What Determination and Perseverance Will Get You

Determination: noun: firmness of purpose

The only creature more determined than a toddler trying to get a snack 5 minutes before supper is the preteen trying to stay up past their bedtime.

Perseverance: noun: persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

Parenthood is a game of perseverance.

My last post was about the newest addition to our family. She is the best ball of floof ever in the history of floofliness. I suggest you get yourself one if don’t already have one. At least someone will be excited to see you come home. Though, I have to apologize, we have the cutest one. Úna is our 16 week old (4 month old) fluffy puppy. A soft coated wheaten terrier. I told part of the story in my last post. I’m going to tell you more now.

*side note before I start: you can follow her on Twitter @una_dog* please do. Please with peanut butter on top?

Lola is a wheaten terrier belonging to a friend of ours. It was Lola that made us fall in love with the breed. She is the reason there is one in our living room asleep in front of the fan right now. However, the story started 2 years prior to our meeting.

Bang decided one day 2 years ago that he was going to start saving his money.

Me: What are you saving your money for?

Bang: A puppy.

Once he made that proclamation there was no deterring him. We had made it a Sunday tradition (if a routine can be a tradition) to stop at Tim Hortons for a treat after church. Bang would hork down his Timbits then go open the door for people coming and going. On the odd occasion someone would tip him with a Loonie ($1). One day, a traveler loaded with bags tipped him $10. At the grocery store he jump ahead in line and bag people’s groceries. On occasion someone would tip him a Loonie. Once, he was tipped with 2 Toonies! He did this because he loved to help, the tips were just a perk. All those tips went into his “piggy bank”.

Money also came from birthdays, Christmases, report cards (from grandparents, not his mom and dad), a lemonade stand… Not once did he use any of that money to get something he wanted. He. Saved. Every. Penny. One time, DW’s mom gave the boys $10 to spend at Toys R Us. Crash couldn’t get there fast enough (it was a 2.5 hour drive). When we got there Bang asks, “Do I have to spend mine?”

“No, but I’m not buying you anything.” He came out empty handed telling us he was going to save his money. I don’t know too many kids you can take to a Toys R Us and they don’t want to buy anything. Hell, I have a hard time not buying anything for myself.

A year later he had about $400 saved and we knew he meant business. DW started researching dogs. We couldn’t get a rescue because DW is allergic to most breeds. We needed hypoallergenic. I didn’t want a “purse dog”. That’s right around the time we met Lola. Shortly thereafter we also found out how much he really needed. We also knew we had another year to save because we wanted to get a puppy when we could all be home with it – summertime.

So Bang continued to save for another year. In total he contributed $700. Then he bought the dog bed Úna sleeps on every night.

With determination you too can persevere. You just need the focus of a kid who wants a puppy.

Advertisement

354 Days Later

It’s been 354 days since I wrote my last post. It was a “Go Ask Your Father” post. Life has carried on as it always does. I appreciate everyone who has stopped by during that time.

Now for the meat of the matter. These are the dog days of summer, so this would be an appropriate story to tell.

Crash and Bang (who are now 12 and 8…. not 6 and 2 like when I first started blogging) had been asking for a couple years to get a dog. With DW being allergic we couldn’t just get any ol’ dog. It was another mouth to feed. It was the responsibility of cleaning up after it, exercising it, training it, feeding it, taking it to the vet, and a hundred other things… the answer was always “no”.

Then one sunny afternoon the four of us were out and about and DW saw a dog hanging out the window of a parked SUV. DW made kissy noises at it and the whole dog started wagging. As we passed the SUV we realized it was a friend of ours. She told us she would take her pup, Lola, out for us to meet. Lola was the fluffiest 6 month old puppy. She had feet that were all fluff. She looked like a giant teddy bear. She told us Lola was a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. Then she told us that she doesn’t shed. DW’s next words were, “I could go for a dog like that.”

Done. I found out which breeder she got her Lola from and then contacted said breeder (who was only a couple hours from us). She got back to me and told me she would let me know when she expected more puppies. In the meantime we found some other Wheaten Terrier breeders. We ended up on a waiting list with one of those others. Unfortunately, the owner decided not to breed. That breeder recommended us to another breeder here in Nova Scotia. We were lucky enough to make on to her waiting list. Again, unfortunately, she ended up not breeding (one of her older dogs passed away and it was too much stress on her younger ones). It was now February, 8 months later. DW had gotten in touch with breeder we originally contacted and found out that her Cassidy had just become pregnant.

Yadda yadda yadda… DW kept in touch with the breeder through the pregnancy and in April Cassidy had 9 puppies! Sadly, one died at just a week or two old. We thought the breeder would tell us which of the 8 puppies we would get. We thought wrong. We got to pick out our puppy! We made the first trek with much excitement to meet the breeder, the momma, and the puppies. The pups we just 3 weeks old. It was cuteness overload. After 2 hours of visiting and chatting we just couldn’t choose. We wanted them all.

We returned two weeks later.

Upon entering, Miss Purple (because she had on a purple collar) stared up at DW from inside the pen. She pawed at the sides as if to say “Pick me up. I’ll go home with you.” So DW picked her up and gave her snuggles. Next she picked up Mr Brown (naturally, he had a brown collar). Mr Brown licked DW’s nose! So we had to decide… Mr Brown or Miss Purple?

I am here now to introduce you to Miss Purple, now affectionately known as Úna. Pronounced “Oonagh”.