For Better or For Worse

In memory of Frederick Charles Brown Valdez

July 29, 2010 - February 1, 2011

If you remember from my very first post last April, Michael and I talked about getting a puppy for a long time. Neither of us wanted a dog in an apartment, so we waited to get into our house and finish with the stress of the wedding first. The plan was to get him/her around Michael's birthday in November. Like everything else in our life, he came earlier than we planned ;)

We took a trip to Fredericksburg with Mark and Julie the weekend after the wedding. Wineries, antiques, walking down the street with a mimosa at 10am... if this is an "old person" vacation, I'll take it. After our first winery stop on Saturday afternoon, we saw a sign for puppies. I asked Mark not to stop because I knew I would want to take one home. So, he had no other choice but to pull over.

There were five little chocolate lab puppies bouncing for our attention when we walked up. They were irresistable. After 45 minutes of holding each puppy and telling Michael, "We can't get a dog right now. We can't get a dog right now", we left with Frederick.

We were in love.

The first week or so went really well. He was calm, sniffed but didn't get into anything, and loved to nap in our laps. Then he became our Fred. A paper on the floor was not left unshredded. Shoes, plastic containers, our living room rug... if something came across his path, he had to chew it. So, off to Puppy Training 101 at Petsmart we went.

He was the star of the class. He got every command down, every class. Sit, come, shake, crawl, leave/take, drop, roll over, stand, lay. He could do them all... in class. Home was a different story. *Head cocked to one side* - "What do you mean, 'Lay.'?" After a few months and (mostly) Michael's persistent training, his classroom behavior became the norm.

He was our boy. Our first dog. Our first time caring for a living thing crying for you in the middle of the night. When we walked in the door, his whole body would shake with excitement. He could go for a run and be ready to play fetch the second he walked back in the door. He loved laying on my feet and resting his head on Michael's knee. When he was too crazy at night, we just had to sit next to him and he would calm down.

As much as we trained him and loved him and played with him, we couldn't keep him from getting sick. You don't expect to wake up with a healthy puppy on Saturday morning and have him die of bacterial infection by Monday night. Losing Fred was (and still is) heartbreaking. It has been one of the hardest things for us in our six short months of marriage.

No other puppy will ever replace Frederick. At the same time, we are dog people. When babymooning in Austin a few weeks ago, we met a new friend - Zina, a 2 year old lab/collie mix. Her entry into our family has been bittersweet. She is lovable, sweet, and mostly trained. Still, getting her meant that Fred was really gone. Fred will always be our boy, but Zina is our girl and we love her already. I'll post more about our new friend later.

Thanks for reading!