The dog days of summer...

It is officially the dog days of summer at our house.  That is in part because it is summer (obviously), but the less obvious part is that we added a dog to our family!  We are thrilled to introduce our sweet little girl, Cessna!!  She is a wonderful little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (CKCS) and she is 7 months old! 

Before you ask - you scan see the start of many pictures we will be taking of Cessna here:  New Family Member - Cessna

 Here she is on our way home!

We have wanted a dog in our family for some time but knew we needed a yard to be ready for a dog and to be ready ourselves for this undertaking.  We have been talking about it ever since we moved into our house, have had the name picked out for some time now, but had to find just the right dog.  Josh and Denise have Lando, a ruby CKCS and we have really enjoyed the time we have spent with him and much research into this breed as well as others, we felt this was the right kind of dog for us.  Thankfully we have lots of friends with dogs for helpful information and lucky for us, we found Full of Malarkey Cavaliers and they had a few puppies available and sent some cute photos to us for consideration.

It worked out that we could meet up with Tammy and Pat from Full of Malarkey Cavaliers this morning (Sunday) to see if we thought there was a match.  Turns out that only one puppy was available by our visit but it all seem to have worked out according to plan.  Tammy and Pat were very welcoming and all four dogs we met were so friendly and full of love, and we could tell right away that Sarah, now Cessna, was a sweetheart.  We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone, getting to know more about the dogs and their life with Tammy and Pat, and having a good laugh about dog snoods since it is a funny term and new to David, but those snoods sure are helpful when you have a dog with long ears!  Not sure what a snood is?  Look it up!  :)

After asking all of our questions (for now anyway, we are sure there will be more as each day goes by!) we felt that we had found the right fit for us and took that next big step with Tammy and Pat to welcome Cessna into our family.  They got us all prepped up for as smooth a transition as we can make it for our new little girl.  As we got ready to put her in the car it was an emotional time for all of us - Tammy and Pat had come to love this sweet little and parting is never easy, and we were excited and nervous to begin this adventure!  Being the great dog that we can tell she is, Cessna seemed to take it in stride and got settled in for a nap as we pulled out of the driveway.

It was an uneventful drive home, which isn't to say it wasn't exciting, but Cessna was napping and we kept checking in on her and that was what it entailed!  Once we got home the fun began, although it was probably more fun for us to watch her than it was for her to check out her new home!  She was such a good girl and went potty in the grass shortly after we put her down, so we were off to a great start!  She checked out the back yard for a bit and then we decided to bring her inside.  A little help was needed as she was a bit shy and the wood floor in the kitchen were a lot to take on, but she is getting the hang of it.  Then we were on to the carpet and checking out the dining area and living room.  She quickly found her crate we brought her home in as well as the dog bed we had purchased for her and already loves going for a snooze in her bed! 

A short visit to Petco was in order to get a few more things (and get lots of love, including a cute pink flower in her ear from the grooming ladies who enjoyed meeting her) and then back home for the evening.  We are not entirely sure what the night will bring, but we do know that Cessna had a fantastic start with Tammy and Pat and that once she settles in with us we are sure it will go well.

More updates on Cessna soon, but in the mean time, we are going to keep snuggling with our sweet little girl!