Matt and I have been wanting our own dog for forever. For pretty much the entirety of our relationship, we’ve been boarding dogs in our home through Rover. It was our way of “having a dog” without having the financial commitment of having a dog. We have cared for so many amazing dogs and decided we’d get one of our own after we both graduated nursing school and settled into our new jobs.
I was all set to start my job late March but then COVID-19 hit really hard in the US and my start date was delayed 2 weeks. I had a month between the statewide shutdown and my start date so it was the perfect time to get a dog. We discussed adopting versus getting a dog from a breeder. Ultimately, we went with reputable breeders in our area.
So, we contacted about a zillion golden retriever breeders and were placed on the waitlist for a few of them. As you can imagine, with many people working from home for the foreseeable future, dogs (both breeder dogs and shelter dogs) were in high demand! The waitlists for the reputable breeders are really long so we would have to wait. And wait. And wait.
Then, about 3 weeks ago, I got an email from one of the breeders! A family backed out and they had a dog for us late October. Um, YES! It was really short notice but we were ready. Between Matt and I, we fixed our work schedules so that someone is always home.
Choosing a name for our future puppy was hard. Our top choices were Charlie, Bailey, Riley, Frankie, and Ellie. We ruled out Charlie, Bailey, and Riley before picking her up. We would choose a name when we met her. If she was rambunctious and playful, we’d go with Frankie. But if she was calm and sweet, we’d go with Ellie.
When we got to the breeders house, the puppy that would be ours was sounds asleep. The breeder picked her up and handed her to me and she just stared at me. And then I gave her to Matt and she stared at him. She was an Ellie, we decided.
We went to pick up our girl, Ellie, a week ago today and she is amazing! She is such a beautiful, playful, and smart puppy – everything we could ever want! There have definitely been some challenging moments; I am somebody who needs 8 hours of sleep a night and I’m definitely not getting that on non-work nights. But, being a puppy, she naps quite a bit during the day so we’ve been able to squeeze in a nap then, too.
So, Meet Ellie! Of course, we started an Instagram for our girl (@ElloEllieTheGolden) so follow her if you like cute puppies 🙂
Let the fun begin!
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