{"id":5905,"date":"2019-09-11T15:47:37","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T20:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/?p=5905"},"modified":"2019-09-17T14:11:10","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T19:11:10","slug":"welcome-to-the-family-chester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/?p=5905","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Family, Chester"},"content":{"rendered":"

MFH (My Favorite Husband) did the math and realized we set a record for number of days we went without owning a dog. Ten days.\u00a0 That 10 days felt like an eternity!<\/p>\n

If you can remember back to Paxton, we knew he was sick and we knew we would have to put him down.\u00a0 The vet (who was awesome) gave us a timeline as to how long we had with our pampered, necktie wearing, pudgy pooch and we had the time to prepare for that dreaded day.<\/p>\n

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Funny how one has the time to prepare and it still knocks the wind out of your sails when the day arrives?\u00a0 Still, I had time to think about a new dog, the dog we would have after Paxton.<\/p>\n

I knew I couldn’t have another Boxer.\u00a0 Paxton was a one of a kind Boxer~they broke the mold when they made my pudgy pooch and I would never be able to love another one like I did him.\u00a0 No, I needed a completely different dog.<\/p>\n

Before we put down Paxton, I had been researching two breeds.\u00a0 English Mastiffs and Great Danes.\u00a0 I love both breeds.\u00a0 They’re polar opposites as far as temperaments but amazing dogs.\u00a0 Either one would have been a good fit.\u00a0 Seeing as there were no Great Danes available anywhere near us geographically, I found Tess in Arkansas.\u00a0 She was only about a 6 hour drive from our house.<\/p>\n

Tess had been a Mama at a breeder in Arkansas.\u00a0 She’d fulfilled her duties as a Mama at 4.5 years old and they decided to let her live out the rest of her days as a pet.\u00a0 That’s how we got her.\u00a0 MFH had been on a business trip in Colorado when Paxton had passed so on his way home, seeing as the Arkansas breeder was only 30 miles out of his way~he popped on by and brought her home.<\/p>\n

Tess was as opposite from Paxton as possible.\u00a0 I fell in love with her immediately!\u00a0 She was such a good girl.\u00a0 Holy cow, she loved her stuffies!!!<\/p>\n

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We were very unprepared for Tess’ passing.\u00a0 That was so very, very hard.\u00a0 For a few days I couldn’t even think about a different dog.\u00a0 My heart was broken.\u00a0 This was not like me!\u00a0 I’m one of those people who need a dog.\u00a0 There’s something about a dog that just…fits?\u00a0 Can’t explain it.\u00a0 Anyway, for me to go as long as I did before discussing a new dog was out of character. Tess’ passing hurt me~bad.<\/p>\n

MFH and I began discussing different breeds, etc.\u00a0 I was still interested in a Great Dane but we had also owned a retired Greyhound back in the early 1990’s.\u00a0 We could get another Greyhound?\u00a0 We bounced back and forth different ideas before we settled on going to the pound and looking at the different dogs there.<\/p>\n

My requirements for a new dog was that it be young.\u00a0 My heart couldn’t take another passing as close as Paxton and Tess (1.5 years).\u00a0 I wanted a lot of years with this dog!\u00a0 I also wanted a large dog.\u00a0 I like large breeds!\u00a0 I mean, if you’re going to get a dog, get a DOG!\u00a0 All kidding aside on that, when I was a kid, I had a friend whose parents got him a toy size dog.\u00a0 He was jumping down from a height without looking and literally smashed his dog.\u00a0 I’ve never forgotten that.\u00a0 I’m terrified of accidentally stepping on and injuring a small breed!<\/p>\n

So, I went to the local pound armed with a ziplock full of puppy treats (courtesy of Tess) and an open heart.<\/p>\n

I saw 3 dogs that day.\u00a0 Then I saw Chester.<\/p>\n

Chester waltzed into the little room where I got to meet and play with the dogs, took one look at me and said, You’re my human!\u00a0 I said, You’ve got yourself a deal!<\/p>\n

And that was that.\u00a0 \u00a0Chester came home with me.<\/p>\n

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He’s a happy, energetic 1.5 year old guy.\u00a0 There’s questions about his breed?\u00a0 The adoption papers from the pound say Dalmatian.\u00a0 The vet says, Dalmatian\/Pointer.\u00a0 Whatever he is, he’s a complete goof!<\/p>\n

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He has designated himself as the neighborhood watch committee.<\/p>\n

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He has discovered the joy of Pup Cups at ice cream shops…<\/p>\n

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…even though they give him an ice cream hangover!<\/p>\n

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He is a huge helper when we do our planks.<\/p>\n

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AND, he’s famous for eating my fancy running socks.<\/p>\n

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He’s been a terrific addition to our little family.\u00a0 Didn’t think it was possible to steal my heart this quickly, but he has.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the family, Chester!<\/p>\n

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#IRun4Aiden<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MFH (My Favorite Husband) did the math and realized we set a record for number of days we went without owning a dog. Ten days.\u00a0 That 10 days felt like an eternity! If you can remember back to Paxton, we knew he was sick and we knew we would have to put him down.\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,28,27,22,6,26,5,3,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5919,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions\/5919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}