We’ve always been a one dog house. After my sweet dog Potter passed away in 2013, we adopted Ollie (Introducing Ollie) a 9 pound yorkie-chihuahua mix. He was about 1 or 2 years old when he was dropped off at a kill shelter in West Virginia. Another shelter scooped him up, we adopted him, and we’ve spent the last 12 years spoiling the crap out of him.
Ollie is still doing great and is a happy and healthy 13(ish). And, for the past year or so, I’ve thought about maybe adding another dog to the mix.
Here’s my Why’s:
- When Ollie goes to the pet sitter’s house, he enjoys being around other dogs.
- There is research that says that dogs who have companion animals in the household live longer and are healthier.
- Jack is 13 and having some responsibility for a new dog would be great for him.
- My job is mostly remote, so I’m home most days.
- We love dogs and having an extra furry body to snuggle seems like an awesome idea!
Every so often, I’d peruse some local shelter Facebook pages to see if any dogs fit my criteria of: something cute and fluffy, not a puppy/but still a young dog, likes other dogs, likes kids, and his housebroken.
Cooper’s profile popped up one day when I was scrolling on Facebook and I immediately thought he was adorable, but I was busy with other stuff and pushed it to the back of my mind. A couple days later, I saw the screenshot I had taken and looked into his profile a little further. He checked ALL my boxes, but I was about to go down to Ocean City for the weekend with Jack.
The next morning, I woke up, did a deep dive into Cooper’s online presence (as you do) and called my husband to see if he had any objections to me putting in an application. He said to go for it, so by 9am, the application was submitted. By noon, the rescue contacted my 2 references, checked in with my vet, and the foster mom texted me to schedule a phone call.
The phone call went great and we arranged for her to bring Cooper to our home for a meet-and-greet a few days later. We received final approval on our application, so if we liked him and he got along with Ollie, he was ours if we wanted him.
And we did!
Cooper joined our family on July 2. He is a Chihuahua-terrier mix who turns 2 in October. He has a fantastic full-body Mohawk that starts at the top of his head and goes all the way down his tail. He has no problem judging you regularly with his bombastic side eye. He’s a 26 pound Mr. Sassypants who lives for tummy rubs and chewing the ears off his toys.
The first night was ROUGH (or Ruff, you might say…). As with Ollie, I immediately went into an anxiety spiral of oh-my-god-what-did-I-do. He pooped in my office. He peed on the side of the couch in my den. I was having a never-ending hot flash. I got maybe 1-2 hours of sleep the whole night.
However, Day 2 was fine. And Night 2 we put Cooper in Jack’s room. I gave Jack a pair of earplugs in case Cooper whined, shut the door, and went to bed. And it was fine! And every day since then has been better and better, with Cooper fitting right into our family.
I call this one, The Judgmental Crossing Guard:
And now Cooper gets to sleep in bed with a 13-year-old boy who absolutely adores him. And spend all day laying in a dog bed at my side while I work. And spend the evenings alternating between cuddles, belly rubs and gnawing on bones. I even caught him and Ollie having a little playtime in the backyard a couple days after he joined our family. And now I get to live my dream of being in a puppy puddle of dog snuggles!
Congratulations! He is adorable. My mother in law’s dog has a long dark hair stripe that goes all the way down the back of is body. It is very subtle, but always reminds me of a mohawk. He, too, pooped once when we first got him ( helping mil out ) but is fine now. I think getting on a routine helps them a lot.
Enjoy Cooper!