We’ve been looking to adopt a dog for a couple of months now, and had applied with a great organization called the Southern California Labrador Retriever Rescue.

They came out to inspect our house about a month back, and now we were waiting for the perfect dog to be matched with us.  The great thing about this organization is that they rescue dogs from the pound, place them with a foster family (who are often dog trainers) and then match the dog with the family that is perfect for them.

Since my wife and I are busy teaching our kids how to live, we didn’t have it in us to train a dog, so we were hoping for a house-trained lab that was good with kids.

Last week we got the call that we could go and meet a 4.5 old female puppy who was house-trained, calm, and super friendly.  A puppy couldn’t really be that good already could she?

On Friday, we met our future pet at a dog agility course in Moorpark.  The dog’s foster mom greeted us, let us play with her, and then basically said, “Do you want to take her today?”

After seeing how much Babs loved the puppy already, and realizing that the dog was the exact same age as our son, the answer was an enthusiastic yes.

An hour later we were at home, hanging in the backyard with our still unnamed baby Labrador Retriever.  For being only 4.5 months old, she was very gentle, and started bonding with us all immediately.  We played fetch.  We ate.  We danced.

Then we had to figure out a name…  After much help from our friends and family on Facebook, we had some leading contenders.

Lucy and I kept going back to one of the first names that we came up with, “The Duchess.”  Our dog deserved to be named after royalty, right?

We weren’t 100% sure about the name until we got a phone message from Lucy’s sister and dad.  Her dad, having never talked to us about our dog, said, “You should call her Duchess.”  Apparently, he had met a dog named “Duke,” once, and since that, has always wanted to name a dog “Duchess.”

Then it was a done deal.  Many more fun stories to come about our puppy, but for now…

Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome, “The Duchess of Riles.”

 

Does it look like I have my hands full now?