Stafford Sanders

What a wonderful addition to our family! Nate and I were both very weary about adding a four legged creature to the brood. We have not had the best luck with pets in the past. First there was Porter a mutt puppy we adopted from the pound. He was a sweet enough puppy. After awhile we thought that maybe some time on Nate's parents farm would be good for Porter. He needed a lot of exercise and no matter how many walks Nate and I took him on, he was always hyper. Porter loved the wide open spaces a little too much and found another home. Then we had Grady the cat who also decided domestic living was not for her. She ran away from home shortly after we moved to our new house. So we basically swore off pets at this point. Then Jack got to be a certain age and really pushing for a dog. We just found out we were pregnant with Caroline and I told him it was going to be awhile. He continued to make mention of a dog and then got Ben to chime in too. In the past year Nate's traveling has really picked up and I was getting lonely at night and not sleeping well. So I started looking at breeds on the Internet. I knew the typical family dogs were out of the question. I wanted a pet the boys could take for walks themselves, so no labs or golden retrievers. It had to be a small dog that wouldn't shed. Our neighbors have a Bichon so we borrowed her one day. She was such a sweet dog and really good with Caroline. So after many, many conversations Nate and I agreed it was time to get a dog. So we told our elf Nick if Santa thought the kids deserved a dog, then we would be ok with it. Christmas morning came and our little white furball was under the tree. The kids LOVE him. We named him Stafford after the great Georgia quarterback. He is such a good dog. He is almost fully housebroken (For the record I potty trained the boys faster than this dog!). Bichons like to be with their owners as much as possible so after trying the crate one night, Stafford now sleeps with us. He sits at our feet while we eat and watch tv. Even when we play in the playroom, he is right there. He is such a sweet dog and we are so excited he is part of our family.