I have always been an animal-lover and grew up with them pretty much my entire life. When I became a mom, I could only hope that at least one of my kids loved animals as much as I did.
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| Hmm... is there an extra member in the family? |
Currently.
I have been working on that with my husband though. He, unlike me, did not grow up with animals at home. However he knew what he was getting himself into when he married me. Quest was just the beginning and he knows very well that I love dogs.
For forever, I've had my heart set on adopting a retired racing greyhound. I still would like one but for the sake of my marriage, I kept my eye on short-term arrangements (e.g.; fostering a shelter animal) to ease DH into the idea of longer commitment.
After attending the 4-H Fair, I re-discovered the Seeing Eye Puppy Raising Program. In order to become an official Puppy Raiser, everyone has to start off by Puppy Sitting. This helps the Raiser if they are traveling away and unable to take the puppy with them and people who are new to the program can get valuable hands-on experience taking care of a program puppy. Win-win.
We attended our very first 4-H Puppy Club meeting last night and it was a great experience for the whole family. The training was an hour long and went through all the basics. My kids were actually very well behaved for a 4yo and 2yo toddlers...but eventually got antsy. Thankfully halfway through the club leader allowed all of us, kids and other adults, to come and pet the dogs all over as part of the socialization training. My kids loved that part the most.
For what I could observe so far, it seems to be a nice, low-key community. Folks in this club were all ages from different walks of life. Some of them were new, very new like us. A few of them were on their 4th, 10th puppy. Everyone was very welcoming and generous with help and encouragement.
My son was sad we had to leave Puppy Club without a puppy.
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