We have wanted to have a dog for a long time. Even before this home, we were talking about it — but we lived in city apartments for years and knew we were going to relocate so it never felt like the right time. The past few months up here we interviewed and became approved adopters with several rescue and adoption agencies in upstate New York, and last month, on Sept. 19th, we met this adorable pup at an event close to our house. Three days later, on Sept 22 — the first full day of Fall — we brought him home and its been a busy, fun, sleepless journey since then. Honestly, it has not been too bad with the lack of sleep — just mornings that begin earlier than usual, but we are morning folks anyway. Spruce just makes them start a tad earlier, and sometimes he does let us go back to sleep for a bit longer after the first break outside. Thank goodness he is potty trained — he is only 4 months old this week — but he knows when its time to go, and that it always needs to happen outside. That is a huge relief, as we do have other things to work on — commands, playing, too much obsession with treats — these are all tasks we need some help with. And we have a trainer coming next week, really to train us more than him! But overall, this sweet guy is really well behaved, calm, chill and does very good in the car too. We don’t know what breeds he is but we know he is a mix and we are betting he is half pointer. We will take a DNA test soon to find out — his name seems appropriate because all he likes to do it pick up twigs and tree branches! We let him walk with them in his mouth but make sure he doesn’t bite on anything for too long…he even lets me go in and grab them out of his mouth when he is having trouble chewing on them. Sometimes he will try to bite a little, but super playful and a lot more licking instead. He also roams around fields of Christmas trees, and plays in the shadow of some large Norway spruce trees near our driveway, so the name seems to fit. Mark and I came up with it a long time ago, joking about how fans say Brrrrruuuuucccceee at a Springsteen concert, and we thought it would be fun to do similar with a dog. And now here we are, with a pup who still does not know his name yet, but is learning and gaining smarts and skills each day. He doesn’t know “sit” very well, but he does know “stay”, and we are working on fetching or giving, but cute little guy, he just does not get it yet. No matter, he is adorable and full of love, curiosity and wonder, and that brings us much joy, no matter how tired we may be come days end.

Welcome to the homestead Spruce!