Every year when we go pick out a Christmas Tree, we walk up to the Scouts or the farm stand of cut trees. In what has become typical McFadden fashion, we visually look at the trees, without touching. Then we look at one more closely, hold it upright, looks good. Ok that’s the one. Buy it and done. No fuss, no messing around.

In my opinion, trees look like trees and if there is a bit of a bare spot, face that to the wall and arrange the lights in such a way that it isn’t noticed. Trees will all have their own unique qualities and give character to the tree. I don’t need to spend more than 5 minutes picking one out.

I know it’s July and I am talking about Christmas trees, but here is where this became relevant: last week on the weekend, we decided we should finally get a puppy, we looked up some options, Jay made a list of some that may be suited to us, we messaged one breeder, then called her, spoke with her over FaceTime, saw the pup and both parents and decided he was the pup for us. So it made me chuckle and think that it may appear that we pick puppies like we pick our Christmas trees.

But it isn’t the case. Our boys love animals and have asked us for years and years to get a dog. It hadn’t been the right time before. There was always a reason. My husband and I both work, so when is a good time? How do people train if they are working? We just weren’t sure. We even bought a puppy training book at least 8 years ago and a dog breed book about 2 years ago. It has been a topic of conversation over the years of what kind of dog we may all like and agree on, how big of a dog, how energetic of a dog, what names we like. We talked about having the entire yard fenced, that we should be on a bigger property. But at some point you realize that perhaps the bigger property isn’t going to happen anytime soon with the prices of properties ever increasing. The boys are only getting older. With the summer, the boys are home, able to be on board with helping with the puppy. We realized that we don’t want to keep putting it off. Jay fenced and enclosed a section of our backyard. We made the decision and got organized to get a dog!

We had decided on a few breeds that would work for us and we chose this guy: a Golden Retriever crossed with Bernese Mountain Dog. His name is Calvin. And we love him (now we just would like our cat Hobbes to tolerate him 😆).

So although it may seem to be a quick decision, it was just a matter of us being ready and aligning with the right dog for us.

Sending Love,

Devon