A Man and His Dog

Since I met my husband he has wanted a Labrador retriever. As a single surgical resident it simply was not practical for my man to own a pet. He could barely find time to feed and water himself as he took in-house call every other night on many rotations. Frankly, at one point during a low point of our courtship I consoled myself that he would HAVE TO get married one day--if for no other reason than so someone could take care of his dog. (I am only kinda kidding! :-)We were married in his final year of residency in Atlanta. We knew we would be moving to Virginia for a year of advanced training, so the purchase of "the lab" was delayed. In Charlottesville we lived in an apartment that did not allow pets without a hefty rate increase, so the dog purchase was postponed again. But, we spent that year researching exactly which breeder, what color and what gender lab we would be adopting.

As soon as we made the decision to move to our current city, we placed the deposit down on our girl. We were in the throes of our infertility diagnosis--and feeling quite maternal and paternal. The day we picked Haley up we were giggling and elated. I have entire videos of us doting on her. The next month we discovered we were expecting! A month after that we discovered it was triplets. Poor Haley. Her time in the spotlight was so very short-lived.

Because my hubby's hours are quite extensive, I was the primary caregiver for our girl. As my belly grew bigger and my exhaustion became overwhelming her antics began to wear on me. As if housebreaking her wasn't enough of a challenge, she was a digger, a chewer and an escape artist. Her favorite trick was to run next door to our neighbor's garage. They always left their garage door open about 2 feet off the ground so their dogs could come and go to their kennels. I could see the glimmer of glee in Haley's sweet puppy eyes as I (and my big tummy) would climb under that garage door at 7am each morning to retrieve her. Did I mention I was generally dressed professionally in work clothes as I attempted this maneuver? My excitement about Haley started to turn to reluctance as the arrival of our children grew more imminent.

When I went on bedrest we decided to send her to be trained on a nearby farm for a while. It was a great decision! However, once she returned it became clear she needed lots of attention and wanted to be 'worked' as a bird dog. Her punishment for lack of attention is digging and destruction.

My hubby loves spending this time with her...and my children love watching them show off her tricks.The back edge of our property line collects a lot of runoff water after heavy rains. These are Haley's favorite afternoons.I took these several days ago as my man and his dog enjoyed some quality time.

Thankfully, at 4 1/2 she is finally mellowing out a great deal. She and I are buddies again. But my children have already been warned: There will never be another puppy around these parts again!