Meet Nikki

So many of you may already know this if you've talked to us or others or gone on our Facebook pages. But to the rest of you, Guess What?!

WE GOT A PUPPY!!!

Last Sunday, my parents were visiting and told us that they felt that it would be good for us to have some form of positive distraction going on in our lives right now...and that if we would be interested and not feel too overwhelmed, they wanted to give us a little golden retriever puppy.

Some of you may know that this was a jokingly a "hot button" subject for AJ and myself: I am a HUGE dog lover, and more specifically golden retriever obsessor. AJ has never had a puppy or dog before. I wanted a puppy the moment we found our home. Even when we were house-hunting, I would point out the homes with fenced in yards. Not that AJ didn't want to get a puppy. But it was more of a matter of "when." My opinion? Last week. His opinion? Not until our first child was 5+ years old. To him it was more a matter of logistics. Things like: we are both working full time right now, plans to travel, our immaculately kept house staying just the way we like it.

The thing about the "cancer" word (even a "highly treatable" one) though is it has a tendency to make a big change on your perspective. Suddenly, having an immaculately clean house is pretty low on our priority list. Suddenly, waiting around for good things here at home because we want to see things far away seems rather silly.

So, to make a long story short (or maybe not that short, because after all, I am my father's daughter), we drove up to Arlington later that night with my sisters and parents to check out a litter of puppies. We knew Nikki was ours the moment she snuggled up on AJ, cuddling into him as closely as she could, right where some of the cancer is on the right side of his neck, as if she knew what her job was.

She is our baby. Our snuggly cuddle-bug and therapeutic ball of energy. Our positive distraction.
So...meet Nikki:

Nikki has already brought us so many smiles. We fell in love with her instantaneously and it certainly seems that she knows we're her "mom & dad" and loves us too. She loves playing in the leaves in the backyard, playing with her various toys, or just snuggling up close to AJ or me. She has favorite spots to sleep like right in front of the sliding glass door to the back deck or on top of our shoes or between the couches and coffee table. She is pretty much all one shade of reddish brown but she has one white toe on her left hind paw. When she gets in trouble she lays down and tries to look innocent. She sneaks up on her toys until she is within about 1-2 feet and then pounces...as if the it is about to run away from her. She sleeps more hours than she is awake, but boy when she is awake, she is wide awake and energetic. She is a bit clumsy and does probably 20+ faceplants a day. She likes to sleep in the bed between mom and dad. She can climb up over a baby gate. She can chew through a baby gate. She can move a piece of furniture out of the way to sneak behind the washer and dryer and she can then disconnect the air supply to the dryer. She is the cutest little hellion you will ever meet. But even though she can be a little trouble-maker, she is also the sweetest little girl and we love her so much. She is the best kind of medicine.

More pictures on Picassa.