Ten Things Thursday-Wyatt Birthday Edition

Yes, yes. This little post is going to be mostly all about Mr. Spoiledpants Wyatt, all because he has turned another glorious year older!! On April 7th, Wyatt turned the mature age of 5!!! Such an old man!! And yes, Wyatt and I have the same birthday! It was fate I tell you.

(I would have gotten this done earlier, but work has been a suckhole from Satan's shitter, and I've had to spent my entire time this week trying.....and failing.....to make the high and mighty management cry tears of joy from all the great work I do for them. But, nope, they continue to hate life and blame me for all their problems. Stupid employment. Why oh why didn't I win the mega millions???? WHY!?!?!?!)

Moving on.

So here's my Ten Things!
(And Cat, try not to squeal too loudly when you see this!! lol Wouldn't want Robyn to think you've lost your marbles or anything.)

1. When Ryan and I finally moved in together, we both had one thing on our minds. Get your minds out of the gutter! Shame shame! We wanted a puppy!! We both grew up with dogs and knew that our lives wouldn't be complete unless we had a little furry bundle of joy running underneath our legs.

So the hunt began.

We knew we wanted a yellow lab, and Ryan wanted it to hopefully be bread for hunting birdies, so first thing we did was go to all the hunting/sporting goods stores to scour the bulletin boards for new batches of pups. Unfortunately, the pickings we're pretty slim. There were a lot of black labs, but hardly any yellow. We did find one breeder, but their pups were about 6 months old already and we really wanted one younger than that.

The search continued. After a few weeks of no luck, we decided that we didn't want to wait till next year to get a puppy, we wanted one NOW. We started to be more open to different colors of labs. We found another breeder that had 2 black pups left, and they were about 3 months old, so we decided that we'd at least go look at them and see. Once we pulled up, we started talking to the guy and said how we really wanted a yellow, but just couldn't find one anywhere.

That's when the heaven's opened up and Fate graced us with her presence.

The guy said, "Well, I've still got one yellow lab left. I haven't advertised for him, because someone already put a deposit on him, but I've tried to contact that guy and he hasn't answered. I was going to wait another week before advertising on him, but if you guys would like to see him, I can bring him out."

WHAT?!?! YOU HAVE A YELLOW?!?!

Thank you baby Jesus!

The breeder went into the house and brought out the cutest little puppy I'd ever seen! He wasn't too sure about us at first and just tentatively walked around the yard. Then, slowly he came around and we got to cuddle and play and pet. Both Ryan and I were goners.

When we took him home it was a rainy afternoon in early July, he sat in my lap the whole way, crying and whining. It was so sad, but so cute at the same time.Once home, we went through all his papers, and that's when I found his birth date on papers.....April 7th?!?! It was just meant to be!

Ryan and I already had picked out a name. Ryan had always wanted to name his dog Wyatt after Wyatt Earp. Well, I had already had a dog named Wyatt Earp way back in early college (that had already passed away). Despite 'our' Wyatt not being the first 'Wyatt' in the family, we still decided to name him what we wanted. But instead of his middle name being 'Earp', I did a little research and found out that the human Wyatt Earp's original name was Wyatt Stapp. He changed it later in life. So we went with Wyatt Stapp Wiksten for our little guy.

Here is our greatest joy, on his first day home:

Just a little guy!

With big ol' paws! (Wyatt, not Ryan.)

(BTW, he's not potty-ing, even though it looks like it in this pic, that's a stain on the floor. He's just leaning over to sniff the shoe weird.)

So handsome!

2.  Wyatt quickly became the center of our universe. Shocking, I know.

Seriously, paws! What are you part bear?!

 

Ahhhhhhhh

3.  We eventually took him to the farm to see his skeeeeeeels in the hunting department.

Big smiles! Happy dog!

He wasn't too interested in training to find the birdies, but he loved the endless fields to run and jump and play and burn off all that puppy energy!

4.  And we all know who his favorite parent is:

Wow. Great picture of myself. I should be a model. Christ.

5.  This is one of my all time favorite pictures! I came in from the outside and found this when I walked in the door:

Both my boys.......pooped.

6.  And of course, us being lake people, we had to take him to the lake:

Such a good boat doggie.

 We quickly found out that the 'F' word is his FAVORITE game in the whole wide world. The 'F' being F-E-T-C-H. Shhhhh, don't say it out loud, he goes ballistic.

7.  We even introduced him to new friends:

Yes, Jess and Lindsay, that's Tucker and Scout tackling our baby.

And they soon became BFFs!

8.  Eventually he grew big enough to go out with 'Dad' and earn his keep:

But, he also liked to try other forms of exercise:

So proud.

And he loves his little kong ball:

9.  But he also is a goofball:

A big goofball. Little turd.

10. Getting Wyatt was the best thing that's ever happened in Ryan and I's lives. Well, besides getting married and all. He is our 'child', our love, and our favorite thing about coming home. He's been the absolute best dog I've ever had. I know people say that all the time, but it's true. He's never had 'accidents' in the house, doesn't dig, jump fences, chews up the furniture, or anything. He's mild mannered, calm, and very lovey. We try to cuddle in bed at least once a week, and he nuzzles into my side and we spoon. Don't hate. He's super smart and has learned all his 'tricks' very fast. He gets the Sunday paper for us every week, he can sit, lay down, and shake on command. The only thing that's a little tricky is the 'stay' for him. But it's just because he's so antsy to be right next to you! Or to fetch his favorite toy.

I have decided that Wyatt is going to live as long as I do. So, I can't wait to spend another 60 years with him!

To my puppy: Happy Belated Birthday!!!! I love you!!!!

"Moooooooom, you're embarrassing me!"

That's what Mom's do puppy, it's what we do.