Rescued! Meet Marty!

I don't know even where to start this post.  The last two years have been really rough for us.  Our hearts were broken twice and I wondered if we'd ever rescue again.
Our house has felt so empty since Pele' has been gone.  We talk about him regularly still- but it seemed that Jeff was not ready to have another dog.  In fact he said, if we were to have another dog it would be "all you (me)" which made me think that we would NEVER have a puppy again (too much work). I was thinking that the next dogs we would have would be when our kids were old- I would just rescue seniors (there are so many) and give them a nice home for their final years...
That all changed late last week.  I was downstairs working out when I heard about a lost dog (Annie) who had broke through her electric fence and was hanging with the kids.  Jeff was able to contact the owner to get her but he got bit (figuratively).  He was suddenly ready and realized that the absence of having a dog was really hard.  Another dog would NOT replace Pele' and Cobi, but it would fill a need that this family had.
I was so excited!  I got on the rescue sites and found some potential rescues!  Later in the afternoon I went to the pet store to get a fish.  Pele' ALWAYS went with me to that store and the workers there loved him.  As soon as I walked in, one of the girls looked at me, put her hands over her mouth and shook her head and said, "No. no. no. no. no... Not Pele'!"  We both wiped our eyes a bit.  He was such a special dog and I love that others recognized that in him.
That night I started playing catch-up with my blogs and finally got around to writing about my first born.  I didn't do the video I did for Cobi~ I'm still so exhausted and sad about Pele's loss.  But I wrote the words.  I cried.  I talked to my puppies at the rainbow bridge and blew some kisses to heaven for them.

Almost immediately after posting Pele's post, a friend sent me a message that she had a puppy!  I wrote her back and asked what kind... While I love purebread dogs, we are a rescue family...  And guess what... RESCUES! Unwanted pregnancy.  Free puppies. They need good homes!
Jeff was at the bar (after hockey) and I sent him a picture of my friend's puppy (she's getting a puppy too) and told him the story.  His texts back were:
Wow... so cute
and
Free is good
and
Dude... I'm smitten.
That night when he got home, we talked about it.  I told him that I could not get a puppy and go it alone and IF he was serious about this we needed to be all in.  We called a family meeting the next morning and... Meet Martin (after Jeff's guitar) aka Marty!

After texting with Janet (owner), she let us come over and meet the puppies.  It was a little over an hour to get there and we took the 3 youngest kids (Joe was at camp) and my mom.  It was really neat because we got to meet Marty's parents.  We always wondered about the first born's folks.  Especially Pele' who was so unique...
This is Marty's dad a (very friendly) Golden.

This is Marty's mom (lab/ terrier/ who knows/ mutt).  Marty's mom (Mia) was Janet's son and girlfriend's dog and apparently she and Janet's golden had a liking for each other. Mia delivered 8 pups on Mother's day.  She had 5 right after another and did great- cleaning them right off and knowing just what to do.  45 minutes later she had another 3!  Sean really liked Mia (she was a licker) and wanted to take her.  Instead we'll be taking one of her boys and we can't begin to tell you how very, very happy we are. Jeff and I have had a lot of silent embraces lately with tears.  We both agree that those tears are mixed with happy and sadness.  This is the life of a dog owner and I think we know that while the sadness is so very, very hard~ the joy that they bring you for the time you have is worth it.

Sometimes it's hard to tell who is rescuing who...

Thanks Marty!  Can't wait to bring you home! 

Marty has a white belly with a black heart on his tummy (see video below) and white paws (which will make nail-cutting so much easier).  We can't wait to bring him home when he's 8 weeks. He's 5 and a half weeks in these pics.

It's amazing how life happens sometimes.  It's like Pele' and Cobi knew that it was time for their family to love again. Our little gift from the Rainbow Bridge!