Korah (4/30/20)

We did a thing today. We expanded Little "l" Farms by four feet...well paws. Korah has now joined life here on the farm. If you're keeping track, that's one dog, two cats (one with babies on the way), four kids, and five chickens...I guess we need to add a trio of something to keep the counting in line.

I resisted getting a dog. After we lost Tanner a few years ago, I just didn't think my heart could take it. I did the math and the math wasn't good. I figured about the time all my kids were leaving the house, my dog would die. Then I'd have no kids and no dog. See, not good math.

But the kids have been asking for over a year. They told us they'd rather have a dog than a beach vacation (who's kids are these?!). The pandemic hit and it looked like the beach wasn't going to be a thing for us this year (even if they were to reopen everything, we weren't comfortable with the idea of taking the kids). Then last week Maui dressed in her Sunday best and gave us a presentation complete with PowerPoint on why they needed a dog. Later that week, the sweetest picture of a puppy was sent to me.

It appeared that the stars had aligned. It was time to bite the bullet and let a dog join our chaos.

Today we added this sweet rescue dog to our world. The fights over who her "mom" is have already begun. The concerns over "will coyotes come into our yard at night when we take her potty" (there aren't coyotes around us) are being fielded. They all want a turn to walk her around the yard. It's day one...I hope the desire and concern continues.

Mostly, I'm hoping that they all learn responsibility and teamwork through this. The four of them are now in charge of both the cats and the dog now for feedings. I've still got the chickens, they were my idea and despite my hopes that everyone would love them, Doodle traumatized most of them for life.

It's a good character building opportunity for them. They'll learn how to love and take care of something other than themselves. They'll learn the hard lessons of leaving toys and shoes laying around. Eventually, hopefully many years down the road, they'll relive the really hard part of pet ownership. They'll learn how to let go of something you love. They'll cherish theses days of watching her run around with reckless abandon. They'll remember how excited she was to see them. They'll remember the day we got her as "the most wonderful day" (Aspen). And all of these things plus a million more memories that they'll make with her, are why it'll all be worth it.

One day they'll look back and smile. They'll smile because this simple country life provided them memories that they'll always cherish and one day tell stories to their kids about it. I hope that they'll never forget that sometimes the smallest and simplest things can bring the most joy.