Allison Cafe

It’s hard to believe that an entire year has gone by already since that day that changed our lives forever, the day we brought home our little rescue puppy.

My husband had been keeping a watchful eye on the Helen Woodward Animal Center website, and when Hayley’s cute little face popped up, he turned to me and said “That’s her, that’s our puppy. We are going to get her.” And we did. We said we were going to just “look”, but who could walk away from this little face. She had been brought to the animal center by 2 boys who couldn’t care for her anymore. We suspected that they lived in an apartment where dogs were not allowed. They simply said they had gotten her from a “lady” in the park. That’s all we knew of Hayley’s early days. She was so sweet and such a happy puppy, that we couldn’t resist bringing her home. She was everything we were looking for in a puppy.

Our lives have changed a lot since we first brought Hayley home. My husband and I had just started new jobs, were engaged and planning a wedding, and then we added house training a puppy to the mix. Some called us crazy, but Hayley has given so much back to us. She helped me stay in shape for the wedding. I was on the “white dress diet” and needed to keep exercising, and she had to be walked every day or we had a very wild Hayley on our hands. She also brought a calmness to our home that only an animal can bring, she would cuddle up on the couch with us after a long day of work and wedding planning. The unconditional love that animals bring is amazing. But they also come with a lot of work too.

Bringing home puppy

Those first 3 weeks or so were really tough. House training requires a lot of patience and we must have spent hours on the internet and reading Puppies For Dummies, trying to figure out what to do. And we still have continuing training to cure her of jumping, and to rid her of separation anxiety. We just recently worked our way up to leaving her in the apartment alone and not fenced in. Which is going pretty well, despite the occasional chewed flip-flop.

She only weighed about 11 pounds and was 3.5 months old when we adopted her. She now weighs about 18 pounds and is 15 months old. She looks like a little mini Golden Retriever. Were we told that she is a mix of Golden Retriever and Cocker Spaniel, but who really knows. She is just perfect, so who cares!

A few things we have learned about pet ownership in our year with Hayley:

• It isn’t puppy training – it’s human training.
• Bitter Apple is a must have for chewing puppies, as well as plenty of chew toys.
• Puppies can sail too, just give them a life vest!
• Not all dog owners are responsible like you would be, so don’t assume!
• You can become one of “those dog people”, that refers to yourself as “mom” or “dad”, and you are not talking about human children, you are referring to your 4 legged and furry kid.
• Dogs will love you no matter what you do, what you look like, or how often you screw up. They are happy as long as you feed them, walk them, play with them, and love them.
• After adopting a puppy, you begin to struggle to remember what life was like before, you can’t imagine it any other way!

Our Skipper

Thanks to her Aunt Lindsay, she also learned some new tricks this past year:

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