Welcoming A Puppy Into the Family

We'll always remember "Leap Day" as the day we brought our puppy home!

We first met him on February 11th at the foster family's home when he was a wee 5 weeks old, and waited 3 weeks until we could bring home to join our family. Although it felt like a long wait, it was productive time as we gathered supplies and read about how to care for and train a puppy. Nate was also traveling during the last two weeks, so the timing was perfect.

The puppy is a Lab-mix whose mom was a rescue from Virginia (the organization was called Mostly Muttz Rescue, although we first saw him on petfinder.com). We're not sure what the father was, but we're beginning to suspect he was a hound breed. The mom was a tan lab, but only one of her puppies looked like her; the rest were a mix of black and brown like ours, and all-white with brown over the eyes. We chose our puppy from among his brothers and sisters because of the coloring on his face and for his laid-back personality.

Without further ado, we would like to introduce Rusty!

This was Rusty the day we meet him at 5 weeks old.

Rusty was ready to come home with us on Leap Day when he turned 8 weeks old.
We almost named him "Leap" because of the special date.

We decided on "Rusty" because of the coloring on his face and legs,
and because we wanted a name with a strong beginning sound and a vowel sound
on the end (recommended by the Monks of New Skete, the dog experts).He has some big paws, so we'll see how big he gets! 

For weeks Rowan had been asking, "When my puppy coming?" in his cute little toddler voice.
He was so excited when we finally brought Rusty home!

Rusty bonded with the kids right away. 

Silas was at school during the day, so he didn't get to see Rusty until he came home
in the afternoon. Although Silas seemed initially excited about the puppy,
he seems more interested in causing the dog mischief than
actually playing with him.

Nate's been dutifully attending to the task of taking Rusty out throughout the day.
Nate is our pack leader, and he'll be doing all of Rusty's training. 

Good dog!