Enter JOSIE

Who could have predicted anything about this day? It has already been beyond-wonderful, though not without challenges. I write in a moment of eerily blissful silence. Josie – that's right, not Chaka, not Haru – lies sleeping in the crate by Elizabeth’s bed. Who knows what the night will bring? It is 9:30 and we are all utterly exhausted.

We left later this morning than we’d wanted to, and got a bit lost, but pulled up to the central chapel at New Skete literally at the dot of 12:00 noon, which was the agreed time to meet Brother John. He is a humble and straight-forward man, who got straight to the first order of business: meet the parents. We went out back into the main kennels for the adult dogs and met Goldi first – that’s our pup's mom. We’d seen her at our last visit, licking at her new litter, which had already contained our puppy. She’s bright in color, relatively slight in size, and very even tempered. Not so the father, Dux. He’s large, darker, dignified, more intense, more powerful (though his owner, Br. Luke, says he's a total pushover).

The kids ran on ahead to the puppy kennels while we took a bit more time with Br. John, and by the time we’d gotten there, they were in a room playing with …our puppy. It was immediately plain to us all that this was a perfect little dog. Dark body, lighter legs and light paws, very nice coat, a lighter face, with ears that have already begun to sit up, but tuck sweetly together. She has a great combination of curious playfulness and self-possession. The monks are wonderful that way, putting so much into socializing their dogs. But as her PAT (Puppy Aptitude Test) scores showed (!), she is also pretty wonderful to begin with.

We all played with her very naturally; then the kids walked her outside for a long time while we settled all the paperwork. When I went out briefly to see how things were, Michael reported to me, “We decided, together, that it would be ‘Josie.’” That was a big concession for him, because he’d voted for Ella, or several other names than Josie, but saw how much it meant to his sister to name the dog.

We sat at lunch with Br. Christopher and heard lots of great and wise advice, in fact more than our already-overwhelmed senses could take in. By 3:00 we were off for home. The 3.5 hour car ride was less problematic than we imagined – Josie was not too difficult to settle, sometimes in her crate, sometimes in Elizabeth’s lap. A couple stops for her to relieve herself.

Back at the house, so many discoveries, and the beginning of more challenging realities — starting with the cats, who were emphatically not pleased with the new addition to the family. That, in turn, upset Michael greatly, and we all had to work hard (some more and some less successfully) at not giving each other too many opinions on how we should each be handling or not handling the pup. I made a trip with Michael to the pet store (open late) for some last minute supplies, and that separation was very healthy for all.

Pat is now asleep as I type, Cinder is on the bed too, Jack roaming around (his tail is finally back to its normal dimensions, after some serious puffing). And like I say, who knows what the night will bring? I’m on duty for the first part of the night if she kicks up a fuss or needs to go outside. I know, in any case, that we have a totally wonderful puppy, and I can’t wait to spend time with her tomorrow.