Some of you may remember my previous post about my four legged daughter, Daphne. We had to let her go back in September, and it was heart breaking. Before she left us, the vet took a pawprint of her in a cast so that we would have it forever as a memory of her. I’m so glad they did that, although it makes me smile, thinking of all of the memories I have of her. I don’t need a pawprint to remember her. Not only is she vividly in my heart and my mind, but I also have a gazillion (yes, an actual gazillion) pictures of her throughout her eleven years on this Earth. I got her when she was five weeks old, and she has her own scrapbook. I was going through old photos recently and found about 15 rolls of film, just of Daphne before she was eight weeks old!

Losing her hurt me so much, I knew I didn’t want another dog. As a matter of fact, I didn’t pick up that pawprint until recently because I didn’t want to go back to the vet’s office and be reminded of my loss. We just picked it up this weekend, four months later.

Daphne went to doggie heaven mid September, and I didn’t want another dog. Every dog hair (which for anyone who has a lab, you know it’s EVERYWHERE) reminded me of her. Every time I came across one of her toys I cried. And then, for some reason, one day, I wanted a dog. No, I didn’t want a dog, I NEEDED a dog. I needed a puppy to snuggle with me, to lick my face, to wake me up with tail wagging.

So on a random Sunday, we went to the Dumb Friends League. It was a quick decision, out of nowhere, and yet we were all on board. Tom, Kaden and I went to find a new family member.

We went to get a basset hound originally, named Gee Willikers. I had seen him online and adored his picture, and I wanted to meet him in person. But when we got there, he was gone. The people gave us a list of dogs that had proven to be great with children, and we went around the kennels looking at them. Now please understand – the Dumb Friends League is an EXTREMELY dangerous place for me. I always leave in tears, because even if I’m able to take one home, that’s not enough – I want to take them all. But we walked around the kennels anyway, as I was trying to hold back tears. We went down the list and nixed almost every dog on the list for various reasons – too old, too young, not a breed we like… all were crossed off, except one. Linda. What a weird name for a dog!

We agreed to meet Linda, even though we weren’t really excited about meeting her. We sat in the little room and waited, and they led her in to see us. She had no interest in Tom and I whatsoever, which was a little disheartening. She immediately went and sat next to Kaden. Tom and I looked at each other, a little disappointed, but surprised that a dog would go to a child so quickly. Kaden was thrilled though, and they sat at the door together, looking out the window. Because she didn’t seem happy to be with us, we were debating adopting her at all. We would never want to take a dog into our home that wasn’t happy to be there. We consider them members of the family, and we don’t want an unhappy doggie. We told the woman our concerns, and she was calm but realistic. She told us that it wasn’t fair to put our expectations on a dog that doesn’t really understand what’s happening. We expected her to be excited to see us, when in reality, she’s been removed from her home, has no idea where the heck she is, or who the heck we are. We felt bad after she said those things, knowing that she was absolutely right. Who are we to expect a dog to be happy to see us? Yes, that’s what we’ve known, but those were also dogs we’ve known. So we decided to give it a shot. After all, she chose Kaden. Not us, but Kaden.

We took Frankie home that night. Oh yes, her name was changed. Linda is just not really a doggie name. So we named her Frankie Ella Holiday – for Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday. Gotta get that music in there right?

She is truly Kaden’s dog. Every dog should have a boy, right? Or is it every boy should have a dog? I don’t know! Either way, they have each other. And they run up and down the hallway together. The day I wanted to take some pictures, it took a LOT of outtakes because Kaden was holding her down to try to get her to sit still. She thought he was playing and wanted to wrestle. Frankie likes to feel things out with her mouth, kind of like a baby. She will put Kaden’s entire arm in her mouth – not hard, but to play. He thinks it’s hilarious and will encourage her to do it while playing.

She is truly a member of our family now, and we love her dearly. Kaden tells me often that she is his sister, and that he’s her brother. He adores her, we all do, and we’re happy to have her with us. :)