Puppy Hungry

pup·py hun·gry \ˈpə-pē\ \ˈhəŋ-grē\ (verb)

Occurs when newly married couples channel all thoughts, emotions, etc about being "baby hungry" (i.e. the desire to have children) instead to the overwhelming desire to purchase a puppy.

Chase and I have surely become puppy hungry these days.

It all got even worse after our youth conference trip when we asked a gentleman in our ward who is a member of the Utah County Search and Rescue to bring his dogs down to Manti for a demonstration. Seriously, it was the coolest thing ever.

See that blue spot in the picture above? That's one of the young women in the ward who was picked to go hide and play "victim." She brought a pair of pajama pants that she gave to us and then was told to just start heading down this hill. She walked about half a mile away, and then found a place to hide between some big boulders. At this point the dog handler came walking towards us from the back side of the hill with his German Shepherd, Maddie. They hadn't seen where the girl had gone and hidden.

Then all of us spectators attentively watched while the dog handler held out the pajama pants to his dog. Maddie picked up the scent immediately and started taking off after the "victim." A few times, we all saw Maddie move off of the trail, realize where the scent was, and then get back on it. Then, as she was about 40 yards away from the young woman, her ears perked up and she held her nose high into the air. At this point, the girl's scent in the air was stronger than the scent on the ground. Maddie then air-tracked right to where the general area the girl was. This young woman was hiding between some boulders that were about a five foot drop from where the dog handler and dog were standing. Maddie found the scent again, jumped down the little ledge, found the girl, went straight back up to her master who then said, "Show me." Finally, Maddie walked the handler down another path that didn't require him to jump down the 5 ft ledge, right to where the young woman had hidden. Ta-Da! Coolest dog trick we'd ever seen.

And now... our overwhelming desire for a little puppy has only gotten worse.

Our conversations these days commonly revolve around which kind of dog we'd get, whether it'd be a pure-bred dog or a mixed breed, how we'd train it, what we'd name it, and so on. Chase has even watched YouTube videos about the best ways to teach your dog how to walk right with you, heel, sit, stay, etc. And one of my personal favorite nighttime activities these last few weeks has been getting on to KSL and checking out the new puppy listings.

But alas... we can't get a puppy yet. We would be gone all day and never have much time to play with it. And the biggest thing is the almost certain negative impact a puppy would have on my aunt's beautiful backyard (Yep... still living the dream in Aunt Bobby Jo's basement. One more year in our little box).

Until then, we will just dream of the puppy we hopefully will get in about a year.

I'll keep pushing for a fox red labrador like these cute babies.

And Chase will try to convince me that a black lab and border collie mix would be the perfect family dog.

Or maybe we'll eventually settle for a beagle. They just make us smile.

{isn't that just precious? I die.}

Here's to counting down one more year until Chase finishes school & starts a career, we leave our box, and then get a puppy! Oh and babies sooner or later, too. But for the moment we'll just try to stay puppy hungry.