We recently got another dog ( the white one.) named River! Crazy I know to have two with a bunch of littles running around.
To start off, we first got Jake (the brown & black one) right after I had Sam. He’s 5 or 6 years old, and we got him from my husband’s workplace. He arrived a little stand offish from the kids for awhile, before settling in to his new surroundings. He was always the only dog, didn’t know how to be around kids, and it took awhile for all of us to adjust. Mostly myself and Jake. We had big problems adjusting to each other and he’d constantly be in trouble. He’s the type to do things even when he KNOWS not to do it, and he’ll do it right in front of you. Hmmm….sounds like my kids! We still butt heads sometimes, but we tolerate each other a year and a half later lol.
River is the newest recent addition to our family, and was a stray that came to our porch a few weeks ago. I grew attached, we took her to the shelter, I inquired about her a week later, and she was still there! We got the adoption papers and she came home with us, but not without a few baths and ALOT of brushing. Seriously, I had to pick a dog that had long white hair, and needs to be brushed. My arm was about to fall off that day. So she’s getting shaved next week! We also learned she’s a year and a half old, isn’t fixed, can jump over baby gates, and is basically still a puppy and will get bigger. Seriously, she’s already taller than Jake. And has a lot of habits to learn and break.
Adjusting to two dogs has its ups and downs. On one hand, everyone can get along or tolerate each other, and there’s not much fighting. Jake was really not happy to not be the only dog in the house lol, but he’s been ignoring her most of the time. Until we figured out that she’s not fixed…and then he got crazy for a few days and we had to be on him all day. Jake is fixed though. And on the other hand, I’m having to referee sometimes for small spats that they have, keep River out of the trash, keep them from fighting over food bowls, keep River off the furniture, keep Jake from running out the front door, and whatever else seems to happen.
Although I’m still not happy that we have double the poop piles in the backyard, I’m happy and grateful that we’re allowed to have dogs while renting, and that we’re able to afford having animals for the kids (and ourselves!) to keep around for awhile!
