Meet Jackson

I've been resisting and delaying my wife's attempts to get a dog with great success for nearly 7 years.  We have come very close a couple times, but in the past few years, it seems like every time things calm down enough to make it a real possibility, some sort of major life change takes place.  And right when you take a new job our move to a new city isn't exactly the best time to get a pet that demands a lot of time and space.

However, aside from her brief yet intense interest in opening our home to a feral street mutt from the Bahamas (I'm completely serious), Beth and I have agreed that when we do finally have a house with a yard, we wanted a golden retriever.  So, when through a fortunate twist of fate we became the proud renters of my sister-in-law's two bedroom house (with a yard) in Multnomah Village, no longer would my reasoning would be heard.  She knew someone who got a great dog from a breeder near Eugene (despite the breeder's horrendous circa-1990s geocities-esque webpage), so Beth contacted the breeder and the next day we were in the car going to Eugene to pick up a puppy.   (Actually it was about 8 weeks later, but this all happened during spring term, when my workload was upwards of 70 hours/wk, so really that whole period of time is kind of a blur.)

When we got there we had a seat on a bench near the kennel.  The breeder then opened the floodgates and puppies came pouring out and tumbling towards us in a manner that much resembled the dust cloud effect used in Loony Tunes to represent a fight.  There were puppies jumping all over the place and running around and causing generalized ruckus in all manner of ways. One of them trotted out of the enclosure, sniffed around a bit, then came over to the bench we were sitting on and laid down near our feet.  To say he was the calmest of the bunch is a bit of an understatement.  We knew right away that he had a pretty good energy level for us.  We lured him into his crate and took off on a nearly 3-hour drive, during which he only whined for the first 5 minutes or so.  We were in a state of shock the entire ride home, as I for one was expecting to be bleeding from the ears after 3 hours of nonstop high-pitched whining.  I was also expecting a veritable assortment of foulness to be emanating from the kennel, as I was sure that an 8-week-old puppy could not hold his bowels, bladder, or stomach (yet alone all three) for 3 hours in a vehicle traveling at highway speed.  But he impressed us both by quietly sleeping through the whole trip.

So I suppose it's about time I introduce the newest member if the family: Jackson.  (And it's time to thank Kane for coming up with such a great name.)

Here (somewhere) he is at 2 days old

and 4 weeks old...

The first picture we have of him.

This is what he looks like most of the time.  By which I mean asleep.

Though sometimes he sleeps like this...

Or like this...

One of his favorite sleeping positions

Passed out dog

When he's awake he is very busy learning to please his humans; He knows how to sit and lay down after only 2 weeks!

He also plays very well with others-- even when they get a bit crazy.

Basically he is just totally awesome and he knows it.

And thats Jackson!

disclaimer: this was supposed to be posted about 2 weeks ago  He has nearly doubled in size since then.  I meant to get this posted sooner but pretty much every priority in my life other than classes has fallen to the wayside as of late.  I think I got in a bit over my head this term.  More on that in a bit...