Ruby

 For quite a while now, Fred and the kids have been talking about wanting another dog that's smaller, hypoallergenic, cuddly and allowed on the furniture. So, I've been casually been looking. I happened to find a lady on Instagram who was selling Toy Goldendoodles. I asked her how much for one and she said $3,500. That was certainly out of our budget so I said no, thank you and let it be.

Then about a month later, she reached out to me and said she'd be willing to go down in price because she needed to get them sold and was running out of time since they were leaving on a trip soon. She asked me what my price would be. After talking with Fred, I told her realistically we were looking at $2,500. I didn't think she would agree to that since it was such a price drop from the original price. To my surprise, she said ok! 

So, we sat everyone down and talked about it. We knew we wanted a girl. There were only so many puppies left. And this lady lived in Utah! After looking at the pictures she sent, we decided on the puppy they called Cream. She had a light cream coat with big puppy eyes. She had told us that Cream was quiet and cuddly, more reserved than her siblings. I told the kids that they would really have to help step up with training, watching and teaching the puppy AND that if we got this dog, this was their Christmas present. We would still get them a few things but this was the main thing. They all agreed.

So, Mimi (the breeder) and I decided that she would fly the puppy down into LAX since gas prices were so expensive and it was going to be cheaper this way. She would pay the $100 for the dog charge and we would pay $200 for her flight. So, I drove down to LAX and got there at 8am, put the dog in the crate and drove Mimi to her next terminal and that was that! We paid her the down payment of $500 before she flew and plan on paying her monthly up until Christmas.

When I brought the dog home, all the kids were at school. One by one, they started coming home after school to meet her. After much family discussion, we named her Ruby. 

It's been an adjustment for everyone, including Butter. She's not really a fan. But Ruby is sweet and soft and we don't have any allergic reactions to her and she doesn't shed! But I told the kids, this is it. No more dogs or any other pets. This is where I call it. 

Welcome home, Ruby.