Hello world. As many of you may know, if you follow me on the social medias, this has been a very exciting time in the Nova household: We got a puppy.
Her name is Penny. She is a standard poodle, and she has stolen our hearts. Her full name is actually Pennywise Nova Love-Hart, and the rest of t his article will be about dogs. So, if you get annoyed by a parent that won’t shut up about their child, stop reading now, because I am about to be annoying.
At one point we had six perfectly imperfect doggies, and our home was always active. Lots of barking, rough housing and cuddling. No matter where we were or what we were doing, we always had a dog either beside us or on top of us. Jamie and I both acted like it annoyed us that we couldn’t be alone if we tried, but we both knew it was an act and never felt truly happy or content unless there was a pup cuddled up next to us.
We had a really rough three-year period where it seemed that every six months or, so we were losing one of our babies. That is the downside to being a horrible foster parent and keeping every pup that crossed our paths, and they all ended up being close to the same age. That 12- to 13-year-old marker is a bitch. We got down to one pup — Riley.
Riley is a lap dog in every sense of the word, and we could tell he was trying to give both daddies equal lap time. I think he would prefer Jamie and I to sit next to each other at all times so he could be in both of our laps at the same time.
Riley is a very chill and quiet 5-pound delicate little flower. His loudest barks are barely heard, but his little expressions convey every thought in his little head. He is not a fan of the outdoors and isn’t big on doing anything that is outside of his routine. Needless to say, the past eight months have been very calm, quiet and kinda boring at Casa Nova.
At the end of July, I started visiting puppies for sale websites. And before any of you preach to me about buying a dog when there are so many great dogs that need homes from shelters: DON’T. I already know and struggled with this myself, but over the past 20 years, Jamie and I have rescued, fostered and found great homes for 16 dogs. I refuse to feel guilty for being a little selfish and actively getting a dog that I wanted.
We talked about it for a long time and decided that we wanted some form of a doodle: A goldendoodle, a bernadoodle or a labradoodle. Then I came across an adorable little poodle puppy on one of the websites.
You know how breeders give the babies cute little noncommittal names so they can tell them apart and for showing. Usually it is a color, like Blue Boy or Yellow Girl. Well, this family used space themed names for their pups. There was a Cosmo, Luna, Astro and a Nova.
When I saw that her temporary name was Nova, I immediately sent the link to Jamie and asked if it was a sign. He said it absolutely was, plus the one thing all of the breeds we were looking at had in common was that they were part poodle. So, we immediately started researching the family that had her. I needed to make sure she wasn’t coming from a puppy mill or someone that didn’t care about the animals at all.
The family that had her was great. Their dogs were members of the family, and they took great care of their critters. The lady we delt with, and her mother, both are teachers at schools in Ardmore, Okla. On Sunday afternoons they open the high school and invite people to come a hang out with their dogs and help socialize the puppies.
`So, when she was six weeks old, we drove up there to meet Penny. We took Riley with us, because she was going to be a part of his family, too. I got good vibes from the family and felt we were doing the right thing.
Penny was already five pounds, exactly the same size as Riley. We sat on the floor, and she immediately takes Riley’s leash from my hand and walks away with our confused little pom. She made her way onto my lap and fell asleep. A few minutes later she gets up and crawls onto Jamies lap and is out again. We were in love. The hard part was waiting two weeks before we could bring her home.
No — actually, the hard part was me realizing that we have not had to deal with a puppy in 14 years and FUUUUCCCKKK!!! I forgot how much work it is. This bitch would not let me sleep past 8 a.m. and refused to play with a single toy that doesn’t squeak, crinkle or make some form of obnoxious sound.
We are training with just positive reinforcement and that can be so frustrating, but I never want one of my dogs to fear me. On my deathbed, my biggest regrets in life will be the mistakes I made with my first two dogs. They deserved better that the easily-annoyed and quick-to-anger version of me that they got.
We are being much more patient with Penny, and it is already starting to pay off. She is crazy smart and is almost completely potty trained … knock on wood. She is letting me sleep later and later, but there is no rest for anyone once she decides she’s hungry.
She turned 13 weeks old last Tuesday. She weighs 19 pounds, and she is mostly legs. Smart but clumsy, she falls going up stairs. She bumps her head at least once a day. She flips herself over diving for her tail and, so far, is not a big fan of Ruby. Our big bitch tortoise will follow Penny around the backyard, but Penny never lets her get to close.
Riley loves and hates Penny. One minute they are best friends, the next Riley turns into the most vicious demon dog you have ever seen. Penny is completely unbothered by his wannabe alpha dog energy.
Our home is a happier, more chaotic place — just the way we like it.
Remember to always love more, bitch less and be fabulous! XOXO, Cassie Nova n