Gustav the Golden

The original plan was to get two puppies at once - a girl and a boy - Molly and Gus. We were advised against that because of the level of work needed to train two puppies at the same time. And so we decided to start with a female now, and add a male puppy next year.

A month ago, we made a down payment on our Molly. Two weeks ago, we heard of a puppy named Molly Rose. We liked the name, and decided to copy it, so our future puppy became Molly Rose.

And then today happened.

Today we discovered just how non-detail-oriented our breeder is. (As in, she apparently can't count to four. That's how many female puppies are in the litter. We were the fifth to give her a down payment, and it wasn't until today she informed us she didn't have enough females.)

And so, meet our new puppy: Gus.

His full name will be Gustav the Golden, though I suspect we'll call him that as often as we called our previous dog Maggie Mae Morgan. Which was pretty much never.

Gus is a pretty mellow pup. (At least he was this evening following a visit - and round of shots - from the vet.) Or maybe he's just strategic. Because while his siblings were mauling the kids... 

... Gus wandered over and cozied up to one of the key decision-makers.

... and then contentedly snuggled with another key decision-maker.

We gave all the puppies a chance. (At least I think we did. To be honest, with the exception of one that had a sort of white spot on his forehead, I couldn't tell any of the others apart.) They were sweet. They were fun. And they were far more likely to nip our ears, bite our toes or lose interest in us.

But not Gus.

He patiently cuddled with each of the kids, despite their well-meaning, but not particularly comfortable, styles of holding him.

Despite the screw up by the breeder, as we played with each puppy I commented to Jeff that I didn't think we could make a bad selection.They were all so sweet and adorable. But Gus - he just stood apart somehow.

Eleven more days until he's ours. Molly Rose can come later. I do believe Gus is going to fit into our family just fine.