I mentioned a bit ago that Andrew and I were in the process of adopting a new puppy. Well, I am happy to report that she is moved in and settling well in our house! So friends, meet Chloe: the newest addition to the Smith family.

We adopted her through an organization called Stray Rescue. They found her her mother so underfed that she couldn’t even produce milk for the puppies. Because her mother was a stray, they aren’t exactly sure what breed she is. They know that her mother is some kind of labrador mix, but anything else is just a guess.

We’ve had her just over a week, and it has been so much fun to get to know her and see her grow! She is already so much taller than when we first got her! They grow up so fast

She is definitely a cuddler. If you are sitting on the ground, she loves to crawl into your lap and sleep there for hours. She’s so calm and even-tempered – I didn’t hear her bark until the fourth day we had her! She is slowly becoming territorial, making her cute little puppy barks and growls as strangers pass by or if something scares her – like the vacuum.

We have been crate training her at night, so the first few nights were a bit rough. She would wake up every couple of hours and whine, so at first we thought she just had to go outside. Then we realized she was just getting us to let her out because she didn’t always need to go. Smart doggy.

She doesn’t like walks or the leash yet, so we are still working on that. She tends to just sit down and refuse any treats we might have to get her to walk with us. So she’s a bit stubborn, but we’re working on that slowly! She knows “sit” very well, and she’s getting close to “down” for lay down. But she is potty-trained! Or so we hope, haha. She hasn’t had an accident inside for three days now, so that is definitely a relief!

Stray Rescue offers a year of free training classes when you adopt a dog, which is so awesome because obedience classes can be so expensive. We’ve always just trained our dogs ourselves, so it will be nice to have more of an expert approach towards training her. Chloe has an appointment to be spayed next week, so after she has recovered from that, we will definitely start taking full advantage of the free classes. Stray Rescue is located downtown so it will be a bit of a drive, but I think that it will be fun for Chloe and for me and Andrew.

Even though we’ve only had her a short time, we are so attached to her already. I know that she will be a perfect fit for our little family. Plus, when you walk into your bedroom and see her hanging out like this, you can’t help but laugh and fall in love!