Meet Cola the Pup

On Monday’s post, I mentioned that we picked up a special last minute souvenir from our trip. We think he is a Miniature Pinscher-Chihuahua mix, about 8lbs and under a year, but we’ll find out more on our vet appointment tomorrow. He definitely is young with that puppy playfulness and that feeling that he is just skin and puppy fat when you pick him up. After a few days of debate, we’ve finally narrowed down his name to Cola. As in Whiskey and Cola. It perfectly fits his personality – a little spunky with lots of sugar highs and lows. This little guy seems to have two speeds – running around like crazy or super affectionate and falling asleep cuddled into your neck/arm/leg/waist (wherever he can snuggle his way in). He’s pretty smart too, learning his name in less than a day and how to sit in just three. We’re completely in love with him already.

For a long time Garrett and I have talked about getting another dog and a companion for Whiskey when we’re not home. He always gets so excited when he’s going to visit dogs of our families and friends and we wondered if he missed having that fellow canine companionship when he’s at home.

We’d planned to wait until we had a bigger place with a fenced in yard because we wanted a bigger dog this time. Then we headed out on our honeymoon road trip and with many hours sitting in a car together we started talking about our plans for the future and the idea of another dog came up again. After talking about what we loved most about Whiskey we decided that getting another small dog fit into our lifestyle more – we love small dogs that are super active when you want to go for walks/hikes but are just as content to snuggle together on the couch and watch a movie.

On the last week of our honeymoon, we started occasionally looking up dogs on Petfinder, just to see what was out there. That’s when we spotted Cola (who at the time was called Taurus). From the look of his picture he was just like Whiskey but all black. He was in a rescue in rural Pennsylvania, which was on our way home and close to where we were stopping for the last night. The plan was to drive over on Sunday morning, just to take a look.

Then he came running out of the barn at the rescue and went right to Garrett – and nuzzled his little head into Garrett’s vacation beard. I knew we were goners then. We took him for a walk around the property, gave him some belly rubs and signed the papers. Before we knew it, we were the proud owners of a second pup.

When we got into the car to leave, I sat with him on my lap for a while and he sunk right into me. All 8lbs of love. His go-to move is to burrow his face into the hair on my neck. I melt every time.

I was worried that the nine hour day in the car back to Canada would be too much for him, but he slept through the whole thing like a champ. He was out within the first five minutes we were on the road. I’m guessing sitting in a car with us was easier to get some shut eye than being in a rescue with other dogs barking all day long.

We stopped regularly to give him washroom breaks and spotted a pet shop, so we popped in to get him a few things – a new bed, toy and leash.

He snoozed in that thing through rolling mountains….

…and quaint little towns.

The only thing that woke him up was when we drove over rumble strips, or when there was the promise of another break at a rest stop.

We gave him a few nibbles of chicken from our lunch…and a french fry or two.

Then it was back to sleep. Everyone has asked us how we got him over the border, but they never even asked us about him and I think it was because he looked so content in the back. We did get all the proper paperwork from the rescue (record of health from the vet, shots and his rabies vacination) just in case there was a problem. I always bring the latest versions of those with me when I’m traveling over the border with Whiskey too, like it’s his passport.

The other question I’ve gotten is how Whiskey has been handling the transition. This was the number one thing I was worried about. Whiskey has always been my baby (5 years together next week!) and I was having some serious guilt on the way home about how this would be disrupting his happy little life, but I knew it was better for him in the long run. Thankfully, he’s actually been great. They walk together really well, sit looking out the bedroom window together all the time and have nightly play fights in the living room. There have a been a few little growls, but they’ve mostly been Whiskey teaching him how to behave – like don’t put your feet in my face or stop pushing me. We’ve also made sure to give Whiskey lots of love right now and keep up his usual routine. If anything, he’s getting even more attention with lots of extra walks as we make sure the puppy is completely house trained.

I took them out last night to my friend’s property for a run outside with her dog and they were both wiped by the end. I caught this shot of them snoozing together in my passenger seat. My boys.