I was just sitting here eating a freeze dried popsicle, recalling a conversation that I had with Jammer a few nights ago about life choices and things I wish I was better at… when I realized that I hadn’t TOUCHED my blog in MONTHS.

I have a tendency to stop blogging when things are boring in my life… but I also, apparently, have a habit of not blogging when things GO TOTALLY NUTS. The ironic thing about all of this is that I want to blog more than anything when things are whacko. I like the relationships my blog has forged; I like the catharsis of a good Sailor Moon gif and a bunch of capital letters. But for some reason I shut down from internet sharing… probably because I’m too overwhelmed from the inevitable game of catching y’all up to speed on what’s happening and how I’m feeling about it. So I’ll say this to start: When it rains, it pours.

I’m too embarrassed to even look up my last post…(It was in APRIL?!)… but SO MUCH HAS CHANGED that I think it’s a good idea to break everything up into separate posts so that I can really dig into everything.

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Okay, so I gave myself a second to look at my last blog post and it actually will flow pretty well with some of the shit I need to talk about.

WHEW. SO.

Napkin and I were so relieved to finally come to decisions about our life together that we immediately started planning what we would do next. We were building a new house, we had made some career goals, we were finally able to sit back and breathe a much needed sigh of relief. It took us the better part of a year to make these decisions, after all. So we started day dreaming about what things would be like when we were in our new house. We got wistful about routines and dinner plans and the boring married couple stuff that we had been missing for so long. We started thinking about adding new family members. (The fur KIND MOM DON’T GET YOUR HOPES UP!!!!!) Randomly, I came home from work one night to find Napkin searching for dogs on Adopt A Pet. When I asked him about it, he said he was just looking– it wasn’t anything serious– and we didn’t need to be really considering a dog until the house was built and we were settled in.

But it didn’t stop there.

There’s a weekly adoption fair that happens at our local Petco and one rare Sunday when we weren’t super busy he asked if I wanted to stop by.

I sorta knew that something crazy was about to happen but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Apparently, Napkin had been scouting out a hound by the name of “Tootsie” who looked diminutive in photos and had a super sweet old-lady face. When we got there, Tootsie was as tall as me on her back legs and super loud and energetic. I kept hounding Napkin (see what I did there?!) about this puppy that I saw at the end of the adoption fair. He was sleeping so hard that his head flopped when I tried to pet him and I couldn’t resist his ears. They were too big for his head. He was tiny looking and silent. Tootsie was too big for us, seemingly too high maintenance, and this little puppy was just so quiet and perfect looking. (***Post note: Tootsie was adopted! So don’t worry!)

A helpful volunteer let us take the puppy (who ended up being three years old) out of his crate and walk around with him. When we were able to finally wake him up… he was WILD. He was SO HAPPY! We taught him to sit in a matter of minutes! I was smitten. But Napkin, too afraid to make a spontaneous decision like that, convinced me to put him back in his crate. We left after that. I made it to the car before crying and asking how he could walk away from such a handsome little boy that was obviously happy to have us around?

He was careful and sweet and said that it just wasn’t “the right time.”

HOW COULD IT NOT BE THE RIGHT TIME FOR THIS FACE?!

(I pulled this off of his adoption page in order to torture Napkin.)

So I could go on and on about what happened and why I did it and all of my feeeeeelings and stuff but I’ll keep it short and sweet.

Basically, I had a little break from work coming up. Napkin was going to head back to our forever home a few days before me– and so, knowing that I only had a few days to pull it off, I went and adopted the dog. Without thinking twice. Without doing any research or soul searching or second guessing. I wanted to save his life. So I did.

(This photo is from our very first car ride home together!)

Dear everybody! Meet Wilbur! 

We have learned that he is a three year old beagle/hound mix… a runt with a HUMUNGOUS personality.

Napkin, as you can imagine, was totally shocked…but not really surprised. I can’t keep secrets, he knew something was going on after he left, and so he put two and two together pretty easily. We had no IDEA what we were in store for.

(Trying to find the beagle ghost in the machine.)

We have also learned that Wilbur was abandoned, brought in as a stray, and then shopped around from foster to foster before he ended up with us. There are some pretty obvious reasons why. He is crazy energetic– and gets bored easily. When he gets bored?

He chews everything.

He has some pretty rotten habits that we have to fix with him… but we are at the four week mark and his sweet personality is starting to come out.

That being said… we are exhausted. It feels like we have a toddler all of a sudden. I have spent the last hour trying to find this really funny comic on the internet that I ran across randomly that talks about the four stages of rescuing a shelter dog. They go something like:

1. I’m taking you home!

2. I’m taking you back! What have I done?!

3. I’m starting to understand you and like you a lot.

4. How did I ever live without you?

I can’t find it… but it’s right on.

If we’re being honest I’m on the fence between steps two and three. Molly has always been so quick to adapt and so perfect for me and my lifestyle… and Wilbur is a problem child who makes it really easy to understand why he ended up at the pound. (Not that that is EVER okay.) So everything is trial and error, step and go, cry and move on. For everyone involved (Molly included.)

So! Napkin and I are officially puppy parents! That’s my first batch of big news!

Now we just have to figure out where we are going to live…

Because we are no longer under contract for our new house. But that’s for next time.

And as a little PS: If you’re reading this, thanks for sticking with my very unreliable blog. Despite my lack of consistency, I’m genuinely happy to have people that I can connect with and I’m going to try try try to be better at it. Because Jammer told me to. : )