Remembering...and Renewing

If you have been around my blog much at all, I am sure you know about our Aussies. Well, three years ago today, we lost our best furry friend, our beautiful Australian Shepherd, Duke. We were so devastated, he was a member of our family. Our home felt so empty and quiet without him and we immediately started looking for another Australian Shepherd, as we knew they were "our" breed and we would always have an Aussie. We knew Duke would never be replaced, but we needed to fill that void in our lives.

Well, we ended up with 2 new pups! Bo and Luke. Bo came first and was a bit crazy and a really great farm dog. He protected the barn and the barn cats and was so much fun. He climbed high up the stacked hay bales and was the fastest Aussie I have ever seen. He would have made a fantastic agility pup! Luke came to us a couple months after Bo, and he is a lot more laid back and more of a family dog, a bit more like Duke. A bit calmer than Duke too, I should say. Bo and Luke loved playing together and just had a ball. Then, sadly, in May of this year, we lost Bo. He just passed away out of nowhere. His third birthday would have been this week, July 26th.

This time, we decided we would not just jump in right away and get another Aussie. We would wait for the right one to come to us. Well, at the end of May, I heard that there had been a litter of puppies born just 3 days earlier. And they were the puppies of one of Duke's sisters! Well, I of course wanted one, but Jim couldn't be convinced. So I put it off and just prayed for a pup each time I received new photos of the litter. To make a long story short, things ended up working out and we brought home our new little bundle just in time for the anniversary of Duke's passing! And on top of that, guess when the new pup's birthday is? John Wayne's birthday, May 26th. Why is that significant? Well, our sweet Duke was named after John Wayne, "The Duke"! =) And, it was exactly 2 months before Bo's birthday. I know, I think about things WAAAY too much lol! But I thought that was pretty cool! I didn't even know when John Wayne's birthday was until I stumbled upon it, I was looking up significant events of that date, trying to come up with possible names for the puppy. Who is still not officially named by the way, but I think we are going with Blue Steel (the John Wayne movie of course!) in part of his name....we wanted to call him Blue, but that sounds too similar to Luke, and we don't want to confuse our pups! So we will see, I kind of like "Jake" so that could be what we call him. ;-)

Alright, so I suppose you want to see this special new pup? Well, ok! Here he is!

Chewing on his little hedgy toy:

And sitting pretty in my flower bed:

Is that not just the cutest little Aussie pup?? Yeah, he is! He follows in the paw prints of 2 awesome Aussies, but I don't think he will have a problem living up to them. I just love this breed, they are so unique and special, each and every little quirk! They are each so very smart and have their own personalities. I can't wait to see what this fellow has in store for us! I pray he and Luke will enjoy many happy years with our family!

He's Here!

Welcoming....Luke! I went and picked him up this morning. An hour through the snow one way to meet the breeder (though NOT over 15 inches like some of the east coast, I think we only got 2 or 3) and then he got to come to my dad's for our big family Christmas get together. So he got some socialization!

Here is my sweet baby dog for you all to see =) He's such a cute little chubby furball!! (please excuse my messy house in the pics, its been a long last couple days...weeks.....months even....lol. Once again I have been neglecting my bloggy duties, I have still been a bit down lately. That and laziness are my only excuses....well, there is ONE more, but I can't tell you that until, ohhh, Tuesday night (if I remember) ;-)

Introducing....

Meet our new red merle Aussie pup, Bo. As in Bo Duke . Jim came up with that, I thought it was cute and works well, now we just need to find our blue merle puppy so we can have Bo & Luke Duke... ;-) He was a very tired boy and fell right asleep next to Jim and laid there for a good while, even after Jim finally got up. And right now he is sleeping right under my chair as I type this. He is a cutie.

I have to admit I never wanted a red merle, I was actually wanting a red tri (solid brown with copper and white accents) since we have been having trouble finding any blue merles around here (I found one that I LOVE but thats another story...). But we went to see these puppies and were trying to choose between a red-bi (no copper points) and this guy and Jim really seemed to like him a lot so we brought him home. Now that we have him I really like him and I have been looking at pics of red merles on google and they are pretty. I just have a thing for blue merles though, they are still my favorite =D Soo....Bo will one day have a puppy brother to play with (Barb, if you happen to read this, I will email you soon ;-) )! The more the merrier I say ;(ok, but seriously, 2 is the limit!!) Now, I am off to bed, I just wanted to let everyone know the joyous news and to document the newest addition to our family. Hmmm...maybe I will celebrate with my very first giveaway....you better be sure to check back in the next couple days to see what it will be!!