Welp, since I’m snowed in and need a break from editing, I figured now was the time to play around with some “newborn” puppy photos before these two triple in size soon. Meet the newest additions to our family, Jack and Penny. We are in love with these little rascals. For those of you who don’t know, they are German Shorthair Pointers. Brandon and I have admired this breed since the time we looked into adopting our very first fur baby back in 2002. At the time, we ended up settling on a lab, Kramer, who we recently had to put down due rapidly declining health which had been jeopardizing his quality of life. We still miss him terribly which is partially why we ruled out adopting another lab as we didn’t want the constant reminder or comparison of him. Our next breeds of choice were the Rhodesian Ridgeback and GSP. Since the Ridgeback’s very strong hunting instincts disqualified them from being good invisible fence candidates, we had to check them off our list too since we live on 3-acres and can’t put up a fence. That left us with the GSP. They are easy going, extremely lovable and don’t want to leave your side, excellent with kids, eager to learn, and ideal for the active outdoorsy family. This is generally my slower time of year with photography which is why we decided to pull the trigger now as opposed to waiting. Having two flexible home-based businesses, it made sense that I could tend to them when needed as they do require a lot of exercise and attention. They are bred with so many unique and beautiful color/patching/ticking combinations but we just went with two from a litter that was readily available. Two you ask? Yeah, that’s not something I was expecting either, lol. We went into it intending on only adopting one. We knew we’d pick a male and name him Jack, after Brandon’s sweet grandfather who passed away just last January at the age of 101. We also knew we’d want a second at some point down the road but then, when the entire litter crawled into Brandon’s lap and fell sound asleep, he leaned over and whispered, “I think we need a Penny too.” Penny was Brandon’s grandmother, Jack’s wife. They were one of the most loving and adorable couples I’ve ever met so it was only fitting we have our new pups named after them. Here’s the kicker! THE KIDS HAD NO IDEA! Total surprise. It was only Brandon and I at the initial visit. We’ve been talking a lot about getting a dog and the kids have been begging for months but we kept telling them we had to wait for just the right time and that we weren’t sure when that would be, if at all. We wanted to feel absolutely certain we were ALL up for the challenge and responsibilities since we are such a busy family and this is a higher energy breed. When it came time to pick them up, we told the kids we needed to go to a friend’s house to borrow some photography props and that we needed their help carrying some things into the car. We all walked in and, well, I’ll let the short video below reveal the sweet surprise. Enjoy! The first photo was taken the day we brought them home and then the rest only a week later so, you can see how quickly they’ve grown in such a short period of time already!
