My Girl

I'm in love with a girl.

Charlotte is almost 4 months old now. She's full of energy and definitely showing her personality more and more. She is sweet and loving and loves attention. She's headstrong and can be downright defiant sometimes. She loves people and looking at her reflection in the fireplace. A cricket is her favorite snack. She loves to be outside, as long as she's not by herself. She HATES to be by herself. So much so that if she's in her crate, and she can't see us in the bed, she cries. She's our little shadow. She's super compassionate and is very concerned if you hurt yourself, or sneeze, or cry. She won't leave you alone until she knows you're ok. She gets the hiccups when she gets upset and then she gets upset because she has the hiccups and doesn't understand what they are. Precious.

This is Charlotte's very first picture.

I had been begging Ben for a dog for forever, like since before we got married. But, with being in an apartment, and then moving into a house with no fence, he never felt right about getting a dog. But then, with our first time homebuyer tax credit, we planned on putting a fence up! What did a fence mean? A dog!

So, I was looking at the Greater Birmingham Humane Society website and saw this precious dog named Isabelle. Ben told me we could go look at her the next day. The whole way over there, he kept telling me, "Katie, don't get your hopes up. We're not getting a dog. The fence isn't even up yet." I just kept nodding my head and smiling, knowing full and well that Ben is a total sucker.

When we got to the beautiful GBHS facility (really, it's beautiful, you should go there!), we told the lady at the desk we wanted to look at the puppies. She told us to walk around the walls and look at the puppies through the glass and if we saw one we liked, we would have to fill out an application, and then they would take one out for us to bond with.

We started walking around the walls with these 8 foot windows. Sitting in front of the third window was this precious red haired puppy named Jessie. She just sat there and looked at us as if to say, "Please take me home." I looked at Ben and we both agreed she was adorable, but we were there to look at Isabelle, so we passed by Jessie and moved on to find Isabelle.

Well, Isabelle was kenneled with another puppy and they were fighting. And barking. Loudly. And she was totally not as cute as the picture. We quickly decided that Isabelle was not the dog for us. We slowly made our way back to Jessie's window. Still sitting there. I asked Ben, "Can we play with her?" He said, "Ok, fine."

We filled out the paperwork and waited for them to approve us and then they brought this sweet baby to us. The GBHS rep put her in Ben's lap first and he looked at me like, "SOLD!" She was so sweet and we both bonded with her immediately. Needless to say, we left with the dog.

We also quickly changed her name. She was not a Jessie. We went through a list of girl's names and landed on Charlotte. No particular reason. Just liked it. She also answers to Baby Girl, Dawgie, Poopy Dawg, and when she's feeling gangsta, Poop Doggie Dog.

Since having her, we have had so much fun! She is trying at times. There are times that I just want to beat the snot out of her, like when she plays her new favorite game, Grab It and Run, in which she grabs something like a sock and runs (don't worry, PETA lovers, she never gets more than a light pop from me. Love the dog. Kiss her every chance I get.). We are completely smitten with her and spoil her like crazy.

She's gained a good 10 pounds since we adopted her. She's all leg and muscle. Every time we're out, someone always asks, "What is she?" Well, she's a Lab/Terrier mix. She's definitely got Lab legs and Lab body, but a Terrier face, tail and ears. And she's a redhead. :) She hardly ever barks, only if she's mad. She mostly does this Sonar sounding cry that I swear could shatter my good champagne flutes if I sat them close enough. We thought we had her potty trained, but this week, it seems as if she's forgotten all that.

She's my baby. Love her. Wouldn't give her back if you made me.