Our First Baby

Okay, so he's not a baby, but he was our first responsibility (other than the fish, but we keep that one under wraps.) This is Dawson. We adopted him from the SPCA in March of 2007. I was trying to blog in order, but forgot about this one. He is the dumbest smart dog we know. Here, he is laying in Amy's backyard. Most of you have heard the story of the night we brought him home, but let me recap. We were so excited to get a dog. We had been looking forever for just the perfect dog and as soon as Kyle saw Daws, he knew that's the one he wanted. So, the next day, I went and adopted him and surprised Kyle. I brought him home and since he has not once pottied in the house (unless we didn't take him out in time when he was on medicine). He didn't try to get on the furniture, he didn't try to eat our food. We were so lucky. We took him to Petco/Petsmart/Whatever and bought tons of stuff for him.



So, we spent the money for the adoption and spoiled him at Petco. We took him to visit his cousins at Ray and Amy's, Cappy and Copper. Then, we brought him home. We put down some carpet powder to vacuum. The powder was getting to Kyle and both

ering his asthma, so he decided to open a window without my knowing. The second I realized, I started to inform him that the window did not have a screen. But, at the same time I started saying that, we looked up and see the butt end of Dawson going out the window. Yes, here we are 9 at night, Kyle in boxers and a t-shirt, me in pj pants and a t-shirt-out the door after our dog. Kyle went around one way and I went the other. Next thing I know, Kyle has disappeared and so has Dawson-remember-Kyle in boxers and a t-shirt-no shoes or anything. So, I go in the house to lock the door, get shoes and get the car. I called Amy and she came over to pick me up. I didn't want to lock the door because Kyle didn't have his keys. After about 2 hours, I started to get VERY worried about Kyle. I was afraid he might have tripped and broken something or any number of things. So, I called 911. We had driven around everywhere looking for them. We were sitting in the apt. complex parking lot on the phone with 911 when my sister said, "There he is!" I turned around and there was Kyle!! 911 made sure he was okay, I started crying and told him how worried I was. He was covered in mud up to his knees, his feet were bleeding. As we're walking into the apt., Amy says again, "There he is!" We look and there is Dawson. We all froze, we didn't know what to do. Here, Kyle has chased him barefoot through people's yards and busy streets and now he stands looking at us, like "What next?" Amy, instead of chasing him, got him to chase her into the apt. And, that is the first night with Dawson.
Since then, he's gotten away about 7-8 times. He sneaks out the door if it's open a crack. We now have a baby gate in the entryway so that we can come and go easier without worrying about him getting out. Ray and Amy have dog sat a number of times and he gets out of there any way he can. He's nudged the back door open and gone out the front, he noticed a piece of wood in the fence blowing in the wind and snuck out that way, he's dug under the fence. We even purchased a dog trolley that shredded the first day he was on it. So, he's no longer welcome for overnight stays over there. We're still trying to figure out what to do when we buy a house. We love him, he's a good dog, he just doesn't like to stay at home.