Midge

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, while we were on vacation we picked up a dog!  Meet Midge.

We've gone through all the questions, all the emotions, all the woulda shoulda coulda, and after three weeks, we are all in love with this four legged furry little thing.

In MN, we didn't have the house or the space for a dog.  We loved dog sitting.  We loved loving other people's dogs.  

We came up with a few things the kids would want if we lived somewhere else, and while 'things' don't provide happiness, there are a few that have brought many smiles.

Matt had a dog growing up and I had a cat.  I think if we had gotten a cat, Matt may have moved out - maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not too much of a stretch.  

I had been looking on Craigslist for a dog for months. I knew we needed something hypo-allergenic for Brandon and something that didn't shed for my sanity. How my family put up with cat hair is beyond me - and yet, as a child, I don't even remember it.  Craigslist isn't a huge hit here in Muskegon, but I knew there was a Schnoodle breeder in Sioux Center, so I tried Sioux City's craigslist, and that's where I found Midge. She's not a pure bred - from what we were told her dad was a schnoodle and her mom was a schnauzer. She has been to the vet - and we've already treated her for an ear infection.  Good grief, a kid without health insurance - what have we done!  She has to get more shots in a few weeks and then a few weeks after that she can get spayed. Then we can license her.  She had 6 different houses to stay in her first 9 nights with us, but we feel she has settled in pretty well.  She ran away once at each house, including ours when we got home, but each time some wonderful person has stopped her and we got her back.  Her curiosity has subsided a bit - maybe because she is settling in, maybe because she has been around our circle so many times she knows all the smells, maybe she's not in heat anymore.... maybe its all of the above.  Anyway, its nice to not have a dog constantly trying to sneak out - she still tries from time to time, but for the most part is a mellow dog.  I still need to get up my guts and groom her - maybe this weekend!

This is one of the reasons we decided to get a dog.  On days when no one else wants to play, or no one else understands, Midge will.