Meet our Mickey

After we had to put down Molly, our 14-year-old Beagle, a few months ago, I had decided that it was going to be a long while before we got another dog.   We still had our old man, our 14-year-old cairn terrier, Kenny (Chesney), and our 4-year-old cat, Snowball.

And then I lost Hannah, and I was devastated…

Saturday morning, new years eve, I was sitting outside in the backyard by myself.   My own little pity party.

I missed Hannah terribly still.  I miss her unconditional love, her snuggling, her energy.  It is physically painful how much I long to have her in my arms again.   I know, I know.  I can never get that back.    But that doesn’t change the fact that I yearn so intensely for her still.

I was replaying a conversation I heard from Ethan and Abby quite a few times since Molly was put down, about how they wanted to get a puppy.   Even Daddy was enthusiastic about it, but I had put my foot down and said “no.”

Then I thought about it…maybe this is what I need?    A puppy will obviously never replace Hannah, but it would be fantastic to have that youthful playfulness around again.  Kenny is not a cuddly dog anymore and set in his ways, and I would love to have a puppy to cuddle with, who will lick my face out of excitement, and just have that thrill when he sees us.

I told Daddy that I had changed my mind, and immediately he pulled up the animal shelter website and started his search for puppies.   Obviously, he had been doing this a number of times before because it was less than a minute before he had the list up.   We looked small dogs under a year old.

I looked down the list of a dozen or so puppies, but none of them really clicked with me until I saw a picture of the last one.   It said he was a 7-month-old chihuahua, but his face didn’t look chihuahua so we knew he had to be a mix.  He was picked up by animal control on Christmas Eve.  The look in his face was just precious, so cute!   So we packed up the kids and Kenny into the car, and we decided to go meet this little pup.   We took Kenny with us because any new dog we got would have to pass the “Kenny” inspection and get along with him.

We met with the volunteer, and she brought out this little guy…who wasn’t as little as I expected!   I was expecting this little chihuahua, and this dog was about the same size as Kenny!   And skinny, so so skinny!   Immediately, he went to Kenny (who ignored him), and then I sat down on the ground to meet him.  Without any hesitation, he crawled right into my lap and sat there while Ethan and Abby were letting him sniff them.  Kenny came by a couple of times, but he had no care about this puppy.

We played in the pen with him and Kenny for about 20 minutes.   We were all hooked on this little guy.   He was sweet, approachable, and just wanted to be loved.  We were sold.   Because he hadn’t been fixed yet (a rule for dogs over 6 months to be adopted), they had to keep him until the day after new years when he would have his surgery and then we could pick him up.

It was good that we had to wait two days because it gave us time to get the house ready and really make sure this is what we wanted.  Which we definitely did!

We brought him home Monday night, and he was still a bit groggy from his surgery.  Our plan was to crate him, but he hated being in the crate (obviously) and I was scared that he was going to choke himself with the dog cone collar he has to wear for the next week so he doesn’t eat at his stitches.  He had a really rough night sleeping in the kitchen that first night because he wanted to be with everyone else, but tonight he did so much better when I put him in there to go to sleep for the night.

He is so lovable, so sweet.   His favorite place to relax is cuddled right in my lap.   Just what I needed.   I know it will never replace the longing I feel for Hannah, but having this adorable little distraction running around this house is new and is fun.

And yes, we chose the name “Mickey”….not that any of you are probably surprised about that!