Butters!

Today mom and I picked up the newest member of Nathan and my family, Butters! He's a six and a half week old yellow lab. Nathan and I have wanted a dog since before we were married and the time has finally come! We have orders (Washington State, hooray!) and that means a somewhat permanent location. Nathan will be in sub school for the next two months in CT while I stay in CA with my parents. Deciding it would ease the pain of separation and that Santa Rosa would be a good place to train a puppy, we decided to get one today. We found the ad for his litter online and as luck would have it, today was the day the puppies were ready,today is my first day without Nathan, and today is the day I was driving back from LA which drive crossed the path of where the puppies were from, Modesto. All in all, it was pretty perfect.
Once we got to the puppies, it was pretty obvious which one was mean for Nathan and me. I stepped into the kennel, and butters looked at me from the corner, peed and then climbed on my lap and started kissing my face. It was love at first sight. Since then he's been nothing but the sweetest. After trying to chew everything he shouldn't in the car he fell asleep on the floor, then he woke up and played on my lap where he once again fell asleep for the rest of the 2 and 1/2 hour drive from Modesto to Santa Rosa. Once at home he quickly started exploring. He was particularly fond of an overgrown rosemary bush outside the garage, both to climb in and to eat. Whenever he got scared, like when our 110 lb. yellow lab Ulee met him or when his metal name tag clinked his water bowl, he backed as fast as he could all the way under my car and stayed until he could see Dad or me to whom he quickly ran. He even went to sleep in his crate without any yelping...so far. I'm so excited to have Butters in our life and am especially excited for Nathan to meet him!