Gracie

As a child, we never had real pets (that required anything other than water changing in a tank). Jeramy always had a dog growing up, so naturally, he thought we needed one a few years back. We were still without children, living in a 2 bedroom apartment and both working full-time and going to school - so a dog made perfect sense, right? We got Gracie, a Jack Russel Terrier puppy. We learned really quick that she was smarter than us.
The first day we left her home, she got out of her cage, opened the cupboard where we kept her food, spilled it all over the house and ate herself sick.
So I got all domestic and sewed a blanket on top of the cage. She chewed the blanket up and got out again.
We bought a wire net thing and used wire to get it on the top. She chewed that off, too.
She then learned to go under instead of over her cage, so more wire net stuff. She figured that out as well.
We started leaving her on her leash in our bedroom while we were gone.
She chewed my phone up.
She tore apart my feather pillow.
She hated to have a bath. Every time I would get her out, she would run around the house like a mad dog, then jump up on my bed and pee. Jeramy would just laugh.
She chewed up her "Perfect Puppy" training book.
We took her to Puppy kindergarten and she would never do her tricks for the teacher - making us look like the idiots that couldn't teach the smartest kind of dog.
She cost us a small fortune to buy, and to fix, and for hernia surgeries.
She was not allowed on the bed or couch - can't you tell? That lasted all of 2 days.
Along came Maddie.
Goodbye puppy.
In the first 5 minutes I was home from the hospital she jumped on my c-section incision.
She quickly realized that when I was feeding the baby, I couldn't take her out, so she'd look right at me and poo on the floor.
She also learned that I couldn't climb under the table to get things from her, so she'd grab things and hide out from me.
Final straw was nipping at Maddie.
Gracie went to stay with a friend for a few weeks. Gracie found a happy home with a big yard and 2 little boys to wrestle with her. She lasted a whole 5 months with us.

The reason for this post is for my 2 sisters that decided getting puppies was a good idea for Christmas. I know that Santa brought one, so Kerry had no idea what she was getting in to (ha ha), but Cindy, seriously - you should have known better. I wish you both the best of luck, and I will count my blessings that Maddie got Nintendogs for Christmas and is totally satisfied because she doesn't have to clean up a pretend dog's poop.

Sigh. All right, I do miss my dog. We only had her for 5 months, but we loved her and still talk about her all the time. She slept with us, curled up on my legs. I missed that a lot at first. So, I guess congrats on the new puppies. I know one day I will lose the battle and we will have another dog, but until then, I will just love your dogs and leave them!