marcwelding

Five weeks old

I have owned one dog- (borrowed, really) Her name was Thumbalina and she was a Great Dane- all black and she did not have her ears done-so, she looked like a black lab (a big one) until she moved around, and then she was like a piano moving around (except faster)

I’ve been married for 30 years and we just had some significant birthdays so I suggested getting the puppy we have been talking about for a year- I found a breeder here on the Cape and in early March we went to pick out a puppy. (here is the link)

http://waldfriedenaussies.weebly.com/

We chose the Australian Shepherd & Labrador mix known as Aussidors

We had 4th pick of 9 puppies -but it occurred to me that we could get 2 puppies- Why not? I’ve never had a puppy and my wife never had a puppy and -they can play together and -they will keep each other company and -they will be so cute together- So we did. Two puppies.

Some people tried to warn us- but where were they when I was on my way to see these cuties? (I’m glad they weren’t with us!)

We got these 2 cute puppies and named them Quinn (short for quinquagenarian) (Quinn-qua-gin for short or Quinn-binn) and Mozzie (aka mozz,  Captian Black Leg, mozzle-nozzle, mozzel-tov, mozzie-mittens, mozzie-mayhem, pasta-mozzule, rasta-pasta-mozzule and like one more nickname each day)(as a tribute to Dave Thompson the great nick-namer)

Quinn

Mozzie

Quinn is definitely more Lab than Shepherd and acts a lot like a dog- Mozzie is more Shepherd and acts like a little Jewish mother- keeping an eye on Quinn and saying stuff like: ‘don’t put that in your mouth- don’t touch that- get back over here, you’re going to hurt yourself- etc)

Quinn has one blue eye (common among Aussies) and we heard that it is good luck because, according to Native American legend, it will ward off evil spirits- but, so-far it just seems to be warding off ‘brains’. Aussies are known as ‘really smart dogs’ so I put up a copy of the periodic table by their crate but, they don’t seem to care.

Dogs view the family as a pack and blend in and find their place etc- in our ‘pack’ each puppy thinks that the pack has all the family members and ‘a dog’ (they both think the other one is the dog)

Camouflage Training

Sharing your Life with a Dog-

God arranged Dog’s lifespans so that we could have many dogs in our one life. Although your dog is in your life for a short time, relatively speaking, your dogs whole life is spent with you. (whoa, mind=blown)

God actually made animals first- (think about that) -He probably used to hang out with the animals and play with all of them. Rabbi Kushner interprets Gen 1:26 in context with the animals, God makes the animals and then says- lets make a new thingy- part teeth, hair,  eyeballs etc, like you animals and part ME- Spirit. Kind of a special ‘hybrid’- flesh and spirit in one thingy- let’s call it :”Man”. Then he let Man name the animals (like letting your kids name their pets- kinda cute actually)

So- we are now sharing our lives with a couple of cute, ‘wild’ animals. We brought them to a puppy orientation class- and they slept thru it (on our laps) We are committed to training up these wonderful little doggies and we have stacks of books and advice flowing in upon us-

9 weeks

-and growing

‘therapy dogs’ -oh, ya- these puppies are ‘therapy’. They started right away by putting us on an early morning ‘face-the-day-while-its-still-dark’ schedule to break us of any comfort and old habits- then they love us to death and make us laugh out loud.

God is using them to enhance my life and I am grateful. (everybody in the Bible had animals) #prettycool

PS; I feel like my Mom, up in Heaven, is happy for me- (she would probably even want to hold them-! (and all my cousins and aunts and uncles laughed!) I know my Dads happy-