Saw hello to our little friend!

So before Matt and I got married, I really wanted a dog. I begged and begged, and even though Matt wanted one too, he knew me better than I knew myself and said we should wait until after the wedding. (In retrospect, it was the best idea every because STRESS.)

Anyway, pretty much as soon as our plane touched down post-honeymoon, I resumed begging. It was important to both of us though not to just get A Dog, but to wait for The Right Dog. And late last week, I found her.

I was browsing Petfinder, as you do, and I came across a litter of German shepherd/pit bull mixes all named for apples. Four days later, a member of the Miami Valley Pit Crew was dropping off Fuji, now known as Cam, at our house. Everyone, meet Cam :)



These are all phone shots, so the quality isn't great. She's only nine weeks old and obviously still loves to chew on everything — puppies learn with their mouths — so I'm not quite ready to risk exposing a lens to her tiny teeth.



Cam loves laps and I'm super excited for when she's a giant, 65-pound lap dog. She's just the sweetest little cuddler!



We named her for a piece of trad climbing gear, so Cam isn't short for anything. I've been giving her anti-nicknames though, calling her Camilla and Chamomile and Cameron and basically anything else that starts with the same letters.

I know everyone says this about their dog, but she's super smart, too. We've only had her a few days and she has "sit" pretty well-learned and is working on "leave it," too. And I think she's starting to bond with Matt and I, as well. This morning when I came downstairs, she went nuts — she hadn't seen me all night and was just so excited!

Spazzy hasn't been super excited about the new addition to our house, but she's done better than we expected. She's pretty defensive, but she's not attacking outright. (When we've tried to bring home a kitten before, she goes crazy and seems determined to destroy the poor things.) She'll even sit in the same room with us now, though she gets pretty uncomfortable and hissy if Cam gets too hyper or whiny. I even got a chance to take our first "family photo" (oh god, I'm one of those people, someone slap me) last night, with everyone curled up on or around the couch:


Basically the only time I've ever thought a selfie stick might be appropriate.



Told you she was a cuddler! I put my face next to hers on the (rolled up) carpet and she immediately flopped onto my neck, heaved a sigh, and went right to sleep. I might have died a little bit.

So that's been our world since Sunday! Matt had yesterday and today off, so she hasn't really been home alone yet. Tomorrow we both work, though we have arrangements so she can go outside in the morning, at lunch and in the afternoon. I'm a little nervous — she cries like crazy when we have to leave her alone to go in another room for a bit — but I know the only way she'll learn to be alone is with practice. Wish us all luck tomorrow!