New bundle of joy

Not a lot has happened this week.....mainly because one BIG thing happened, and that is we got a PUPPY!  Yes, mom and dad you can curse now but after much deliberation we decided to get one.  We had been talking about it for some time, and while getting a puppy might not have been the most responsible decision of our lives it sure has been special.  His name is Marco, he is about 7 weeks now and he is either an Italian Spinone or a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, or some sort of mix between them maybe?  There is a pet shop that we often pass on our walks because it is on one of my favorite streets here and we always peek in to see the puppies.  We almost took another one home a while back but I talked Brian out of it because it was much larger.  This time though I knew when he called me to meet him there that it was going to be a struggle to talk him out of this one.  On the phone he said, "Where are you?  If you don't get here soon I'm just going to buy him."  So of course when I walked in the shop and saw this ADORABLE face laying in Brian's arms like a baby I fell in love as well.  We were in the shop for about 2hrs discussing it.  How big will he get?  Will we be able to bring him on the plane?  What about the costs?  etc. etc. etc.  The pet owner even let us take him to a vet to get a quick physical to make sure he was healthy before making any decisions.  She told us he was a Spignoli Griffon mix and was a mini dog and would only get to be about 5kilos (about 10-15lbs I think).  So neither one of us wanted to say no, and he was becoming more and more part of the family with us standing there holding him so I finally said OK!  I've had several panic attacks since then, mostly about the worry of taking him on the flight all the way home more then once, but he is young and resilient and I am sure he will be fine.  So after much research we could not find any type of breed called a Spignoli (only Spinone) and Griffons are small weird looking dogs that look nothing like Marco (yet Spinones are also known as Griffons) and so we are utterly confused on his breed.  There are breeds called American Wirehaired Pointing Griffons that I think look a lot like him and Italian Spinones also look similar so we are guessing he is one of them (I think they are pretty much the same dog).  That scares us a little though because those dogs can get up to 60lbs...so I'm wondering where the mini comes from ....?!  Anyways, he is part of the family now and he has been wonderful!  He listens and is cuddly and loving and is learning to sleep in his crate (he slept for 8hrs straight without a peep last night!!  We were so proud :-).  He is pretty good about pooping and peeing outside on the newspaper...he's had some accidents but luckily we have tile floors so we wipe it up and it's like it never happened.  Yesterday he got his first round of shots so we thought we would celebrate with a day out on the leash.....but that didn't go so well.  He wouldn't move so Brian more kind of dragged him for a few feet and then we gave up.  I think it was a lot to take in at once...I'm sure he'll learn.

Well that is the excitement in our life right now.  Brian has his first real game tomorrow (YAY!).  We hope Marco will be a great traveling dog so we can take him on some of our adventures in the future!