Storm

Number 7 has been asking for a dog for a long time.

For like three or four years.

She REALLY wants a dog.

As evidenced by her 2019 Christmas List.

For every birthday and every Christmas Number 7 asked for a dog.

Back in 2017 when she started asking, I told her it wasn’t gonna happen anytime soon.

“When I’m 7 can I have a dog?” she asked?

“Sorry, no,” I told her.

“When I’m 8??” she asked again.

I didn’t respond.

“When I’m 9?” she persisted.

“We’ll get a dog by your tenth birthday,” I told her.

I had put it out there.

Now there was no turning back.

I was either going to deliver or I was going to make a huge withdrawal from the mother-daughter trust account.

I did not want to make a huge withdrawal from the mother-daughter trust account.

But I had plenty of time. Four years.

With every year that passed, the word DOG appeared on every birthday and Christmas list, and it grew progressively bigger and bigger.

In 2019 there was still no dog.

The next year was a pandemic and my divorce.

So there was no dog in 2020 either.

It wasn’t for lack of trying.

I had come close a couple times, but it never worked out.

Number 7’s birthday is in less than two weeks, so that 10-year-old birthday that seemed sooooo far off in the distant future was almost here.

I was running out of time and I was losing hope.

Until a month ago.

A month ago I saw the cutest little black puppy on Petfinder. I had filled out a form to be alerted when dogs fitting the criteria I was looking for became available.

This little doggie was so cute.

I got a call from the rescue center letting me know that he had already been adopted, but they had another puppy in the litter (of 11!) who still needed a home and asking me if I would be willing to consider her.

She looked exactly the same as the puppy I had originally asked about. A black lab/border collie mix.

And all the stars must have been in alignment, because we got her!

But I didn’t tell the kids.

Our new puppy was arriving on Wednesday afternoon. The kids were going to their father’s house that night, and then they’d be back here at home on Thursday but back to their father’s house on the weekend.

I wasn’t going to be like, “Guess what? WE GOT A PUPPY!!!! Okay, BYE! Have a good weekend! See you on Monday!!!”

Plus I hadn’t even met the dog yet.

What if she was totally fucked up or psycho or something?

I had to make sure she was okay first.

SHE WAS PERFECT.

I mean, she was super skinny and she was kind of like WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING TO ME but she was so cute.

I took her to the vet the next day and got her all checked out.

She had fleas and worms and was a little underweight, but other than that she was great.

Storm stayed hidden from the kids at my parents’ house for five days.

We started fattening her up.

My dad fell in love with her.

On Monday after school the kids all have swim practice at different times, so I arranged to pick them up early from school so I could surprise the four of them all at once. (I had already told Number 4 who is away at school, and she miraculously managed to keep a secret).

I told the kids I forgot they had dentist appointments and that we’d stop home to brush their teeth.

My parents had brought the puppy and all her stuff up to my house, and I asked my awesome friend Dan Kane, owner of Dan Kane Photos if he’d come capture the surprise for us.

The girls were curious. Something seemed odd to them.

Women’s intuition.

The boys were totally clueless.

My parents had our little puppy in my office, and the let her go when we walked in the door.

They were pretty psyched and surprisingly quiet.

I think Number 7 was in shock that her dream had finally come true.

It came down to the wire, but it happened.

A quick little story which is pertinent to this topic…

About five or six years ago we adopted a cat from a rescue.

Her name was Amanda.

None of us loved the name Amanda for her, not because we don’t like the name, but just because it didn’t seem to fit, but we couldn’t agree on a new name for her.

So we call her Kitty.

Our new puppy came with a name.

Storm.

Storm seemed like a pretty good fit and most of us agreed it was a good enough name because even if it wasn’t perfect, it was better than Amanda and we also didn’t want to end up calling her Doggie.

So we decided to keep Storm.

But we call her Stormie.

The kids love her.

She loves the kids.

She also loves her crate which is awesome.

Everyone has been pitching in, although it’s only been a couple days.

We’ll see how enthusiastic everyone will be when it’s pitch black and 15°F at 5 pm in February when she’s not a cute little puppy anymore.

She is the perfect addition to our family.

I MEAN COME ON HOW CUTE IS THIS PICTURE.

It’s been a long time coming, but I think the Universe had specific plans for Storm and specific plans for us.

This is going to be a well-loved doggie.

I feel super lucky that we all found each other.

And I feel super, super, super proud of myself.

Because four years ago I made a really big promise to Number 7.

And this year, I fucking delivered.