Andrew and I are proud parents of...

Andrew and I adopted a baby boy, named Duke! He is so lovable and loves to play in the backyard. Duke is 1 year, 10 months old and a Irish Setter Mix. He is my first dog ever. I never had a dog as a pet growing up. Andrew grew up with a pet cocker spaniel, named Rocky and in his early years as a toddler he had a Golden Retriever, named Sadie.

Now that we bought our house and have a large back yard and deck we felt it was a good time to get a dog together. We adopted Duke from the animal shelter in St. Louis, MO. For the month of March the Shelter is having a discount on Black dogs and cats 30% off the adoption. The shelter has noticed a trend that the black animals seem to not be picked out as often as the other colors. People tend to pick out the beige, white, grey, and other colorful animals over the black pets. I can understand the black cat situation, where people are superstitious of black cats and would pick out a different color cat instead of black, but I don't think there is anything wrong with a black dog? It just so happens we fell in love with Duke and he has Black fur, and were given 30% off.

At the shelter he was named Dew, and I kept mixing his name up with Duke, the Shelter Volunteer asked what we will name him, and we both agreed with the name Duke instead of Dew. At home we nick-named him Duke-Boy, or Duke-Buddy. He is a black dog with tan areas on his paws, tail, neckline, and eyes. The color pattern he has is similar to a Rottweiler, being black and tan. He may be a Setter mixed with a % of Rottweiler too? The shelter was not too clear on what type of mix he is. We just know that he is our lovable dog Duke.

The great part is he has adapted so well at our house and we have a crate set up for him by the sliding door as his sleep area, he does not bark, he gets along with the neighbor dogs, and he is such a good dog over all. We set up a routine with Duke to let him out of his crate in the mornings and he goes directly outside to do his business and play then he comes back inside and he can eat or drink water, and hang out indoors or choose to go back out in the back yard. In the afternoons he gets a walk around the neighborhood and by evening time he is tired and he sleeps in his crate overnight and then the cycle starts all over again with the new day. Last night he voluntarily went in his crate for bed time, it was so great. Two days ago, he was playing in the back yard and came in the house to get a rope toy out of his crate, and went back outside. He understands that the crate is his area to keep his toys and sleep. It is the equivalent to a person having their own bed room, so the crate is Duke's bedroom.

Here are some photos of Duke. Maybe from the photos, some of my blog readers can help identify what type of mix he might be. Leave a comment by clicking on the comment at the bottom of this post.

Duke is in his crate with a rawhide bone.

We took Duke to the PetSmart for a grooming, and they gave him a red bandanna! He is so handsome!

This photo shows the color pattern he has similar to a Rottweiler, but he has long fur and a long furry tail, like a Setter dog.

We have a window seat in the living room and have designated this as his bench to sit and watch out the window. The window bench is by our sofa to be hanging out with us, but at the same time not sit on the sofa.

Pintch Me I'm Dreaming!

We are slowly moving into the house, and it is slowly sinking in that this is OUR HOUSE!

This is our first home and it is a big difference from an apartment. For one thing, there is more space and not enough furniture to fill it all. We have a back yard now, which is a bundle of little projects to do and we didn't have any gardening supplies! Andrew went over to Home Depot and bought some gardening/home related stuff to get us started. We still have a list of items to get for the house that we never needed living in an apartment. Some of it is stupid stuff like a garden hose, not one but two! One for the front and one for the back yard! Then we also need a trash can, we have been spoiled with the use of a dumpster and we don't even know when trash day is? LOL! I need to get one more shower curtain, two more toilet brushes, and two more plungers, because we now have three bathrooms....the list is growing as I sit down to think it all through.

Here are some pictures of us from last Friday when we officially got the keys to the house.