New running buddy!

Friday evening, we brought home a new running partner….meet Maizey!

Ok, so she’s not quite running-partner-sized yet….but isn’t she just SOOOOOOO cute???  She’s a 7 week old Golden Retriever. 

P and I are dog lovers.  When we first started dating back in 2001, I had an English Springer Spaniel.  Shortly after we got involved, he adopted Dave, our Dalmatian.  And a few months after that, I went to the pet store to get something and it just so happened that the Humane Society had one of those adopt-a-thons going on there too.  Being the softie (sucker) that  I am, I went home with whatever I had gone there to buy PLUS a little black lab puppy, Summer.

Summer ended up with a large tumor that grew on her rear leg, which we had removed in 2009.  It was a rough surgery with a difficult recovery for her.  In 2012, it started to grow back again.  We didn’t want to put her through surgery another time, so we just monitored it.  In April of this year, the tumor grew too large, so we put her to sleep.  She was 11 years old.  Summer was a wonderful dog and I miss her and think about her all the time.

Our springer spaniel, Corran, lived to the ripe old age of 15, until we had to put him to sleep in May.  He was so arthritic and had really bad muscle wasting in his back and rear legs.  He ended up not being able to maintain his body weight, and became very thin – almost emaciated – even though he always had food.  Putting him to sleep was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but it was also the most humane thing to do.  He was my first pet, so you can imagine how hard losing him was.

Since May of this year it’s just been us and Dave, our Dalmatian, who is currently 12 years old.  He never showed any signs of aging until Summer and Corran were gone.  All of a sudden Dave started acting like an old dog – he’d limp a bit when getting up from a laying position….some hearing loss…and his activity levels definitely decreased.  I’d buy him toys and he’d want nothing to do with them.   He became very clingy and always underfoot….we started constantly tripping over Dave.

We started sending him to a local doggie daycare every now and then, and taking him with us more places where there are other dogs.  He really likes being around other dogs, and it seems to have helped him perk up a little bit.

We started talking about getting another puppy and even went and looked at a few.  Then all of a sudden a friend of his posted on Facebook that his two Goldens had puppies that morning and there’s one that still needed a home.   We got ahold of them right away and that’s how we ended up with our little Maizey!  We waited a long 2 months for her but it was so worth it.  She was the biggest, fattest puppy in the litter and since we love big dogs, we were attracted to her instantly.  We went every 2 weeks to visit the puppies and let the kids play with them, and Friday evening we brought her home with us.  We are all just so thrilled to have her!!  Dave took an immediate liking to her and is already teaching her “how to be a dog” in our household.

Get the name?  Maize and blue…Maizey!



These are just a few photos I took over the weekend – she’s very cute and fluffy!  She’s been really great so far, very friendly and very social.  She’s getting used to lots of kids and commotion in a hurry, which is good because we definitely need a friendly dog who can put up with all of that.  We are really looking forward to watching her grow up with the kids!