Sundae By: Karen Pilarski

I have never been an animal lover. Cats weird me out and dogs sniff and urinate everywhere. My husband and I discussed how it would be nice to have a dog. My stepdaughter and I had our hearts set on a cat. However, my husband had other plans.

Sundae, our puppy.

The past two weeks we have been looking at the local humane society website. We even took a few trips there. We couldn't find the right dog for us. My husband's ex mother-in-law had a good friend who owned a local licensed pet store. On a whim last Sunday, we decided to go.

My stepdaughter loved the puppies. The store keeper showed us some puppies and put a border collie in a pen. She was eight weeks and clever. White snowy fur with splotches of black on her mane. She was able to climb out of the pen.

She wasn't yapping like the other dogs. She was quiet, focused and cunning. My husband fell in love right away.

Since it was Sunday and her fur reminded me of the sweet ice cream treat, I christened her "Sundae."

We decided to get her. She was content sitting on my stepdaughter's lap in the car. She kept jumping up in her arms in Petco. Sundae hardly barked or whimpered.

Sundae adored the pink stingray squeak toy I picked out for her.  I call it her 'baby.' She loves playing keep away with me.

She is sweet and rolls on her back for her brown spotted belly to be rubbed.

She has been like having a new baby. My husband and I worry about what she is doing and making sure she is eating, going to the bathroom and feeling happy. Sundae has had me outside for hours playing with her after work.

I'm not a patient person. It is a huge downfall I own. Put me with a sassy and hyper puppy and my patience is tested. She is like a toddler. Full of curiosity about her new world and eager to take in all the scents, noises and sensations. Her delicate soft paws feeling the matted down grass and hard sidewalk for the first time.

I love this pup but she is still a baby. She has occasional accidents in the house and in the van. She chews and jumps on furniture. 

Sundae does some goofy things. She has managed to figure out how to escape through the small gap between the fences. She drags her dish around almost like someone banging a tin can on a jail cell.

When tuckered out in her kennel, she lets out a tiny snore. I'm so happy I'm not the only gal in the house who is sawing wood during a deep slumber.

My husband and I seem to focus our conversations around Sundae. It takes me back to when I first became a stepmother. He used to call me and ask how the kids were behaving. Suddenly I'm overcome with wishing the kids were small again. Sundae is our 'baby.'

Boy she can be strange. She eats ants and on occasion her own fecal matter. Sundae has a Napoleon complex. She is a gruff and tough for a pipsqueak.  She has a soft growl when approaching big dogs around the neighborhood. I laugh as she lets out a faint  barking sound,"Arrrf,"

I say she is a writer's goldmine because she does the funniest things. I joke she should have been called Marley from "Marley and Me."

So we have made it out alive after a week. I can't wait to blog more about our new found addition to the family.