The day Eddie joined our family.
I have always been a dog person.
Growing up, we basically had a menagerie of animals over the years. We had big dogs, small dogs, cats and even rabbits, who met their unfortunate end at the hands (teeth) of our neighbour’s German Shepherd.
Still, since growing up I have wanted to get a dog oh so badly. I loved our cats (and the rabbits), but I’m sure you’ll agree that while you can love both, everyone is either a dog person or a cat person.
Lucky for Brad, he is also a dog lover!
When we finally bought our place we knew that it would only be a matter of time before we got a dog. Given that I was 8 months pregnant when we got the keys to our place, that time didn’t come right away.
But because we never do anything the easy way in life, we got our pup when Archer was only 3 months old.
Say what?!
I know. We’re crazy. But it made sense on paper, I promise! I was home every day, which made sense when training a puppy. And Archer was only waking once in the night for feeding, so that helped. Before we agreed to take the plunge, I made Brad agree that he would get up in the night with the puppy since I was getting up in the night with Archer.
It all ended up happening quite quickly one afternoon when we went to “visit” a puppy I had found on Kijiji and he ended up coming home with us.
Eddie's interests include:
Long walks on the beach.
STICKS!
Frolicking in the snow.
Camping. And naps. Naps while camping, even better!
Going back, I would have taken the appropriate steps to rescue a dog, because I know there are so many dogs out there in need of a home. But we didn’t go that route with our Eddie, and that’s okay, too.
To say that Eddie has been a challenge would be an understatement. We have yet to find a way to expend all of his energy in the four and a half years that we have owned him.
A prime example of this was the summer before last when we were camping. We spent four hours in the lake with him, throwing the ball back and forth for him, having him chase sticks in and out of the water and encouraging him to swim the whole time. After that swim, he was still wired for sound for the rest of the day. He didn’t sleep at all until that night when all of us were tucked snugly in bed for the night.
Our routine these days has been sticking close to home. Eddie is a reactive dog, and as you can see, he’s pretty big. So when he barks, he can be very intimidating for someone that doesn’t know he’s a big friendly pooch.
I had to dig deep to find a picture of us together. Here we are, during a hike at Manning Park.
Since he has basically grown up with Archer, he is so great with kids. Only licking their faces and almost knocking them over when he meets someone new. He lets both Maverick and Archer crawl all over him and play around him with no problems! Seeing him play with the kids warms my heart; they’re all always learning how to be around each other and for the most part, they play together nicely.
Just don’t ask our nosey neighbour about that one. Touchy subject.
Our big-eared fella is the furriest member of our family. He can be a handful, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Except maybe a girl dog next time? I’m so totally outnumbered.
The token female,
Anya