The Evers Family: Brooklyn's First Birthday

Our dog Brooklyn is having her first birthday. Since she was a rescue dog, her birthday is unknown. We have decided that we will celebrate this weekend, so there will be more on that later. The girls and I have some ideas in mind to mark the occasion.

Our dog Brooklyn was has been a life long dream for Kaylee. From birth she has had an obsession with dogs. Everyone knew this and soon she had a collection of over 40 stuffed dogs for her to play with. After talking with other dog owners, I finally caved and started looking for the right dog at the local animal shelter. We looked for a long time, but one morning four new puppies were rescued from another animal shelter that was going to put her to sleep. She is a lab mix, and is 9 weeks old, but other than that we don't know anything else about her. Within a couple mins of holding her both of the girls were kissing her and asking to take her home. She had an adoption pending, so we put our names on the waiting list.

Within a couple of days the shelter called and said that we could adopt our little Brooke. We changed her name to Brooklyn. Since then, the girls have nicknamed her Brooks and Brookies. Cameron was resistant to Brooklyn at first because she wanted a kitty instead. However, when she was little I would see her laying by Brooklyn every time she falls asleep. I even caught the girls sneaking the dog into their bed at night. It is common on the weekend to find both girls and Brooklyn all sleeping in Cameron's twin bed together.

Kaylee had described the day that we got Brooklyn as "the best day of her entire life". Throughout that day she'd say to me, "I can't believe I have my own puppy!!" That makes it all worthwhile, and she loves taking care of the puppy. Everyone told me that the kids will lose interest in the dog and I will be in charge of everything. Not so, since my kids feed the dog everyday, Kaylee will play fetch with her in the backyard on nice days, and will even help to brush her since they know how much Brooklyn like the comb.

We almost didn't make it to her first birthday though. After having the dog home for a week, she was diagnosed with parvovirus and the docter gave her a 50/50 chance of living. After five days in the animal hospital, Brooklyn made a full recovery. She was scrawny and weak, but she pulled through. I think it was a good lesson for me because it made me realize how much I wanted her to be a part of my life.

I also resisted getting a dog. I was worried about the mess and her chewing up all my shoes (and messing with my shoes is totally unacceptable), however, I have enjoyed having my dog. She is a friendly dog, almost too much for people that aren't used to big dogs or dogs in general. She is protective of me especially when Eric is gone which makes me feel safe. She is a smart dog, and aced obedience training. She also has a very dominant personality and will walk all over anyone who will allow it. She is very much an Alpha dog and some quirky behaviors we still need to curb like being afraid of fans and vacuums and trying to chase squirrels, cats, and even ants. I believe that her strong personality is the same reason why she made it through her parvo virus, so we'll take her with the quirks.

Kaylee had been praying for a puppy for a couple of years, so it is fun to see this come true for her. Although she has also been praying about having two brothers and a sister...so we'll just have to see what happens with that.