My Girl

Griff and I decided to get a puppy early this year. Okay, honestly I decided I wanted a puppy and Griff, being the loving and supportive husband that he is, went along with it. Truth be told, he offered that we could have a baby instead because he really didn't want a dog, but I convinced him the puppy should come first. I decided I wanted a rescue dog, since there are so many out there looking for the right owner. I literally looked for months on petfinder.com to find the right puppy. Petfinder is a wonderful website that brings together hundreds of adoption agencies to let potential owners search in one spot for the right rescue dog. We did not have a real preference for breed, only that we wanted a smaller dog and preferably a girl. After 3 months of looking and a bad experience with one adoption agency that told us we were not suitable pet owners for a variety of ridiculous reasons, we found our Sage, from Noah's bArk in Ellijay.

Sage's mom, Peanut, and her five puppies were saved from an animal shelter. I found them on Petfinder in April, thought Sage would be the right puppy for us from her description (she was the 'reserved' one of the group), and we met her the next weekend at the PetsMart in Alpharetta, where Noah's bArk goes each Saturday for adoptions. I knew she was the one when we saw her. This is Sage with two of her sisters. Sage is the one asleep, in the middle of all the excitement of people looking at them and playing. Sage and her siblings were all named after herbs (Rosemary, Parsley, Thyme), which suits us so well since we like to cook. We decided to keep her name, because it's so cute and it really just fits her.

We had to wait a week to bring Sage home, she needed to be 8 weeks old, so the next weekend we returned to PetsMart and came home with Sage. This picture is from the day she came home with a new puppy toy that we got for her. The toy was as big as she was. She has really been wonderful. We are so lucky to have a wonderful puppy with a great temperament. It's been frustrating at times, especially while we were trying to housebreak her, and it's caused more than a few arguments on the best way to train and raise her. I wouldn't trade it for anything though. I've grown to love her so much. It makes me so happy when she comes to cuddle with me. Griff is wonderful with her, he definitely found a spot for Sage in his heart and I know he loves her too.

Sage is full grown now, about 14 pounds with long legs and a very lithe body. We're pretty sure she has some chihuahua in her and probably terrier. We also think she might be part deer (seriously, her legs are really long). She is so cute, I must point out at least 10 times a day how cute she looks to Griff. She loves to cuddle and play, but she has not been a very rambunctious puppy. She's really timid around other dogs and people (especially men), so we're trying to socialize her more. We've taken her to doggie day care a few times and she has some other friends - our neighbor's hound Duke, my mom's jack russell Chester, and our niece's poodle Maggie. We completed a doggie training class at Jabula Academy, which I highly recommend - Kate Jackson is amazing. Sage knows sit, down, stay, spin and roll over and she's mostly house trained.

We're lucky to have such a wonderful animal as part of our family.