T-Minus 2 weeks

In 14 days we'll be on our way back home with a little bundle of fur. While I hope this is also a joyful occasion, I'm now starting to recognize all of the small things that can go wrong immediately. For example - the dog could go through the windshield. ...But i'm getting ahead of myself here.

So this morning started off pretty well, sleeping in for a change, and then some homemade waffles. After fueling up and taking our vitamins, Jaclyn and I decided to go on a bike ride out toward my office. It's about a 20 miler, and we hadn't ridden in a while so we planned to make a pit-stop downtown in Andover at Breuggers for a bagel sandwich. So, we took off and had a nice strong ride until we got down to Andover. We then dismounted and walked around the downtown area. Before going to get a bite to eat, we stopped at the local dog boutique (please don't judge us) and ended up chatting with the owners for a little while. After nearly passing out when i saw the $50 dog clothes, we decided to at least get some free advice from the poochie proprietors. Here's what we learned:

1. Our first night is going to be a nightmare. She suggested locking the crate in the bathroom or some room other than your bedroom in order to allow you to ignore them better. If you coddle, or cater to them the first night, you'll have to do it every night for the rest of your life. (This seems cruel, but may have some actual value)

2. Send a blanket to the breeder, or get a blanket from the breeder, so you can have something in the crate the first few nights which smells like his mother. (This was actually a pretty good piece of advice)

3. Don't take the puppy home with you on your lap. god forbid an accident should happen, or you stop short, the pup is probably going to end up in the windshield. (um... not so sure if this is actually a true risk, but i guess we'll probably put it in a travel crate)

4. Take the dog to the vet IMMEDIATELY to have its stool checked for parasites. (I called the vet a week ago and they told me to wait 3 or 4 days to check for "patterns" in the dog like coughing, weird bathroom things, etc.)

Those are the words of advice we got. Basically, when you think about it, they were using scare tactics on us.

So - after our rendezvous with reality, we headed to Breuggers, got some sandwiches and brought them to the park to eat. My sandwich was good, but i think the real highlight was when i played "operation" with the park bench in order to fish out 2 quarters. Here's the evidence:

So anyway. We rode home $0.50 heavier and with full stomachs.