Third Member of Our Family

My alarm went off at 4:30 am on Saturday morning. We were out the door by 5:15 am and on our way to Beaver Falls, PA. Beaver Falls is just 20 minutes from Ohio and 2 hours from Lake Erie. We stopped a few places on the way so we could use the bathroom and stretch our legs a bit. The plan was for me to drive out there and Bryan to drive back. Once we reached the halfway point, I kept saying how the fields looked like my Instagram photos after I put filters on them. No joke – the grass was bright neon green and the skies were the bluest I’ve ever seen. Central PA is gorgeous! I was surprised that I made it all the way out there! It was a 5.5 hour drive, but very well worth it.

By 10:30am, we were in Beaver Falls and met the third member of our family. Say hello to Pete.

For the past 4 or 5 years I’ve been wanting a mini dachshund. I’ve talked about it and would look at mini dachshund pictures and videos online non-stop. Once we could afford one, we realized that there was no way we could get one with our wedding coming up. I patiently waited and after our wedding I began to contact breeders. If anyone has ever purchased a puppy from a breeder, you know that it can be a very stressful process. First, you have to find a reputable breeder and not a puppy mill. That part was pretty difficult because PA has a lot of puppy mills. Second, you have to be put on a waiting list and then hope that a litter works out. Luckily, we found our breeder – Emma Jean. She was a JOY to work with. She answered all my questions and kept me updated once the puppies were born.

Pete was born on May 19, but almost wasn’t ours. I emailed Emma Jean late May and she told me a litter was just born. I knew we didn’t want to get a dog before leaving for Jamaica in August, so I knew this litter probably wouldn’t work out for us. I was getting the puppy bug again mid July and told Bryan that we would figure something out for our honeymoon. We knew that there were people who could watch the pup while we were out of the country, so I contacted Emma Jean. She said the puppies were being picked up that weekend and that she wasn’t sure if she’d still have a dog for us afterward. I thanked her for letting me know and asked her to keep me posted if there were any still available.

Lucky me, there was a few left! She emailed me a picture of Pete last week and I told her almost immediately that we would be picking him up that weekend. We spent all last week prepping for Pete’s arrival. We bought all the puppy essentials and told our closest family and friends about him. I couldn’t believe that he was actually going to be ours.

He is 10 weeks old today and we love him so much already. He’s starting to feel comfortable in our home and enjoys playing with his toys. This morning he woke up with a burst of energy and hasn’t stopped running/hopping around. I’m thinking he’ll go down for a nap very soon!

I’m sure I’ll be blogging a lot about life with Pete, so keep your eyes open for that. In the meantime here are some pictures from the past few days.