Another of the Poconos series, this was written on June 5, a date that's easy for me to remember!
Today is Dave and my first anniversary. That might seem to have little to do with Jonah, but it all feels very connected. First off, we had already decided that we would get a dog before we had gotten married, but we wanted to wait until we returned from the honeymoon to actually bring one home. I had already found a five-month puppy who had stolen my heart online. His name was Nolan, the same name as one of the Duke basketball stars, and he was a precious little (officially ‘medium’ sized) tri-colored guy of clear herding background although you would have trouble pinpointing what sort of herding breed to classify him as. He must have been a rambunctious little guy, because the description said he would be a great candidate for agility.
As I think about it now, that may have been what got me thinking seriously about the idea of agility. Since I’d had knee surgery and couldn’t play my normal sports, spending time running around with a new dog could be a good option, and would potentially fill some of the same urges that the horse competitions had done for me growing up.
Anyway, I’d been through all of the screening interviews, paperwork and phone calls necessary to get us approved by the rescue group, but at the end of the process I was told that, even though we sounded like the perfect home, it was policy not to hold puppies. If Nolan was still available when we got back from the honeymoon, we were first on the list, but if another approved adopter came along while we were away, they had to place the puppy so they could take on a new dog. Of course, by the time we got back Nolan had found another home.
Another reason why our anniversary is connected to Jonah is that we found a traditional registry useful but also lacking creativity, so we gave people the option to give us puppy money as a wedding gift. One of our favorite couples actually contacted our vet and found out the exact amount (to the cent!) of neutering surgery and wrote out a check for that, in case we got a new friend who hadn’t yet been fixed. Others specified that they were contributing to an adoption fee, training classes, vet bills or food costs. We have great friends. So, when we finally got Jonah, it really felt like all of our support network of friends and family were with us and that Jonah was a real sign of our new stage in our relationship. We didn’t want any pre-marital puppies—gosh no!—but it didn’t take nine months after the wedding before our canine child came into the picture.
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As I think about it now, that may have been what got me thinking seriously about the idea of agility. Since I’d had knee surgery and couldn’t play my normal sports, spending time running around with a new dog could be a good option, and would potentially fill some of the same urges that the horse competitions had done for me growing up.
Anyway, I’d been through all of the screening interviews, paperwork and phone calls necessary to get us approved by the rescue group, but at the end of the process I was told that, even though we sounded like the perfect home, it was policy not to hold puppies. If Nolan was still available when we got back from the honeymoon, we were first on the list, but if another approved adopter came along while we were away, they had to place the puppy so they could take on a new dog. Of course, by the time we got back Nolan had found another home.
Another reason why our anniversary is connected to Jonah is that we found a traditional registry useful but also lacking creativity, so we gave people the option to give us puppy money as a wedding gift. One of our favorite couples actually contacted our vet and found out the exact amount (to the cent!) of neutering surgery and wrote out a check for that, in case we got a new friend who hadn’t yet been fixed. Others specified that they were contributing to an adoption fee, training classes, vet bills or food costs. We have great friends. So, when we finally got Jonah, it really felt like all of our support network of friends and family were with us and that Jonah was a real sign of our new stage in our relationship. We didn’t want any pre-marital puppies—gosh no!—but it didn’t take nine months after the wedding before our canine child came into the picture.
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