It's a Girl!

Millie Messick

(a.k.a. "Silly Millie" when she's in trouble!)

60 lbs

3 years old

Yellow Labrador/Golden Retreiver Mix

Our first family picture with Millie. This was at the foster family's home when we picked her up on Thursday, June 4th.

On the way to her new home...

Now this is what life now looks life in our house!

Kids playing happily, (Alice climbing on the table--always climbing on something), dog quietly chewing her bone, Dad and Mom kicking their feet up while listening to happy giggles from the basement!

Really?!? Well, Millie is a pretty great dog. She's really mellow and more patient with Alice than I am! Nothing seems to phase her and it's amazing that Alice hasn't gotten her hand nipped or worse. She has definitely deserved it! I'm grateful that we don't have to worry about the kids with her! She knows several commands already and seems really teachable.

But...it is definitely an adjustment for all...especially me! I really like her and am learning to enjoy rubbing her tummy. But I admit that it is just one more body to trip over and clean up after. It rained non-stop the first two days that we had her and she had a day or so of struggling with house training (yuck!) so we were taking her out a lot. The house smelled like wet-dog and potty accidents and I couldn't stop sweeping up hair (they say she's shedding a lot right now for summer...hope it's true and it slows down). So if I burn candles all the time and vacuum even more than normal I can just about handle it. Luckily we picked her up on Thursday so Ryan's been home a lot to help with the adjustment period.

Nothing we didn't expect...I think we're going to make it. I just can't imagine doing this if the dog was any less perfect than Millie is!

Hayley is in heaven! She has such a natural knack with animals and is doing really well helping play with and train Millie. She has thanked us over and over for getting a dog!

Maya has warmed up to Millie really quickly and loves combing her hair. I'm sure it won't be long before she has bows and barettes in her hair! At least she's a girl!

This was the best shot I got with Alice...that kid just doesn't hold still! Alice loves to grab Millie's face, honk her nose, put her hand in her mouth, feed her any food Alice has and who knows what else?!?! At times Alice seems jealous of Millie which is kind of funny. She's had to do a couple time outs for hurting Millie. Hopefully she'll learn soon! Millie on the other hand didn't take long to figure out who to go stand next to during meal times. Alice just hand feeds her everything on her plate if we're not watching. So, for now, Millie gets gated out of the kitchen when we're eating. What an adventure!

Out kitchen work space area is about 5 feet by 5 feet. Perfect when it's just me in there. But today we had to laugh! Ryan was making cookies with the 3 girls. I walked in to get food for Alice. Millie followed and before we knew it no one could move. Imagine Ryan in the little space on the left. And that's before you open the dishwasher to do dishes. One of her favorite spots to lay so far is right in front of the fridge which causes all sorts of problems when we're trying to get food made and on the table! We're still figuring out how to work in the kitchen with a dog. For now the gate is my friend!

All in all....welcome home Millie! We're so glad that you seem so happy to just watch our chaos and hope we all get to make lots of fun memories together!