Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Story of Cooper.........

My husband and I have always enjoyed having dogs in the house. About 12 years ago my husband, getting tired of the lhasa apsos and other small
furry dogs my daughter and I chose to live with, declared he wanted a manly dog. We went with an airedale terrier, Simon. He was just the best dog ever, full of personality and energy. He was 90 pounds. Here is his picture on a quilt I made for him.

Sadly he passed away this time last year, but we enjoyed every minute of the 11 years we had him. I guess bigger dogs just don't live as long as the small ones.

After Simon passed away my husband and I decided to live dog free for awhile. Between our pets and daughter we were empty nesters for the first time in 32 years. My husband travels with his job quite a bit, I'm retired, so I thought I would take advantage of the situation and travel with him some, visit my daughter more and do some fun girlfriend things. It's just so hard to leave a dog behind that we rarely would do it. In the back of our minds we were thinking that sometime we would look into getting another airedale, (hopefully a regular size one, not a giant one like Simon) or maybe a welsh terrier. I love how terriers don't shed.

Well you know what they say about life getting in the way of plans, this is the newest member of our family, Cooper. He's one of those designer dogs, part lab part poodle, a breed I would never have considered buying. Here's how he came to live with us.

The Sunday before Christmas I get a call around 9 am from my folks who say, "Do you want a dog?" I about passed out. I guess my brother, who lives 100 miles south of me, decided to get a labradoodle for his two girls for Christmas. The breeder had two left, a male and a female. My folks went with my brother and his family so they could watch the girls pick out their pup, it was all a big surprise for the girls. Well the girls decided on the female, and my folks, all caught up in the moment, said "We'll take the male"!!! My dad is 72 and his wife is 65, they have not had a dog in house in years. This was Friday evening around 4, by Sunday morning they realized they could not care for a puppy and had made a huge mistake, which is how we came to know about the existence of the dog and have him living in our house by noon.


For two weeks he was either in or under something.







Then he got comfortable at home and really came to life.

We were not puppy ready but it has turned out wonderfully. Cooper is currently 75 pounds and 10 months old. It is probably best that we switched breeds, I think a new airedale would have had a hard time living up to Simon. We could not love Cooper more. He goes to doggy daycare two days a week for some socializing and I get caught up around the house and sew! He and I have also spent 6 weeks this summer getting trained. Nothing fancy, just simple leash, sit, and stay commands, basic dog manners really.

He's getting so big he doesn't even fit on the ottoman anymore, I think that makes
him sad, to have gotten so big!

Cooper has loads of personality and is always up to something, expect to see him often in my posts.





4 comments:

  1. I love to hear you tell the story of how Cooper came to live at your house!

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  2. Oh my gosh! Cooper is SO cute! I'm glad he came to live at your home... though I can say in complete honesty that if he hadn't... a puppy-napping would have been necessary! What a sweet face... and yes, he looks like he's a little disappointed not to fit on the ottoman any more. Though I do notice that he still gets up there anywhere. :)

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  3. Love him! He is so dang cute! I love how he is trying to stuff himself into the suitcase. our cats do that also. Far be it for us to go anywhere without them. Thanks for introducing us. I look forward to seeing more of Cooper.

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