We Did A Thing :)

And it's a little bit (OK, maybe a lotta bit) crazy! But as Mom said, "Crazy has never deterred the D-Team." We (and Nellie Noo) would like to introduce you to Lucy Loo, our 13-week-old Texan Bernedoodle... and the newest member of the family! She doesn't replace our Rosie Roo, whom we all dearly miss, but Lucy Loo is pretty special. Here's the story.

We've wanted a Bernedoodle for a number of years, but Mom wasn't open to the idea of a big dog at the time that we were last puppy shopping, and mini Bernedoodles are super expensive, so we ended up with our mini Goldendoodle instead. As Mom says, we are definitely a "6 kid-2 dog family", so when we lost Rosie last week, we began considering whether to get another pup right away or to wait until we get home. As strange as it sounds, we realized it's actually a better idea to live through the puppy-stage while in the RV. We have much more flexibility with regards to schedule, MUCH smaller space that makes it easier to keep an eye on her for potty-training purposes, and more time to obedience train...so here we are.

Wanting to avoid super expensive 'professional' breeders, we searched Google for puppies near where we are traveling in Texas and found Puppies.com... a site where private family breeders can list litters. One of the listings that came up was for sweet little Lucy (or Panda, as her family named her) and a few of her siblings. The firstborn of eleven puppies, Lucy was one of two females left and was within an hour's drive of Fort Worth. After meeting her and her owner over a video call on Tuesday, we scheduled a visit Wednesday evening. We met her and were immediately smitten with her sweet, calm, affectionate personality. It seemed she would be a perfect fit for our busy and loud family. We were particularly moved to see how the little boys could just hug her tight and she loved it rather than trying to escape them! Because everything had moved so quickly since losing Rosie on Monday morning, we decided to take Wednesday night to think, talk and pray about whether we were really ready to get another dog...especially one who's gonna grow up to be a big girl. For us, the final confirmation was when the owner agreed to lower his price to meet our budget. For him, it was more important that his sweet little puppy girl found a good home than it was to make his selling price, and, after meeting us, he felt we'd be a good fit for her. So Thanksgiving morning, we shook our heads at how crazy we are, picked up Lucy Loo, and introduced her to RV life.

Lucy's first few minutes in the RV. She is a total hugger!

Thanksgiving Thursday was spent loving on her and letting her get comfortable with her new home, family, and Nellie Noo (who still hasn't adjusted to having a little sister...especially one who's already bigger than her, LOL). Over the weekend though, came a major grooming session as we realized how much of the Fort Worth Stockyards dust/gravel she was tracking in to the RV. We shaved this big baby all the way down and realized that the less hair she has, the more she looks like a cow crossed with a beagle. (We actually debated the names Maizy Moo and Bessie Boo because of her Holstein cow patterned fur.)

She was so chill the entire time we were shaving her. It was amazing!

Can you tell that Nellie doesn't like being next to Lucy? We joke that we have a Rachael and Leah situation going on right now:)

At 13-weeks-old, Lucy already weighs about 25 pounds...and over the next year, will probably grow to 60-70 pounds. Over the last few days, she's settled into family life and is growing more confident about sassing back to Nellie, who completely snubbed her until yesterday. Lucy's discovered that her big feet make great weapons to bat at Nellie with. Her tail never stops wagging, and can often be heard thwacking against furniture when she's excited. Despite Bernedoodles being known for being noisy barkers, Lucy hasn't raised her voice (except to whine) a single time since we got her. She also hasn't had a single accident, which is incredible since our last two pups (Rosie and Nellie) were absolute pains to potty train.

All in all, we are totally in love with our newest family member, while at the same time, still missing our little Rosie. It was bittersweet bringing Lucy into the RV for the first time, knowing that the only reason we were adopting her was because one of our fur-babies was gone. But we are grateful for how the Lord provided another wonderful family dog...even if she's gonna grow to take up a whole lot of our already limited RV space :)

Enjoying the new puppy

This pup is SO loveable, that even Mom, who has always declared NO DOGS IN BED! has gone soft on that rule!

Look at those sweet Doodle eyes!

Keep watching over the next few months to see little Lucy Loo become not so little:)

Until next time, God bless!