Meet Sugar!

All my life I have never been a dog person. I never wanted to deal with the hassle of training a puppy or cleaning up the mess. People in my family and friends dog's were as close as I ever wanted to get to a dog. I must admit that I always liked puppies. I mean who doesn't? But I always knew that the cute little puppies grew up to be big dogs that needed to be taken care of. But, I always said that IF I was to ever get a dog, it would be a black lab.

Well, I was watching Baileigh play one day and it occurred to me that, being an only child, she needed a playmate. After thinking about it on and off for a year or so, I asked about Beth about 2 months ago if she would ever consider getting a dog. She said yes but wasn't fully committed to the idea. So I started looking at Labrador breeders for a black Lab puppy. I must admit that I had no idea how much puppies cost from a breeder. The average pup was $1,000. I saw a few go for $2,500! We also heard some breeders have inbred puppies which we didn't want.

After talking to some dog owners we decided to look into adopt a puppy. We found a few places but they didn't have any black labs available. Well, one place did but they said we lived too far away for a house visit so they were not going to go through with the adoption. Oh, they were 1 1/2 hours away.

We managed to find a female black lab/golden retriever mix. she was 8 weeks old and in North Carolina. We filled out the adoption application and told them where we live and what the other agency said. The girl, Brit, who is with Fuzzy Love ResQ, told us it doesn't matter where we live as they would find someone to do the house visit. She also told us she would be bringing the dogs up for adoption to New Jersey the following weekend. So we made arrangements to meet her and get the puppy, who's name was Miya (we already knew we would change it as my brother-in-law's dog is named Miya).

We never told Baileigh we were getting a puppy and she had a sleepover at Grandmas the night before we went to get the puppy. We got up Saturday morning and at 8:00 drove about 1 1/2 hours (the same drive that was too far for the other adoption agency to drive) to Sussex NJ to meet Brit. There were 20 dogs (dogs and puppies) who made the trip. 2 sisters and 1 brother of our puppy made the tip as well and were also adopted. All 20 dogs that day went to their new homes. :)

When we got home my mother-in-law brought Baileigh home and she walked into the kitchen and saw the puppy and fell in love right away. After a few minutes I told her it was hers and she was so EXCITED!!! Then she stopped, looked at Beth and said, "You told me I could never have a dog or cat". She was confused for a minute. Then Beth said, "We changed our mind".

Now came the naming part. We decided to let Baileigh name her, as long as we all agreed on the name. We coached her a little by suggesting names from TV shows she watches, like Carly (iCarly) or Zoey (Zoey 101). She thought them cute but she liked Sugar. So her new name is Sugar! She loves the dog so much and just seeing how happy she is with Sugar makes us very happy. They are going to be best friends!!

Baileigh and Sugar.