Introducing.... Porter!

Oh man, we are a two dog family. But it works, as April said, ridiculously well. Here's the story.

We went to the shelter, just to poke around, and immediately saw a little fella named Scamper, who looked literally identical to Pilot, but a tiny Jack Russell. We met him in the play room and... he was sort of a mess. Peeing everywhere, leaping like crazy, never settling down. Last thing we need is more dog energy in this house. So we decided to stroll around and we saw Porter in with another dog, being super playful and lovey.

We decided to meet with him and he was incredible. So sweet and gentle, but very playful. The perfect size (we knew we wanted a small dog, he is 18 pounds now, will probably end up around 25), and 10 months old, so over the true puppy stages. I was pretty smitten, especially with his cuddle-skills.

But we really wanted to get a second to be a friend for Pilot. He absolutely loves other dogs and it was a bit daunting to think of running him every morning and evening to keep him sufficiently tired out without Trent around to help this summer. And he is way less anxious when he has another dog. But we had NO idea how great it would be. We drove back and got Pilot so they could meet on a walk. And they were fantastic. Total buddies. And it was great to see Porter out, not worried about other dogs, grabby toddlers, loud noises. We were pretty convinced to give it a go, but I definitely wanted Trent to meet him. But we found out, there was another person interested in visiting with him, and his kennel-mate had just been adopted. Apparently, Tuesday midday is a big dog adopting day? So we went ahead and put our $2o deposit down, just in case.


Trent came back with April later in the day, with strict instructions to be critical and really only get him if he loved him. And now he is ours.


And it has been ridiculous. Pilot and Porter (we decided not to change his pound name, I mean, what a perfect, alliterative, pair!) are best buddies. They play great, snuggle great (what dogs spoon!?), share toys and meals... everything, right from the start. And Porter is completely potty trained, hasn't chewed a thing, hasn't made a peep, and was terrific with all the toddlers at today's picnic.

And we really think it has already been a great influence on Pilot, as if he somehow knows now to be a big brother. Pilot is learning how to be more gentle while playing (he is about 30 pounds bigger than Porter), and I think he has been jealous of Senor Snuggles being picked up so easily, but he has been just wonderful, so welcoming, and so mellow during the day, just snoozing with his friend.


I woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday, panicking thinking about our irresponsible decision. And then I looked over to the dog bed and saw two best friends snuggling away and realized that the easiest road isn't always the happiest, and man, I am so happy with them.