I have decided to devote this entire blog post to 3 of my best friends, my dogs. As I write this all 3 are snoring away on the couch…so I have to take advantage of their down time.

First I will tell you a little about them. Their names, in order of arrival, are Wren, Gracie, and Gryphyn. Funny side note: it’s the only order I ever say their names in. Wren is Gracie’s mom, and Gracie is Gryphyn’s mom. Wren came into my life a little more than 4 years ago. It was after my families dog passed away (also a cocker spaniel, Taylor.) I begged my parents to let me get another dog, they finally relented and I was off on a mad search for a puppy. My mom had 2 stipulations: it had to be a female and it HAD to be a cocker spaniel. Well, a little tidbit of information about me is that I have next to no patience. So since it was taking longer than I thought to find a dog, I decided to name her. I decided on the name Wren, for no apparent reason than I thought it was cute. My family hated it, but I didn’t care. 4 weeks later I called someone about an ad in the newspaper and an hour later I was going to get her. On the phone they told me there was only one female left. No one knew this, but I didn’t care WHAT the dog looked like, I had waited long enough and I was bringing little Wrenny home with me. Low and behold, my little Wren turned out to be just that. The littlest and brownest of the litter, and now the littlest and brownest of all our cockers…just like a Wren. Talk about living up to a name.

Eventually, Wren had a little litter of her own. From that litter was the curliest pup I have ever seen! I formed an instant bond with her, and though I loved ALL the puppies (it’s kind of hard not to) this little one just stood out and I would carry her everywhere I went. For 8 weeks I dropped little hints to my parents about how I couldn’t give this dog away, there was just no way. They continued to tell me I was crazy if I thought I was keeping her. Then one night, I had to tell them I just COULD NOT get rid of her. End of story. So I devised a plan. I went into the kitchen, handed the sleeping puppy to my mom and let her hold her for a while. I then told my mom that we were keeping her, she said I was crazy about 10 times. The 11th time she laughed. Then she said, “what are we going to do with 4 dogs?!” (they had 2 dogs besides Wren.) I knew I had her right where I wanted her. I picked the puppy up, and she smelled like my moms favorite perfume, Grace. At this point, the answer was no I could not keep her but that didn’t stop me from trying to come up with a name for her. I started naming off names, my mom shot every single one down. Then she said the name “Buttons” and she knew I hated that name, since I can remember she has always tried to name every animal we ever owned Buttons. As I tried to come to terms with the fact that the only way I could keep this puppy was if her name was Buttons, I kissed her on the top of her head and she still smelled like my moms perfume. So without thinking, I said what about Gracie? Then my mom held out her arms and asked to hold Gracie.

Then eventually Pete and I moved out and took Wren and Gracie with us to our first apartment. After a couple months we had a sneaking suspicion that something was going on with little Miss Gracie. One day I saw Gracie walking up the steps and a much slower speed than normal, and I turned to Pete and asked if she looked a little chubby. The answer was obviously yes even though we tried to come up with reasons why she would be getting fat. We knew what was coming, and I wasn’t exactly new to this process. So on December 17th, I slept with Gracie in the living room and we delivered some puppies! Gracie was a great mom, even though Wren didn’t think so and we would often find Wren in the play pen trying to feed the pups. Four puppies were born, and one of them was the first bright white puppy any of our dogs had had. I was instantly taken with this puppy, but unlike before I knew there was noway we could take on a 3rd. Pete wasn’t a pushover like my parents were when it comes to this kind of stuff. So imagine my surprise when it was Pete’s idea to keep a puppy and I was the one telling him we couldn’t do it! Me telling him we can’t have a 3rd dog lasted all of about 5 seconds. And so began another naming process. Pete will tell you I shot down all of the names he came up with but I think that’s untrue. The final names we decided on were Blitzen and Gryphyn. Being the geeks we are we decided to name the pup after a Harry Potter reference. By the End of the night, Gryphyn’s name had grown to Sir Gryffindor Fin. A huge name for such a tiny guy.

These 3 are best buds and do everything together! They are definitely a packaged deal. So let’s take a look at some of their favorite moments together. Enjoy!

Family Time

One of the beauties of having Wren and Gracie have puppies was that all but THREE pups went to family members, so I get to see them all the time 🙂

Banana, Chicken, Penn State Football player