Adopted.

One year ago today we brought home a bully of rolls. 

We went to Lebanon to visit the puppies. We knew Pippa was our bully because she was the only one in the bed sleeping, we thought oh she must be the chill one...and she had the most rolls. We came back to pick her up a week later on a cold November evening. We would have taken her home right then and there, BUT I was leaving for NYC the next day so we had to wait a week.

The first night she cried and cried when we left her alone in her kennel. MR. was a sucker and went down stairs to sleep with her. Looking back we should have just put her kennel in our room so she wouldn't have been so afraid and alone without her mom and sisters (pippa's litter was all girls. 5 sisters)

eatin with her sisters. 

We had a name all picked out, it was a hard decision. Names are hard. If we thought picking out a dog name was hard how will it be choosing our children's names? We wanted an "english" name so "Pippa" fit perfectly.

Mr.'s mom and brother came with us to pick up the little pup. We drove all the way there not knowing what we were getting ourselves into. Neither of us had ever had a puppy before. Game changer for sure.

We were all starved after the 2 hour visit with the breeders who REALLY wanted us to pay the extra $500 to show her. We told them we weren't really the "show dog" type. They were disappointed in our decision not to show her because they said Pippa's symmetry was perfect and all this "show dog" talk. Pippa comes from a champion blood line so keeping champions going is important in breeding.

i mean, REALLY, though??

Pippa at 8 weeks. First time seeing her. 

i can't get over how small she was a year ago.
she has gone from 14 lbs to 51 lbs
i can't lift her anymore. her weight is not evenly distributed, which makes it hard to carry her.
i can pick a kid that is 50 pounds, but for some reason pippa is so much harder.

pippa's sister stella was adorbs-- we wanted them both so bad-- luckily my friend adopted stella so now they can be sisters forever. when my friend asked where we got pippa...I told her to hurry and call pippa's breeder because there was one they had to get.

meet pippas mom. luckily pippa took after her dad's looks, but got her mom's sweet personality. 

pippa's dad is a big boy.

We headed home and stopped at PF Changs randomly, which wasn't a smart idea leaving her alone in the car BUT we were famished. We got back to the car and she exploded. We drove home with her and her poop. First thing we did was give her a bath, which was another bad idea--good, but bad because we didn't know she had a pocket tail that requires drying after baths, so she got a yeast infection a week later. Freaked us out.

pippa at 9 weeks. the night we brought her home.  

her first few weeks home with us she loved going in the car. she loved shopping with me and getting tons of attention, you couldn't walk 50 feet without someone stopping you.
she also loved Starbucks drive-through too! who doesn't? ^^

how cute are these photos of penny with pippa? ^^just found them when i was looking through my hard-drive. pippa loved the park. those visits got all the puppy energy out. 

some old videos for some extra cute entertainment:

this year has been a lot cuter because of our bully addition.
this year has been a lot more work too because of our bully addition.
potty training took patience, as well as other things...
.....yeast infections, rashes, acne, ear infections, drowning, bee bites, UTI, constipation,
ohhhhhhh and of course all those chewed things we try to not think about.
we have had a few bumps this year of puppyhood.
hoping year two will have less accidents, more household items untouched, and of course no infections.
who knows what another year of pippa could bring; however, we do know it will be filled with kisses, butt wiggles, cuddles, and lots & lots of love.

in the beginning i thought it was a mistake, but then she turned into my best friend and i don't know what i would have done without her during the lonely months of not knowing anyone, no job, and home-alone.
a bully is one huge lover and that was just what i needed.
--thanks pippa for changing my heart about pets and animals.