The Story of Maverick

As I mentioned in this previous post (fourth bullet down), according to my husband, I am either ON or OFF. So I was turned way ON in December of 2005 about 4 months after we got married. I had been wanting one of these since our wedding month. When I decided I really, really wanted to get one, I knew I had to do some fancy footwork to make this happen. I methodoligically spent the first four months of our marriage "working" on my hubby. Come on ladies, you know what I mean here. Little subliminal messages sent day after day, week after week to get him to the point where he would believe that not only did I want a sweet, cuddly, precious Goldendoodle, but that HE actually wanted one two. This type of steering, directing, some would say kaniving, cannot be done overnight. A little comment here and there about how much fun we would have with a smooshy wooshy little cuddly wuddly doodle puppy. I sent him lots of email pictures of how cute, sweet, perfect, and incredibly smart they are. And then I hit him at weak point. I reminded him about what a big outdoorsy guy he is and how much he likes to have extra motivation to work out. Well....isn't that just perfect? An awesome, agile running companion to support him in his passion for being active in the outdoors. Besides, God forbid if I'm going to take up running just to make my husband feel better! Shaaaa.

Anyway...four months into my plan things were going really great. He was really warming up to the idea. He was starting to say we COULD get one. But...not yet! We had to wait until he was done with his "busy season" at work. It would be springtime them and a perfect time for a dog. So, I was satisfied. That sounded like a great plan. We found the closest Goldendoodle breeder online. They happened to be 2 states away but we were going to make it happen- IN THE SPRING.

Then something happened. Shortly after we had made the agreement (and my husband was feeling great that we had a plan that we would STICK to) I found this lady who was running an ad in the newspaper!! Goldendoodle puppies- 6 weeks old- ready to go the week of CHRISTMAS (Christmas people, come on, isn't that the perfect time to get a puppy!) - and they lived about 10 miles from our house!!!! Could it get any better than that? So, I picked up the phone and called my husband. "Sweetheart, you know how we decided and AGREED that we would get a Goldendoodle in the spring (about 4 months from right now)? Well, I think we might need to move the date up a little bit!" Click went the phone. "Hello, uh, honey, did you just hang up on me?" (Ok, he didn't really hang up on me, but he wanted to- I know he did).

After that, everything is a blur. I had gotten him to agree to OUR PLAN and now I was asking soemthing of him that was way out there. CHANGE the plan and jump in right now to puppy-owenership! The next few days I spent a lot of time really working all the angles: it's perfect to have a puppy now cuz it's winter and they are easy to train in the winter; he will be big enough to go running with you this spring-the whole reason you want him; ect and ect. My arm twisting wasn't working the first few days, so I knew I needed to pick things up a notch. So, naturally, I took him here and had him do this and this. And then I did this. After that, it was over. A few days later....Derrick was doing this! Maverick did sleep in his kennel while he was a puppy. And maybe Derrick wasn't the one who wanted to get a dog right away..... But over 2 years later I am now competing with this! The end.