Meet Rawley | Our 3 Year Old Pup

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

A funny thing happens when you adopt a dog.
I use to find dog lovers a peculiar bunch ~ you know the ones.  The people who can't carry on a conversation without talking about their pup, eventually whipping out photos so you can see their beloved pooch?  Well after 3 years of loving this pup of our own, Brian and I have experienced this crazy joy and understanding of what it truly means to share a life with Man's Best Friend.  We now proudly call ourselves crazy dog people.
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Rewind to January 2011.
Brian and I had been discussing getting a dog for quite sometime, but we kept giving ourselves the typical excuses.  They're a lot of work, they cost a lot of money, it'll tear up the house, blah blah blah.
Then we had this crazy ice storm in Atlanta, it pretty much shut down the city for a couple days, which led us browsing the Atlanta Humane Society website.  And that's when we saw Sgt. Floyd.  This adorable 3 month old pup, his cute little face, black and white with spots ~ how could you not fall in love?  With the city shut down the Humane Society was closed, so for the course of the storm we kept pulling up his puppy profile.  
We ooed and awed and kept telling ourselves now was not the time for a dog.  
When the storm passed, I went back to work on a Saturday.  Brian called to see if I had time for a quick lunch break ~ I was pretty busy so he said he'd drop off my lunch.  When I met him at the car, this is what greeted me:
An adorable Springador aka Labradinger Mix  
This was a welcome surprise, even though the initial response was what have done?!
I couldn't wait to get home that evening to see more of this cute adorable little face.
The funniest thing was in only a matter hours, Brian had trained him to sit.  
We pretty much thought we had adopted a genius dog!
The next big step was potty training.  I don't know if we did everything right, or if the stars aligned, but he was completely potty trained within a week.  
Again, we adopted a genius dog!

When it came to naming our pup, we had a few options, but none that we both loved.  It ended up being my 7 year old brother who came up with Rawley.  Truth be told, he actually said Rocky, but over the phone I misunderstood it for Raleigh ~ true story.  But for the history of it all, my brother gets all the credit.  We felt the spelling for Raleigh was a bit feminine, so we decided on the formal name Rawlings (like the baseball) and affectionately call him Rawley!

Those first couple weeks and months were fun.  When I look back I always wonder why I don't have more photos of him when he was cute and little.  Then I remember that as a young puppy he was always on the move and trying to capture a somewhat-not-blurry picture of him was nearly impossible.
As he started to grow, so did our love for him.  We were quickly aware that he listens and plays with Brian and is sweet and snugly with me.
In that first year he typically looked like this:
No matter how many baths he got, he was always dirty and covered in Georgia clay.
For the most part he was a really well behaved puppy.  He typically only chewed on his toys and rarely made a huge mess in the house.  But there was this one day...
I was cleaning the house for company and had cleared out Rawley's crate.  I had put his bed outside for all of 10 minutes when this happened:
Then 30 minutes later he decided to do an encore and dig up my hydrangeas:
But really how can you stay mad at a face like that?!
Of all his puppy years, this was the only day he was super naughty.
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That first year we learned a lot about patience and loved the joy he brought into our home.  So to celebrate his first birthday we thew him a Puppy Pizza Birthday Party.  I believe this was the turning point where I turned into a crazy dog loving person.

Over the next year he grew into a boy dog (you know, vs a puppy dog)  
Still loving to play outside and always loving to be part of the action. 
 When Brian was at work he would humor me, allowing me to take his photos.  
And although he wishes I never showed this pic, 
he even let me dress him up for our Valentine's Day card:
 Bones and treats are his favorite: 
 And to this day our life wouldn't be the same without him.  He's taught us responsibility, the meaning of unconditional love, and has showed us to appreciate the little joys in life ~ like a car ride on a crisp fall day!
No matter what kind of day we're having, it's always the best to come home with Rawley greeting us at the front door.

Are you a crazy dog person?!
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For those of you looking to expand your family, we strongly urge you consider adopting.  With so many amazing rescue groups and shelters it's easy to find a perfect match for your family.  Rawley changed our life and we hope you will consider changing yours!
For more information on adoption check out the Humane Society Website.

11 comments :

  1. Oh yes, we are a crazy 3 dog, 1 cat family! All of our babies are rescues. Crazy dog people are awesome!

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  2. We are definitely the crazy dog people - 2 dogs and 1 cat. We've had birthday parties for ours too!

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  3. We adopted our dog from a local rescue group a couple of years ago and the experience turned me into a crazy-dog person, too, so I can totally relate. Ha. What a fun idea to throw a puppy pizza party. Love it!! :)

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  4. We have a sweet 7-year-old dog that we adopted from the pound when he was 6 weeks old! His name...Raleigh! :) He's named after Raleigh, North Carolina.

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  5. We have a sweet 7-year-old dog that we adopted from the pound when he was 6 weeks old! His name...Raleigh! :) He's named after Raleigh, North Carolina.

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    1. I bet you love your Raleigh as much as we love ours! Thanks for taking the time to share!!

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  6. visiting from your feature today at Hooked on Houses. Scrolling down reading posts, and I had to stop and wish Rawley a happy (belated) 3rd birthday. His expressions and habits remind me of our own 3-year-old pup, Ruby (who's probably a Border Collie/Labrador mix ... 100% sweet, loving shelter dog).

    Happy Birthday, Rawley.

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  7. Hi Michelle! I found Your blog after seeing a post about Your beautiful home on Hooked on Houses. I was just looking around and I saw a picture of Rawley chewing on a shoe. He looks just like our dog Charlie!:) You can see pictures of Charlie on my blog if You want. It's amazing for us to see pictures of Rawley when he was still a little puppy. Our Charlie is from a shelter and we never saw him as a puppy so now we can imagine how cute he must have been:) BTW, I love Your Pizza Party idea! Awesome!:)

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    1. http://www.mycozycouch.com/2013/11/11/meet-joey-and-charlie/
      Pics of our treasures:)

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    2. Marika, your dogs are adorable!! I loved your post and I love knowing there's other crazy dog people out there ~ you sound like an amazing Mom to your pups! Thanks for taking the time to share your story!

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  8. We have a very similar dog that we just took from shelter! How much does he weigh as an adult? Our puppy is 4 months old and already 33 lbs!

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