It broke my heart a few weeks ago to tell you the sad news about Paxton’s passing.  Opening my FB memories every day brings tears to my eyes but happy memories all the same.  That Paxton was always up to something, wasn’t he?  What a dog!

This was in today’s memories:  Paxton was trying to trade me pink puppy for a Nutty Bar.  He must’ve really wanted a Nutty Bar because we all know how much he loved pink puppy!!!

Now, the vet had given us a 3 month heads up on Paxton.  I know me, I simply cannot go without a dog so the wheels had been turning about a new dog.

I thought about our lifestyle.

I thought about my training.  More specifically, how much energy I had AFTER a training run.

Did I have enough leftover to train a puppy?

No.

Did I want another Boxer?

I decided that another Boxer would never be able to measure up to Paxton so I steered away from Boxers.

I knew I wanted a large breed.  I really like large dogs!

I remembered back to Jasper.  Jasper was awesome!!!  He was a Great Pyrenees.  We had him 12 wonderful years when we lived in the Rockies in Colorado.

Jasper was a good sized dog~264 pounds!  We claimed he was the only dog we knew who could drool on the ceiling.  He was talented that way.

He had such a heavy coat~I knew a dog like him would swelter in Mississippi.  I decided no to another Great Pyrenees.

I’d always wanted a Mastiff.  I’ve always wanted a Great Dane, too, so I started doing research.

Seeing as I wanted an adult dog, I started searching the rescue sites but couldn’t find anything in my area.  If I lived in California I had it made but not much in Mississippi or Alabama.

Then, by accident, I found a breeder in Arkansas!  It was my lucky day!!!

Searching through their site, I discovered their puppies went for $3,000 each!  Holy Cow!!!  That was definitely a tad more than I wanted to spend.  They also had a waiting list for their puppies into 2019!  As I continued looking through their site, I found they had two adult females they were trying to find homes for.

YAY!!!

MFH (My Favorite Husband) was traveling home through Arkansas two days later and decided he would pick up Tess, our new dog, and bring her home.  He would be driving a half hour away from the breeder and decided it would be easier for him to pick her up rather than for me to travel the following week to meet Tess and bring her home.  It worked out great!

Things we have learned about Tess:

You cannot pet her enough.  She loves being loved!

Tess loved stuffies.  A lot!

If she’s going somewhere, you’d better believe she’s taking a stuffie with her.

She wants you to love stuffies, too!

As a matter of fact, if you’ve been out of the house for any reason, she’ll bring you one as a welcome home present.

She gets bored when I put on my makeup.  Really, really bored.  She’s like, “Mom, aren’t you done YET!?!”

Tess likes to snuggle…which is a challenge seeing as she weighs 155 lbs.

She likes Castro.  Castro isn’t quite sure about his feelings for Tess yet.

Tess is about as opposite as a dog from Paxton as possible.  I needed a dog where there wouldn’t be any comparison.  I didn’t want the dog to be doomed from the very start.

I’d say Tess is holding her own and fitting in well!

Here’s to my #PetitePooch #DaintyDog #DroolMeister and complete #SnugglePuppy, Tess.

Puppy kisses heading your way!!!

#IRun4Aiden