Just brought home my fur-baby

Me and DH got up early this morning to go pick up our fur-baby Ruby. The breeder lady even made up this whole scrapbook for us, of Ruby's life so far. That was really sweet and now I have a baby book of sorts. Ruby has only been at our house for 4 hours but I can tell, she is as in love with us as we are with her. I spent three weeks getting ready for our new arrival. Reading the latest on puppy training, sewing her a new bed, spraying bitter apple spray all around my new furniture.

I was anxious at night thinking of her arrival, and if we would be able to train her well. See, I grew up with dogs but my father's idea of training involved shouting and spanking the dog and none of those dogs were very well behaved. My Mom and Dad have a bichon now named Rocky. Rocky is a good egg who loves me but he wouldn't be what I would call a well-trained dog.

One of my goals with Ruby is to train her so well, she can be a pet therapy dog. That's where you and your dog volunteer and go to places like hospitals or senior's homes to cheer up the residents with a visit from a charming pooch. I can just imagine how lonely and boring it gets for people at some of these institutions, and for long-term residents who loves animals but can't have them a visit from Ruby would hopefully be a hilight of their day.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. We are only on day one, which includes night one. Usually pups don't do so well in the night away from their littermates for the first time. I'm optimistic because she is already loving her kennel, which she is sleeping in right now. I was worried crate training would be really hard, but the breeder gave her exposure to one which make my job ALOT easier.

So, here starts my journey with my fur-baby. Hopefully, my fur-baby and a future baby baby will meet in 2009.