Meet Zoe

I recently surprised myself with the longing for a new Cocker Spaniel. After losing Maddie the end of last year, I thought it would be years before I ever even considered getting another dog. I said many many times before that once something happened to Maddie I would never have another Cocker because there could never be another one like her and I didn't even want to try. One of my good friends from work told me that her brother-n-law and sister-n-law were about to have a litter of Cockers and my thoughts suddenly began to change. It actually made me emotional to even think about getting another Cocker but at the same time it was all I could think about! Well, just a few days later, they were born and my friend started sending me pictures. Chad and I were hooked from the beginning! We went and picked her out and paid our deposit and waited anxiously for her to be old enough to leave her mom. We kept the whole thing a secret from the kids.

In the mean time, I was talking all about our soon to be pet to my mom and gave her puppy fever too! She ended up getting the sister and it is great fun! It just so happened that the puppies were ready on Addie Grace's birthday. Although it wasn't her gift, I put Zoe in a big gift bag and told the boys I needed them to help Addie Grade open a present. It was bitter-sweet when they saw her and started yelling, "MADDIE"....somehow, in their little heads, they thought Maddie was here again as a puppy. It nearly broke my heart. We had about 5 minutes of settling down that it was not Maddie, would not be named Maddie, and was a new puppy for the entire family. We even had to take Zoe to Maddie's grave so they could meet. Like I said, bitter-sweet.

Since then, we have been quite busy with a new puppy and 3 kiddos but it is going great. Zoe is catching on fast to house training (OK, maybe not as fast as I would like-you know, a day or two would have been great), and the kids adore her. Addie Grace does not like for anyone else to hold her and will scold anyone who does! The craziest part of all is that she looks SO much like Maddie did as a puppy and has a lot of her mannerisms. She is not, nor will she ever be, my Maddie but she is my Zoe and we are loving her!