Meet ACE, the Newest "Pet Member" of Our Family!

When Simba, our yellow lab, died several years ago, Robby swore he would not get another one.  If you never read my post about Simba, click and read it.  He was a really special dog that grew up with our kids and losing him ranked right up there with one of the most terrible days.  I thought that enough time had passed this spring and had convinced Robby that we needed another lab and had actually found a friend whose dog was having puppies.  But something happened to the mama dog and she lost the litter.  That seemed to strengthen his resolve even more not to get another dog and we decided to give up on finding another puppy.  And then I saw a post on Facebook!  A good friend of ours black lab had a litter of puppies that were six weeks old and he was ready to start selling them.  I casually asked Hubby if he knew about this and he did not.  I wasn't going to push the issue but I had put the thought in his head.  The next afternoon I heard him talking on the phone and it was to the friend about the puppies.  I tried to appear as though I was not paying attention to him but when he got off of the phone he asked me if I wanted to go look at the puppies the next afternoon.

Well, if I get as far as going to look at a puppy, it is pretty much bought!  There had only been two females in the litter and both had already been sold.  We had discussed getting a female, thinking it would not be as "lively" as a male (aka:  Simba).  However, when I saw the little runt, I was instantly in LOVE.  I picked him up and snuggled with him and told the guy I would be back as soon as I could make a trip to the pet store to get some food and bedding for him.

I was thinking it would be the weekend before I could make it back to pick up our little puppy because I had a pretty busy week and Robby was out of town working on Wednesday.  I got home that day and was preparing dinner when he walked in holding our sweet little black lab!  Justin, Sarah and Parker Ann were visiting and Sarah excitedly ran over and took him from Robby snuggling him into her and commenting on that precious "puppy smell" and it wasn't long before we were on Face Time with the rest of the family, introducing the newest pet member of our family to them all.

While we snuggled and played with this little black bundle, we began trying to think of a name.  Most that we suggested were rejected by Robby and I couldn't understand why since I thought they were all pretty good names.  And then he explained it to me, "A name is pretty important when a guy is sitting in a duck blind.  Simba was a powerful name and everybody knew Simba; he had a reputation.  You can't just have a dog called Pudding and call that name out in front of other hunters."  Hmmm...OK, so I got it.  There was one name that was thrown out that he did like and by the next morning when I got up, Justin and he had already begun calling our little pup; Ace.  When we had gone to look at him, each puppy had a collar with a number on it and his number was 1.  He was also black, like a playing card with an Ace of Spades or Clubs on it.  And, of course, we own an Ace Hardware store.  It was done; his name was Ace.  OK...I call him Acey because, after all, he is still a baby.

I wondered how my weenie dogs and cat would take to Ace and was not disappointed.  Oh, at first, Sissy was only a little curious, but within the period of a couple of days, she was running and playing with him...

And I am enjoying sitting in my chair each day, while Ace sleeps in my lap.  And Robby has already got in the pool with him to show me he knows how to swim and cannot wait until he can go to the trainer that Simba went to, to become "Man's Best Friend" in the duck blind.  There will never be another Simba, but it had been enough time for us to make room in our hearts and home for a new little pup with lots of antics of his own to share with us.  Welcome, Ace!