Coal

Our family is in love.  It is amazing how quickly it happened.  Meet our new puppy, Coal.

Really, how could we not love her?  She is adorable and so sweet!
I realize that many people will be surprised to see that we now have a puppy.  To be honest, I'm still a bit surprised myself.  The kids have been asking for years.  Greg and I have been talking about for quite awhile.  But to actually do it - it took faith.  Greg and I are not pet people.  But, we felt like now was the right time for our family (before the baby).  And we haven't regretted it once (okay, maybe for the hour when she pooped twice on my carpet).
We found Coal on ksl.com.  Greg had Monday, January 2, off of work, so we took the day to look at puppies. We knew we wanted a border collie mix, so we picked out a few to look at and went driving.  We stopped in Coalville (Coal was the first puppy we looked at), Wellsville, Hyrum and Providence - yep, out in the boonies and ranches in small Northern Utah towns.  After looking at a lot of puppies, we went back to Coalville and picked out Coal.  We had four puppies to choose from, but she stole our hearts.
After loading up everyone in the car, the kids were starving (we left home at 10am and by now it was 6pm and we had survived on snacks so far).  We stopped at the drive-through at Burger King.  We weren't sure how it would go with Coal in the car, but Gavin held her on his lap while he ate and she would occasionally lick the salt off his fingers.  We drove right to Petsmart to pick up food, a crate, some toys and a leash.  It was a long day, but so worth it.  The kids got the bed late, but were up extra early the next day to play with Coal.

Her name is Coal because she is black like coal and was born in Coalville.  We had a difficult time picking out a name.  I suggest Coal and the kids started calling her that and it stuck.  I think it is perfect.  She is 1/2 border collie and 1/2 Australian Shepherd.  We can already tell how smart she is going to be.  Potty training is going very well, considering how young she is (only 7 weeks), and she is starting to obey simple commands - down, drop it and coming when called.  She adores playing with the kids and prefers Greg to anyone else (border collies are very alpha male oriented).

She is very playful and has her favorite toys (a fleece braided rope and her purple hippo, which is actually a rhino, we obviously don't know our animal here).  She sleeps with hippo every night in her crate.  She hates being in her crate, a lot of whining and crying.  But, she has slept through the night since the second day we have had her.  She still naps a lot during the day and has plenty of energy to play when the boys get home.  Then, she will nap again in the evening because the boys have worn her out.  Greg tries to take her for a walk every night, but she hasn't quite figured that out yet.  Greg has to coax and bribe her to the corner, where she sits down and gives him the look, "This is as far as I am going."  Greg will then say, "Okay, Coal, let's go home."  And, she will perk right up and run all the way home right up to the front door.

She is such a sweetie, and I can say that after being her favorite chew toy for the last week.  She loves to chew and bite (we are really working on that) and while she has many toys, her favorite things to gnaw on are wicker baskets, the kitchen table chair legs, my Crocs and me.  She has yet to destroy anything, but it is just a matter of time with those needle sharp puppy teeth she has.  I have holes in four of my shirts (which really stinks because I have a limited supply of maternity shirts).  But the upside, the kids are a lot better about picking up their things!

Since we are all obsessed with Coal these days, watch for a lot more posts about our cute puppy!