Life with Liz: Call it puppy love

So, we got a puppy. He is an Airedale Terrier, his name is Duncan and he is awesome. I know we are in the honeymoon phase of things right now, and they call it puppy love for a reason, but this decision has been one of the best things we’ve done for the family in a long time. While I kick myself repeatedly for waiting this long to get a dog, it’s also becoming clear to me that now was a perfect time, because just as those wily little teenagers of mine were starting to get a little too cool for our family, Duncan has sucked us all back into an adventure that we have to be on together.

It started with the Wonderful Husband and I taking a vacation day to go pick him up. It’s been a long time since we’ve taken a day to do something fun, just the two of us. The fact that we were on a secret mission and trying to surprise the kids made it that much more exciting. Tiptoeing around “the thing” in the week leading up to it became a joke between us. The two of us slipped up more times than not, and each time we’d stare each other down, just waiting to see if the kids picked up on what we said. We needn’t have worried; the kids weren’t listening to us any more than they usually do.

The next fun thing that happened was the intense snowstorm that hit right after we left on our 800-mile round trip to pick the little guy up. As I slumbered away in the passenger seat, the WH deftly white-knuckled his way around accident after accident, doing battle with the windshield wipers that were icing up continually. The trip had to be made, there was no other room in our schedule. Although we could have stopped for a leisurely breakfast, we were both too excited to stop for more than a quick sandwich and a coffee.

When we finally got to our destination and met Duncan for the first time, I was surprised at how quickly Duncan climbed up on the WH and made himself at home. Equally adorable was how quickly the WH put one of his old beagle collars on the new kid. Knowing the history his beagles had, that collar is going to be a lot for Duncan to live up to, but the fact that he was already wearing an adult beagle collar as an 8-week-old puppy was interesting! We finished up the paperwork as quickly as we could, anxious to get back on the road. After we popped him in the crate in the back, our ride reminded me of the first time we brought our kids home from the hospital. Duncan was much more chill about it than they were, though. He was sound asleep almost before we were out of the parking lot.

I was expecting to have to make quite a few pit stops on the way home, but as each rest stop passed, and he continued to slumber on, we just kept driving. Of course, when he finally did wake up, we were nowhere near anywhere convenient to stop. Just like the kids!

Introducing him to the kids went about as predicted: E and G were over the moon, and A was slightly less than thrilled. One of my friends texted me that the picture looked like one of those memes where they bring a new baby home and the older sibling is giving it the stink eye. While I wouldn’t quite call it a stink eye, I can’t say that it’s a happy face either. Before everyone went to bed that night, Duncan’s crate ended up right next to G’s bed, which is exactly where I expected it to land.

I’m glad the kids are at the ages that they are now, because they have an endless capacity for play, just like the puppy does. Duncan is a master retriever. He brought one toy home with him, a squeaky duck, and that thing has been thrown approximately 1 million times already. While I’m sure it’s his favorite just because it’s the most familiar, it’s also just adorable to see this clumsy puppy loping with a duck in his mouth. I’m sure it’s giving the WH great expectations of the hunting they will be doing together in the future. For the first time ever, I think everyone’s throwing arm is going to be in shape before baseball season gets here.

When he’s not chasing his duck, he enjoys chewing on his crinkly rainbow unicorn (E’s contribution) and his squeaky taco (A’s contribution). Unfortunately, he has a puppy’s tendency to chew on absolutely everything else that anyone lays on the floor. My kids are going to learn to be neater one way or the other. Duncan has been courteous enough to retrieve the items before he starts gnawing on them, so if they’re quick, they can reclaim their school sneakers before the damage is done.

Duncan has also recovered every single piece of lost Lego that’s ever been left under a couch. So far, I feel like we’ve caught him with most of them, just because he’s rarely out of our sight. Also, since his bathroom habits are currently of major interest to everyone, we haven’t found anything Technicolor in them. There really can’t be many more left under the couch, can there?

Unlike my kids, Duncan has had the decency to sleep all the way through the night without needing to go out. Of course, by the time 5:45 a.m. rolls around, this means when he has to go, he has to go! I’m getting my daily gymnastics workout trying to get him out of the crate, get his collar on, get down the stairs, and out the door before nature takes over. The only accident he’s had so far has been because I trusted G to try this once. I may be older, but I still have some skills he can’t touch, skills that have been honed by years of getting a kid to a toilet before something comes hurtling out of one end or the other.

And, that brings us to the final member of the family: Taco Cat. After not seeing her for two days, and hoping that her food dish was going down because of her, and not puppy snacking, and pretty sure that Duncan hadn’t trained himself to use the litter box, she finally came out long enough to let us know she wasn’t happy. Then, Duncan yipped and she fled back into hiding. Every day, she’s been venturing out a little more, so I’m hoping in the long run, we are forgiven, and everyone can get along.

Since the WH is already talking about getting another one, I have a feeling this is just the beginning of our puppy adventures. I have to say that I’m not at all brokenhearted about that!

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.