Drooling

About 6 weeks ago, Daddy came home drooling over the possibility of owning a Labrador Retriever puppy. A nearby missionary was leaving the country and had several lab puppies for sale for 2000 kina each (roughly 600 US dollars). Daddy had already done his homework and excitedly told Mommy that this was an excellent price for a lab puppy, that labs are great dogs for kids especially, and even showed her a picture of a lab puppy that he had found online. Mommy, however, was not convinced. She thought of the Baby on the way, and all the work and expense involved in owning a dog (feeding, bathing, making a suitable home - for us this would mean improving our fence, training, finding fleas, and the list went on). We didn't make any decisions or say anything to the boys, but a month later we received word that the price had been cut in half. The missionary really wanted to find good homes for the puppies before he left. This made the offer a bit more tempting, but Mommy still had a lot of good reasons not to buy one.

Then, over the weekend, we found out that a couple of single ladies on our station were going to purchase the last black lab puppy; there were two yellow labs left, and they would be offered for free to two interested families on our station. (Daddy had written that there could still be some interest at Kudjip - referring in part, of course, to us.) Daddy read the e-mail, then pulled up the photo on his computer and showed it to the boys, not mentioning that we could possibly own such a dog. That didn't seem to matter to the boys - Aden and Wiley sat in front of the computer drooling over the picture. Wiley kept pointing and saying "Doggie! Cute!" for about 15 or 20 minutes. To help pull him away from the screen, Mommy printed the picture for him, which he carried around the rest of the morning.

Perhaps that was all it took to push Mommy over the edge; perhaps it was only a matter of time. When Daddy came home and announced that the black lab and one of the yellow labs were being "retrieved" today, he and Mommy did some quick thinking and decided to surprise the boys with the last puppy. Mommy still had reservations, so we worked out a deal with the Radcliffe family - we will share the puppy some, sharing responsibilities and caring for him together. Without further delay, we piled into a truck with the boys and the other soon-to-be-puppy-owners and headed about 15 minutes down the road. The boys didn't know where we were going, but Aden's eyes lit up when we asked if we should take one of the puppies home with us. Now the boys will not be the only ones drooling around our house . . .