A.J. Doesn't Stand For Anything

The story behind our new member of the family.

We adopted him from The Humane Society. Our original intentions were to go there a few times and get to know some of the dogs until we move into our new house. That way we would be really familiar with the one we brought home. Well, it SOOO did not work that way.

We went one Saturday and spent about an hour and a half playing with a dog named Preston. He was sweet, gentle with the kiddos, and super cute. The kids loved him. Then we left. For the next 6 days they begged to go back and visit him. He had just been up for adoption for a few days. The director of the HS reassured me that he wouldn't last long. He was very adoptable (and adorable)... just what people were looking for in a dog. Geoff and I understood but knew that we couldn't have the dog in our townhouse... there just wasn't room for him... it would be a lot of work... we didn't want and inside dog... you name the excuse we had it. We just told the kids that there would be another dog. Just like buying a house... no need to fall in love with one - there will always be another one. Right?

Well, the next Saturday we gave in to the kids sweet begging (it really wasn't the annoying kind of begging) and went back to see if Preston was still there. He was! We were actually very surprised. We stayed almost two hours again playing with him and other animals. We overheard lots of folks saying that they were interested in him and Geoff and I started to get worried. We were sure at this point that he would not be there when we wanted him. So, we talked about it while the kids pestered the other animals and decided... what the heck!! We filled out the application, got the low down on him, and paid our $80 bucks... Preston got to come home with us. The kids were ecstatic! I was trepidatious. And Geoff was trying to hide his excitement behind his uncertainty that I was okay with the decision. No turning back now!

As it turns out he is a fantastic dog! We really got lucky. He's a German Shepherd/Catahoula mix and around 9 months old. He's so smart! The HS didn't have any background on him because he was picked up by Animal Control but Geoff and I are thinking that he had to have been trained by someone. He stops immediately when we say 'no'. He sits (most of the time) when we tell him to sit. He ALWAYS comes when commanded to do so. And we've only had a couple of instances of him wetting the floor and each time it was from sheer excitement on his part... not on purpose.

He DID NOT like being put in the laundry room to sleep the first night so we laid down a rug for him at the foot of our bed... not a single peep from him till morning and NO accidents! It's almost too good to be true!

Oh. You're curious about the name change? Well, I have a nephew named Preston and really didn't want to go through the whole "2 people with the same name" thing AGAIN (my husband and brother-in-law have the same name) so I encouraged the kids to help me come up with a different name. The HS just slapped that name on him when they brought him in so it didn't really bother me to change it. The hard part would be correcting ourselves for a while. We batted around a few names while we were outside playing with him. But, I really felt like if he was really going to fit in he had to have an A name! A.J. came out of my mouth and the kids loved it! Geoff, was helping someone with there car and wasn't a part of the name change. I think he was a little miffed about it. He asked, "What does A.J. stand for?" I said, "Nothing. We just like it."

Bottom line, were SOO happy to have him!

FYI, I have been the only one in this family holding back on getting a dog. My job is heavy laden as it is and I wasn't looking for more work. But, I realized that we weren't probably going to have anymore kids and Andyn is 2 1/2 so I felt like I could handle it. He has made it a dream! Welcome, Buddy!