meet jake
so one thing you should know. before we adopted jake, i basically hated dogs. they made me jump when they barked. they slobber. they smell. gross.
then i watched marley and me. i know. should be more reason NOT to get a dog. but i totally fell for the end when john grogan tells marley that they lied all those years and he's basically the best dog on the planet.
when we first moved to austin, i wanted david to have a buddy. when we lived north of boston while david was in seminary, we were on campus and there was a whole crew for him to play with. but isolated in a new place with a commute to campus, i just figured he might need a furry companion. also, i don't like playing sports. so i needed a dog for david so i wouldn't have to play sports with him. also, we're both very competitive and it gets ugly fast when i've taken lessons all my life in a sport and self-taught david schools me in it every time we play.
i digress...
so enter jake. we went to the townlake animal shelter to check out some dogs. this is the overflow shelter and it's all outdoors. july in austin. just imagine dripping in sweat with a bunch of stinky dogs in cement crates. awesome.
we walked around the whole shelter. jake (then nonio) caught my eye because he was just sitting there oh so cute and not barking. and every other dog in that crazy place was a barking nut case. we visited with two dogs and decided they weren't the dogs for us. we were going to leave and come back another time but then i was like. actually. i want to see that nonio. and so we did. he became our jake (because who even knows how to pronounce nonio) and the rest is history.
here is jake's first photo. right after we had adopted him from the shelter. we had to go to petsmart to pick up all the necessities. dog's gotta eat. we needed a leash. and a crate. and a bed. and a bowl. and oh my goodness this is getting expensive.
and then. the dog that didn't bark in the shelter. started barking EVERY SINGLE TIME A DOOR CLOSED. which, when you live in an apartment complex, is basically all the time. jake fooled me. he also barked at the microwave when we popped popcorn. terrifying appliance should die. you show that appliance, jake. bark away.
also. he reeked. like. totally awful i-haven't-been-bathed-before smelly. and because i was a total softie i didn't want to take him to get groomed because i thought he had been traumatized enough at the shelter. i don't know why, but i just thought getting groomed would be too much for my poor new-to-me pup. so i endured the stink for three days. and then the third day i walked into our apartment and it stank of dog. it was time. shockingly, he survived the grooming and didn't appear traumatized in the slightest. joke's on me.
jake has always been lovable though. the perfect first dog, really. he's cute, sweet, playful, and really just an eternal puppy. it takes a lot to wear out this guy. he made me fall in love with dogs. kudos to jake.
we had no idea what we were doing when we adopted jake. we probably messed him up trying to crate train him. he hated that thing. eventually we just got a baby gate so we could keep him in the kitchen of our apartment when we were out. he hated going in the kitchen for this reason. we would practice with him by throwing his toys in there to play fetch. he would oh so very hesitantly creep over to the gate. place one paw in, then draw it back out. and do the hokey pokey. then like a flash grab the toy and race back out. ha! he fooled us! goofy dog. eventually we learned he wouldn't destroy a thing. so then we stopped cooping him up.
jake pulled on walks and all that typical dog behavior. he wouldn't come when called. we'd have to chase him down in the dog park of our apartment complex. not an easy task. we learned to grab him before he lost interest in playing fetch with a tennis ball. we win, jake. we win. (right).
i said i would never have a dog sleep in our room because i would never have a baby sleep in our room, and especially not in the bed. yeah. three weeks later... jake is in our bed taking up my leg room. and i didn't even care. baby also slept in our room the first three weeks until i almost lost my mind because i woke up to her every sound. am i hilarious or what. never say never.
when we bought our first house and moved up to north austin six months after we moved into our south austin apartment, we decided to renovate. it was a nightmare. we moved all our stuff in, then had to move it all out into the garage for our contractor to redo the flooring. we dragged our mattress back into the house every night for a week. here's jake during that process. that face. how can you tell that face no. it's impossible. i've tried.
our neighborhood has a google group and one day a woman who recently moved to the neighborhood posted an ad for dog training and we thought maybe that would be a good idea for jake afterall. and then we found out how much it cost and were like... you know... he's not THAT bad...
and then. we adopted bella.
more on that later. but in the meantime we just enjoyed our perfect puppy that did silly things like pull on his leash and jump on visitors. we didn't really care that much. we loved him to pieces and he was our buddy. he definitely kept david entertained and me off the hook for sports. an excellent addition to our little family.
did i mention he was free? yes. totally free. best freebie we have ever accepted. our sweet, playful jake jake. my jakey pup. our pride and joy. we had a house. we had a dog. it was time to start sending out christmas cards. which, is exactly what became of the photo below.
