him that we was getting a puppy. He was actually pretty excited about it. We decided NOT to tell the kids, but rather to surprise them. So, the kids had early release on Thursday. Courtney & Connor both had after school plans, so I took Caitlin with me to drive to Julie's house in Scottsdale. I was nervous!!! When we got to Julie's, Caitlin heard Griffin outside. Julie told her she could go out and see him. Caitlin fell in love INSTANTLY. I was then holding Griffin, and Julie asked Caitlin is she had a dog. Caitlin said "We did, but we had to put her to sleep." I told Caitlin that I thought Griffin was cute, and asked Caitlin if she thought Griffin would like it at our house. She said "Yes." I said "Well, maybe Julie will let us take him home. Julie, could we take Griffin home?" to which she replied "Sure". I looked at Caitlin and she looked confused. I said "Caitlin, we are here to pick up Griffin. We get to keep him". Caitlin looked totally surprised. She then gave me that "Yea, right Mom" look, and said "Are you being sarcastic??" And I said "NO!! We are really taking him home." She asked me several times if I was being sarcastic and I said "No Caitlin. I wouldn't joke about this. We are taking him home". That lead to a very large smile, and a few screams, and a big hug for Griffin. Julie spent some time showing me some discipline techniques that she and Griffin had learned in his two obedience classes (he has three more classes that he will take here at home). We then loaded up his belongings, and off we went. When we got home, Caitlin carried him in and put him down so he could run into the living room where Connor was. Caitlin started yelling "WE GOT A DOG! WE GOT A DOG!" but Connor didn't really know what was going on. But when he saw Griffin, his eyes got as big as saucers, and he flew off the couch to greet his new buddy. The best part for Connor is that Griffin is a BOY!!! That makes Connor VERY happy. Next, I made a blog post entitled "Introducing". I then called Courtney at her friends' house and asked her to go to my blog. After about 10 minutes of her trying to type in the address, she finally got there. She said "Is that ours? IS THAT OURS??? IS THAT OURS??????!!!!!" to which I replied "Yes!" "Is it at our house????" she said. "Yes!" I said. That was followed with several 11 year old girl screams. She was so excited to come home. Anyway, we had a blast spending the rest of the day with him. I was a little nervous about having a sleepless night, but sweet Griffin slept ALL NIGHT LONG. He's been great so far. A little feisty, but what puppies aren't? We are working on potty training and teaching him what he can and cannot chew on. But he comes when he is called, and he does this cute little "stalking" thing, where he STALKS his toy, and then pounces on it! It's hilarious! I'm going to try to video it and put in on here. Anyway, I will forever be grateful to Julie and her family for allowing us to adopt Griffin. We will forever love him. It has sure made the loss of Chelsea easier to bear. We will never forget her, but we not have another dog to love. Like I said in my earlier post.....the love continues.

Seriously, it doesn't get much cuter than that!!

My little Stud Muffin