We always knew we wanted a dog, but our housing and life situations prevented that in the first years of our marriage. When we bought a house, and knew we'd soon be having a baby, we decided to look into getting a dog. I mean, every kid needs a dog right? Josh and I also feared our child would be afraid of dogs if we didn't have one as part of our family. We now had a large fenced in yard too- perfect. We piddled around looking at the fliers at the grocery store and saw some Labs that looked promising, looked online at the shelter and saw a German Shepherd that looked Oh, So friendly and sweet- but nothing really felt right. So we just put it on the back burner. A few weeks later when Christmas rolled around, my brother Jesse (who had been scouting out Golden Retriever puppies for my parents- who were also casually looking for a dog) happened upon a lady in Missouri with 20 some Golden puppies, two different litters with the same dad. So we went to her farm on January 1st 2010, on our way home from Pleasant Hill. And for $100, brought our little Gemma home. There were many puppies, the ball of fur we would later name Gemma acted timid and shy, but as I cradled her and we looked into each others eyes, Josh and I knew she was the one. We were right! She's been a handful on some levels, but she is in no way aggressive, lets Michael poke her in the eye, roll on her, take her toy out of her mouth- no problems. Is sweet as can be, is playful and barks at suspicious things to alert us of trouble (or a passing leaf), she loves her rope toy and alligator plush, and is friendly to people we greet as we walk... Mission Complete:)
Here are some pictures from the day we adopted her.
Her first week with her family (and biological sister Daisy whom my parents adopted)
Her first bath
In the backyard snow and playing with Tank and Tater (her beagle friends next door) in January 2010.
It's been so hot this summer, that tufts of hair from Gems' coat have been shedding like a candy at a parade. It's ridiculous! My vacuum and I can't keep up! Really, I vacuumed 3 times the other day only to walk through the house again to more clumps of hair. She also has allergies and has been rubbing up against furniture to relieve the itching that isn't relieved from her shot or medicine, so that doesn't help the situation either. I finally called PetSmart and made an appointment to get her hair cut around her back end and chest and to get her deshedded. I didn't know if it would work but it was worth a try. When she got up this morning I told her all about her appointment, this was her reaction...
Thrilled, yes?
This was what she did next, and Michael's reaction...
He loves to feed her and laughs when I tell her to go away when he's feeding her. She is licking his toes in the middle picture and in the last picture Michael is laughing at me jokingly telling him "That's Icky".
This was Gemma's reaction when she found out she was getting a ride in the car.
The grooming and hair cut went well and Amy (the stylist) said she was "Such a sweet, well behaved dog!"
This is her after her exciting day.
She's such a sweetie, I love snuggling with her and sometimes wish she was still little enough to cradle.
Night Night.
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