My Dog Silk

I've never been a dog person, and when it came to pets I never wanted to be like everyone else with pets who just went on and on about them and took a million completely boring pictures and raved about how adorable they are. It's not that I don't like pets: I simply didn't understand it, helped by the fact that I've never had a pet and my Dad is...less than supportive...of dogs especially. Then I met John, who grew up with dogs. He may not be the pet owner I just described with the million ridiculous pictures, but he is a big fan of having dogs, and successfully convinced me that we will have dogs for most if not all of the time our kids are growing up. John also still had a dog, who was really his Mom's since he went to college and a mission and everything.

Ambrosia is adorable and loving and funny and sweet. She grew on me fast. I had to stop myself from taking a million pictures. She is just so dang cute, and she's not even my dog! But in wanting to take pictures of her I realized why so many pet owners do take pictures, and why I find them boring. Like most things, pictures just do not do it justice, no matter how adorable what you're trying to capture may be. Professional photographers do get pretty dang close, though. :)

Anyway, since I had promised John that our kids will have dogs, we figured we'd go ahead and get us one now. The idea had grown on me, especially when I realized that dogs make perfect running buddies. They're a great motivator because you're not taking care of them if you don't take them out to run. And I'm not tempted to talk to them the whole time, thereby allowing actual running to take place. Running with friends has not been so successful with me :P

We found a little 3 or 4 year old shnauzer on ksl and picked her up Thursday night. We have completely fallen in love with her. We were a little worried about her from looking at the pictures online because she seemed a little too mellow and lacking in energy, and we wanted a dog who could run with me and play fetch with John, but now we have realized that she is perfect. The night we got her we also went to see another shnauzer, this one a male named "Barkley." The owner started by having the dog outside and inviting us in to sit down before she brought him in, because apparently he would freak out too much. Hmmm...not something we want to have to do with our guests. He came in, barked at us, sat on John's lap and got to know us a little, got off John's lap, then continued to bark at us. After seeing little Loulou be so peaceful and calm, we didn't think we'd be going for a dog who didn't know how to stop barking.

She was very shy at first, which is kind of expected, but she warmed up very quickly. We've only had her a few days but she's completely attached to us. She always wants to be held and to snuggle into our laps. Whenever I get up, no matter how asleep she seems to be she'll pop right up and follow me everywhere. She's sweet and loving and just perfect!

We renamed her Silk. We went through about 50 names the first night, and decided Silk was nice. John already ordered the $2 purple paw-print name tag, so its pretty much set in stone. :P

We had her with us when we did some last-minute babysitting for Ammon and Heather on Saturday, and she did fabulously with the kids, even when Seth and Lor's family came over. That's 11 kids, ages 3-13, plus a puppy. She didn't seem to get annoyed at all with all the over-attention and commotion. She was still a little shy and not completely used to even us, but overall I was very encouraged by her reaction. =D

She's already potty trained, which is fantastic. She has had a few accidents, which is pretty much expected in a transition, but they've been mostly poop which is much easier to clean up and deodorize. We have a very different schedule than her previous owner. 6:30am is just not doable. 

We're house-sitting for John's Mom this week. She and Ambrosia don't get along, but they don't fight so that's okay. Mostly Rosie pouts and mopes around and Silk interrupts whenever we try to give Rosie attention. It's pretty much hilarious, especially how scared the cat is of Silk. 

We love her :)