Last week our post dedicated to the memory of our puppy Oliver marked the one year anniversary of one of the saddest days Wendy and I have experienced (but trust me when I saw this is not a post about being sad). It was a difficult time, for sure, but left us with an even more difficult decision. We had adopted Oliver in May 2009 with no idea what to expect, and we dedicated a year and a half to bringing Oliver into our lives and ultimately fighting his cancer as best we could. His loss was not unexpected, but left a significant void in our lives nonetheless.

Without a puppy to wake up to, come home to, feed, walk, pet, play with, or just generally enjoy, we both felt very lost and our home felt very empty and quiet. Ollie was a huge part of our life and a huge effort, but an effort that was entirely worth the investment. We knew we wanted to adopt another puppy, but we were unsure if we were ready to fill that void right away, or if we should wait for the pain to subside a little bit. We had talked it over and felt it best to wait for about six months or so, just to recover a little from what we had been through with Ollie as well as wait for Spring to arrive, as it's much easier to potty train when it's warm outside.

In the days following Ollie's death we were shadows of ourselves. We weren't really hungry, thirsty, happy, or interested in anything that we normally liked. We filled our days with general chores, cleaning, or laundry, and all of the sadness would come back when we would uncover a bone, toy, or trinket not yet packed away. As it turned out, the only respit for Wendy's grief was the thought of providing a home to a puppy in need. Therefore, without my knowledge, she was spending hours browsing around on PetFinder.com looking for puppies in need of adoption. If you don't know about Pet Finder, and you are mildly interested in animal adoption, don't go there unless you have a few hours, you literally get sucked in and can't help it.

At one point I came downstairs and saw Wendy sitting in the family room chair on the laptop. I said "Hey, what's up?" To which Wendy replied suspiciously, "Nothing." I immediately knew something was up. As it turned out, "Nothing" actually meant, "OMG I FOUND THIS TOTALLY CUTE PUPPY ON PETFINDER AND SHE TOTALLY NEEDS US TO ADOPT HER RIGHT NOW SHE HAS SUCH A CUTE SQUISHY FACE AND SHE NEEDS US, SHE NEEDS US RIGHT NOW, HER NAME IS LULU AND SHE NEEDS US SO BAD, SHE'S A PUG AND SHAR PEI AND SHE NEEEEEEEDS US RIGHT NOW, I HAVE TO FILL OUT AN APPLICATION ONLINE AND THAT'S WHAT I'M DOING RIGHT NOW!!!!"

This is pretty much exactly what that "nothing" was. Which is why my response was "No, really. What are you doing?" Wendy came clean and told me her plan, showed me the super cute puppy that just needed us so badly, and went on with the application process, even with a little of my help if I remember correctly. But, given our various conversations about waiting for about six months, I think that you can imagine my surprise.