CLEARLY We Do Not Have Enough To Do

Studmuffin's birthday is the 4th.

He is hard to buy a present for.

He is hard to surprise.

Oh, and here's another news flash for you:  There is approximately 1/8th of a nanosecond before my thoughts come vomiting out of my mouth.

Clearly it is a mystery why I can never surprise the man...

So this year I did the unthinkable.  The unatainable.  The unBELIEVABLE!!!

It all began about two months ago.  He had began speaking in earnest about getting another Brittany.  Instead of having a panic attack which was my first instinct, I got onto this new fangled invention known as the internet.

And I did some research.  Then I emailed him links such as this one:  Brittany Spaniels.

And then I emailed a link such as this one:  German Short Hair Pointers.  Because this was his second choice of dog.

And while I truly loved Holly, our previous Brittany, we simply could not keep up with walking her eight miles a day, and neither could we realistically be with her all but a few hours a day, which is what I kept finding as recommendations for keeping this breed of dog calm...Basically the opposite of her.  Oh, she was the perfect dog when we were home.  It was when we were off to work that she ate the wiring to the air conditioner.  Three times.  And it was while we were at work that she chewed up the stairs to the pool.  And it was while we were at work that she chewed a hunk out of her giant rubber indestructable dog bowl.  And it was while we were at work that she decided to dig under the fence and eat the pool filter...

So. Holly no longer lives with us.  She has been gone over a year now.

And Studmuffin and the girls were scaring the living daylights out of me by earnestly searching for a new Brittany puppy.

I stated quite emphatically:  Do NOT bring home a puppy without me first approving it.

And then I did more research.  His goal in obtaining a dog is that he wants a hunting companion.  Since I lost three birds the last time I went hunting with him, I could not even use the excuse that I would bird dog for him...I decided to do research on dogs that were bred for hunting, and decided that we needed either a lab or a golden.

Then one night he said, "I do NOT want a black lab.  Everyone has a black lab."

So. That narrowed my search.

And then I learned something else.  Golden Retrievers are not as easy to find as a labrador.  At last I found some Golden puppies that were available October first.  Bingo!  The girls and I schemed that we would pretend to go birthday shopping on the first, when in fact we were going to have to drive to Tulsa to meet the breeder who was flying out puppies that day.

And my children kept the secret for three whole weeks.  Seriously!  They did not breathe a word.

Of course, my husband did the unthinkable and one day last week he said, "Hey, the weekend of the first is the OU vs Ball State game.  They will cream Ball State, so the tickets are cheap.  I thought we could take the girls to a game finally."

Of course I panicked and was completely unable to come up with any reason why we couldn't go, other than, "Umm.  I think I may have plans that weekend."  And then the girls started chiming in that it was indeed impossible for us to go to a game that particular day.

And Studmuffin tried to manipulate us into telling him by pretending to have his feelings hurt that we were all keeping secrets from him...

But we stood firm.

And at some point he decided that I was surprising him with new sofas...

Because that would clearly require a two hour drive one way to pick up.  And there is obviously no way I could get a new sofa within a 120 mile radius of our house...And obviously every man wants new sofas for his birthday.

So, at 6:30 am this morning we began our drive to Tulsa.  And he nagged and tried to guess all the way there what we were doing.  I had asked him to throw in tie downs for his pickup.  And he grabbed a wrench and tossed both hitch balls in too as a precaution since he had stated "You realize that my pickup bed will only hold one sofa."  To which I replied, "Your pickup has a hitch."

And none of that was a lie...

So we drive drive drive, and when we finally got to Tulsa I said, "Hey I saw a sign back there for a Quik Trip off of Exit 222.  Just pull off of there, and I will take a quick bathroom break, then I will take over driving."

Now, I had planned to meet Dan, the breeder at the QT.  He had said he would be there between 8:00 and 8:30, but he would take a nap while he waited.  He didn't want to worry about me hurrying and getting into an accident.  He said he would be in a Suburban on the west side, and he would be napping...

I had planned to pretend to go into the bathroom, then when my husband went in I would go back out, grab the dog and pay for her, then promptly return to the pickup...Only Dan wasn't there.  I went into the bathroom and texted him.  He had been fooling around at the airport because he figured there was no way I would arrive before 9.  He was exiting as he replied.  I saw a suburban with a definitely friendly face pull up, and handed my husband all of the drinks and headed out the door...

I practically ran to the Suburban.  I threw the cash in his face, and tried to nonchalantly tell him to shut up the chitter chatter and just give me the bloody dog so I can surprise my husband...

Unfortunately the I don't want to be rude but shut up and hurry up scheme didn't work...And the girls and their dad came strolling out of the QT just as I was scooping up our new little bundle of joy.

But he was definitely surprised!

So, here she is.  Our brand new puppy, Chesney.

I took these photos with my phone and didn't realize that the girls had set it on a weird setting.  I have no idea what that color is about.

However, I think you can still tell that she is adorable.

Studmuffin decided on Chesney because she is a dark color for a golden.  Which is why I picked her.  The breeder had photos of the litter online, and I picked the one with the darkest coat.  Studmuffin decided she is almost a chesnut color...

Ain't she sweet?  Remind me of how sweet I think she is when I am ranting about all the stuff she has chewed up.

I will end with a few picks that I snapped the first few minutes we had her home with us.

 Oliver:  What on earth is THAT thing?

Chesney:  Why hello giant fluffy creature?  Can I lick your face?

And Oliver promptly smacked her three times across the face.  Which I did not catch on camera.  But one can for sure say this:  Chesney may NOT lick Oliver's face.

She was playing with a ball here.  I am a terrible photographer, and I missed it.  Also, I'm impatient, and too busy watching life in real time to think to snap it with a camera.

Her new collar is itching her neck terribly.  She kept having to stop her wrestling with Kelsey to scratch her neck.

Chesney wants to play.  Kelsey wants to sniff her bottom for about four solid hours.  Or days.  However long it takes for her to decide whatever decision bottom sniffing leads to.

And that is all the photos I have for you for now.  Next time perhaps I will move off of my bench on the cool shady porch and take some real photos.

But I can't make any promises.

Oh, and the reason we needed my husband's pickup was that I had bought a Great Dane kennel from a friend at work.  Since we have a fence up, but it isn't completely done, I was afraid there may be a few places that weren't puppy proof.  As it turns out, I think she can only sneak out at the curves of the gate, and that should only last a few weeks.  But regardless now we have a nice wire kennel to put her in should the need arise!

And one last note:  The kittens (which look less and less like kittens every day) are hiding from Chesney.  They need to take a page from Oliver's book and smack her around now, or they will have two dogs chasing them up the tree instead of just one.