The Story of Us: We're Expecting!

Look out! The Matthews’ family is adding another member to the clan! That’s right! We’re getting a puppy! What? Did you think I was going to tell you we were having another baby? Yeah right! We’ve got our hands full with the two we’ve got – you know what I mean if you know us or if you read our blog regularly.

Anyway, sometime after Christmas Jonathan and I decided that we were going to get the kids a dog…they’ve only been asking incessantly for as long as they could talk. And let’s face it – Jonathan has been driving me crazy about a dog also. So this is me giving in (and secretly grinning and giggling on the inside). We knew we wanted a French Bulldog or a Boston Terrier so I did some searching online and found that a Boston would suit our family dynamic better. Next step – find a puppy. This was not an easy task! Jonathan wanted to make sure we weren’t supporting a puppy mill so we went to the AKC website to find a registered breeder to buy from. And what we found is that there are only 3 registered AKC breeders within 200 miles of where we live and as most responsible breeders do – they only have liters once a year. Two had puppies that were born in November and one breeder had a liter born in December. I called and emailed Deer Graze Kennels to ask if there were any puppies left.

About an hour later I received a voicemail from Sue – a wonderful lady that I would soon get to know very well and be forever inspired by. Good news! There is one male puppy that is not spoken for. Sue promised to send pictures soon so we could decide whether or not we were still interested. Needless to say when I received the following picture not long after speaking with Sue…my heart was stolen!

3 weeks old

Over the next month and a half Sue and I spoke at least once a week and she continued to send pictures of our little four legged cutie. As each picture arrived we made a collage and put it on the refrigerator so we could watch our little guy grow. I’m not going to lie…time seemed to move so slowly. Since our pup was born December 9^th we couldn’t pick him up until mid February.

4 weeks old

6 weeks old

8 weeks old

Jonathan and I set a date with Sue – arranged for the kids to stay with Aunt Wendy and planned our trip to Vernon Hill – 200 miles from Yorktown!

The morning of Saturday, February 18^th Jonathan and I woke up at 4:30 a.m., packed the car and got ready for our trip! After one stop at Chic-fil-A, an hour of getting lost and a creepy gas station stop to use the bathroom we finally made it to Vernon Hill around 11:00 a.m.

Now! The final part of the trip (according to mapquest) told us to turn left on Sue’s street and be aware that ‘portions’ of this road are ‘unpaved’. Portions Mapquest? Portions? Try – all parts of this road is unpaved! Almost 3 miles of unpaved-ed-ness to be specific!

We pulled up to Sue’s farm home a few minutes later and she met us outside. She’s originally from New Jersey and has been in the dog breeding and showing business for over 40 years. She has an adorable house and (I think she said) 300 acres of land. Here she is handing over our little boy to Daddy! Oh! Did I mention we decided to name him Linus?

Sue also raises her own cattle and sells all organic beef. SUPER COOL! These cows loved her! Just at the sound of her voice they all came running from about 2 miles away. At stood at the fence fighting over who she would pet. All of the grown cows were named after candy or some type of sweet.

There were even a few baby cows – which she doesn’t name for obvious reasons.

And then there were the bulls – bulls the size of Mini-Coopers! The full grown bull (who’s name is Hershey) is definitely a momma’s boy. He started calling to Sue as soon as she was in sight. She told us about how she raised him from birth and bottle fed him when he was a baby.

He was so huge I’ll admit I was a little scared. Even outside of the fence. But then Sue climbed in! And this massive beast rubbed up against her and leaned in to be scratched. He acted like an over sized dog bending and closing his eyes as she scratched his head and body. He even bumped her side wanting her to climb on top and go for a ride. WHAT?!?! Domestic bull-riding? Who knew?!? Not this girl!

After about an hour of getting to know Sue better Jonathan and I signed all of the AKC required paperwork and said our good-byes.

OK – so I’m a sucker for landscape photography – here are a couple of pictures of some of the old tobacco and farm houses on Sue’s property.

The ride home was interesting to say the least. Jonathan wanted to be the first to bond with Linus so I got to drive home while he held the baby…who we soon found out has absolutely heinous flatulent issues!

In a small town called Charlotte Court House, Virginia who’s population as of the last Census was a whopping 404 people – and less than an hour of driving – I got my first speeding ticket! Noooo! This State Trooper managed to pull over two vehicles at one time. Yes…I cried, but only when the officer walked back to his car.

OK back to Linus. We stopped a couple of times to let the little stinker go to the bathroom and finally made it to Williamsburg to pick up the kids around 5:00.

Here are some pictures of us introducing the kids to their new brother.