Introducing Gus

As I mentioned on our Summer Bucket List post last week, we checked off a really big item this summer – we got a dog!

A little back story for those that don’t know - I have not been the dog-holdout all this time…. no, it’s been my husband Nick! He’s been anti-getting a dog, not because he dislikes dogs (he actually likes them a lot), but because he dislikes picking up dog poo. Really though, who doesn’t dislike that?

For the last 18 months or so, the boys (Chase especially) have been in a full court press with Nick to get a dog, and I could see Nick cracking, so I knew it was safe to put getting a dog on the bucket list this summer.

Our intent all along has been to adopt a shelter dog. Not only would we be rescuing an unwanted animal, but I could make sure it was an animal that was already house-broken! Plus, there’s the obvious fact that shelter dogs are far, far less expensive than buying from a breeder or pet store.

We strayed a bit from the shelter plan though, when a fellow Kansas City photographer messaged me about us rehoming one of their dogs. She’d seen my recent post about the boys’ putting “Get a dog” on the bucket list, and said they’d been considering finding a new home for their 8 month old Welsh Terrier, Gus. He was bouncy, craving attention, and really needed a home with younger kids.

I showed Nick the pictures of Gus, told him all about him (house trained! kennel trained! doesn’t shed!), and I saw him crack more. I gave him a few days to think about it, and then pressed for an answer… He was a “yes”! WOOO!

I set up a little meet-and-greet for Gus and the kids, but they didn’t know that’s what was going on. They thought we were just going over so that Anne and I could chat about photography, and them getting to play with a dog was just a cool perk of the outing.

The kids LOVED Gus from the get go! Lily was a little nervous with all of the jumping, so stayed glued to my lap most of the time, but she wasn’t crying (which I was afraid would happen, considering she cried anytime the little dog barked that we dog-sat last summer).

The next morning, I let Nick tell the boys that Gus was going to come live with us. He told them he’d gotten a text from the dog, asking if he could come live with them. Silly guy! The boys went ballistic, and Lily jumped around yelling just because her brothers were. I had a major tech-fail and messed up trying to record the reaction.

For the next 48 hours, if you saw my boys out in public, whether they knew you or not, the first thing they’d say is “Guess what! We’re getting a dog!”, and before you could even ask a question, they followed with “His name is Gus, and we’re getting him Friday after VBC!”.

Gus has been with us for a few weeks now, and everyone loves him, even Nick 😉 Lily calls him “My Gus” and says “I love my Gus” quite often. The boys run to play with him the minute they wake up in the morning, and we’re all highly entertained when he runs around the backyard, totally acting like a puppy!

Here’s Gus!

Name: Gus

Breed: Welsh Terrier

Size: Medium (he’s 20-25 pounds)

Age: 9 months

Work to do still: Break him of jumping on people, digging holes in the yard, and chewing everything in site – but we know these things will take time, especially considering his age!

Expect to see pictures of the kids with Gus in the future! He doesn’t sit very often, especially if any of the kids are nearby. I’ve caught a few, but only with my cell phone. You can see those on my Instagram feed (which you don’t need an Instagram account to view, via that link there)!