Happy Birthday Spencer!!

I didn't get to post about this yesterday, but it was Spencer's 1st birthday on Saturday! I can't believe she's already 1 and officially not a "puppy" anymore. We actually don't know her exact birthday because we adopted her, but we got her from the shelter on April 17th and the vet estimated that she was 4 months, so we decided her birthday would be January 17th. It's been a crazy 8 months, but now I can't imagine my life without her! She really is such a sweetheart and I love her! So I decided I would do a tribute to Spencer, in celebration of her birthday!!

After 2.5 years of begging, Jake finally relented and said we could get a puppy. I scoured Petfinder and one day, came across this picture, which pretty much sealed the deal...I was in love at first sight!This is her "glamour shot" from the rescue group that we got her from. We met Spencer, REALLY fell in love and 3 days later, we were heading to DC to pick her up from her foster home. She was so tiny...mainly from being a rescue...she only weighed 14 pounds. The rescue we got her from found her on the side of the road when she was about 2 months out, so not much is known about her at all. She was way underweight and you could see all her ribs. And her legs were SO long and gangly, she was constantly tripping and falling. She had the biggest paws ever, so we had no idea what to expect for her size. They told us she was a beagle/pointer mix, but we've since learned that she's a foxhound mix.

The first weeks we had her were SO hard. She had some trouble adjusting and trusting us and we seriously questioned if we were going to be able to do this. She would cry all night and bark all day. But every day got easier, and we got so attached (especially Jake, which I think is hilarious since he didn't even WANT a dog to begin with). In true puppy form, in the beginning, all she did was sleep:The summer went on and she got into her crazy, hyper puppy phase, once she started trusting and loving us. She wasn't always good...she destroyed 4 pairs of my fave shoes. Then we had to get her spayed. OMG...worst day ever. She chewed all of her stitches out and had to get emergency staples and wear a cone for almost a month while she healed:She has extreme hatred towards the cone...if she even sees it now, she runs away and hides. Once she was cone-free, it was back to the crazy, hyper puppy. She absolutely LOVES grass:She would roll around in the grass in front of our pld apartment for hours...it was hilarious to watch. She got to spend a weekend with my BFF K when we went out of town and now K may be her most favorite person ever, due to the fact that she got like 50 treats a day while she was staying there. K took this picture during her stay and it's my absolute favorite picture of Spencer ever...Spencer went on her first "vacation" when we took her down to Jake's families river house in VA...she may not like the car, but she LOVES the river! She spent all her time on the screen porch staring out the window. We moved into the house we live now and life got so much easier with a big fenced in back yard. It's almost impossible to get her to come inside now. She runs, digs, stares out the fence into the neighborhood. We've even gotten her to play fetch...which took some time to teach her (she's definitely not a retriever!!) She is one happy dog!She made a best friend, our friends puppy Wallace, who is the same exact age. We had a few puppy play dates, which were basically just hours of them wrestling and chasing. The day after a play date, she would sleep all day. Here's the two of them on a wrestling time-out:She had her first Halloween (dressed as a chicken, which lasted about 15 seconds):We got engaged and she was so excited for us!!!
Her first Christmas, she got totally spoiled and got a ton of presents, but mainly seemed more interested in eating the wrapping paper. (It took us about 10 tries and half a bag of treats to get this shot!!)

So Happy 1st Birthday Spencer! We can't wait to see what the next year brings...we love our sweet puppy!!Her typical Sunday afternoon - lounging in the sun!!