Our new son... 4-legged son, that is!!!

Meet our newest family member, Tobias ~ "Toby"
Christmas came a bit early in our household!
This handsome 10 month-old German Shepherd is our big family gift!

We adopted him on Monday, November 28th and, because everyone in our home has a lot of nicknames, he is already being lovingly called Tobster, TobyBoy and BigBoy. (BigBoy is fitting... he is going to be huge when he fills out!) He has also already earned a very special place in the hearts of our entire family.

He was a surprise to the kids - - neither of them had any idea that John and I had met him the week before. They had no idea we were even considering getting another dog... and we hadn't been until late October when, on duty, John rescued a female shepherd on the freeway. That event sparked a lot of dialogue between us about whether we were emotionally ready to get another dog (we lost Sophie nine months ago) and whether we wanted that responsibility with a baby joining our family in less than three months. We all miss Sophie terribly - - she is often the first thing Preston talks about in the mornings. And, while we will always miss her, we also have never lived without a family dog and that void was starting to feel ready to fill.

Some might think we are crazy getting a dog right before we are about to have a baby. Maybe we are. But, for us, it makes a lot more sense to get into a good routine with a dog now and bring our baby boy home to a pet than to try and get one later on.   I'd rather do the work now than with a newborn or toddler running around.   Granted, we didn't necessarily plan on a puppy, but we didn't plan on Tobias either.

At the point we started seriously talking about getting a dog for our family, I searched the Internet for the right type of rescue shelter that would be able to find us a good match (Sophie was a rescue dog, too).  When I found Westside German Shepherd Rescue, I couldn't have anticipated how great of a job they'd do.   I completed the application and let them know about a few females we were interested in, as that's all we were considering. (John and I have only had female dogs and had no interest in getting a male.)   When one of their foster families called about a young female we were interested in, she told me about a few of their dogs, asked me some questions and answered mine. Then she mentioned a male nine month-old pup that they had who, in her opinion, sounded like a great match for our family. I explained we were interested in getting a female.

Two weeks later (after one failed attempt to their home due to horrendous traffic) John and I met the foster family (nicest people... a wonderful family) and several of the dogs they were fostering. Midway through introducing us to the females they had, the foster "mom" asked if we'd like to meet Tobias, the male she mentioned to me on the phone. (I had told John about our conversation and we had looked him up on the shelter's site, but still were not into the idea of a male.) We met him... and instantly clicked, despite our hesitation.   They brought out the rest of the females and, before we left, we saw Tobias one more time. He was sweet, smart, easy on the leash, gently took the ball from John's hand multiple times, sat for us, laid down, played and all signs, including the instant bond we felt, pointed to him being a great fit... but we still weren't sure about having a boy. 

The drive home was quiet, we were both deep in thought and felt silly for not being certain just because of his gender.   (Those of you who we texted, called and emailed about this subject matter... thank you for your input!)  By that evening, we knew we wanted to bring him home, but we needed to wait until John had a few days off in a row in order to help him acclimate to our family as a unit. So, on Monday, unbeknownst to either of the kids, we went to pick up our four-legged son.

This is Preston, in the car, not yet knowing what we are doing other than "running errands."

The sound isn't great on here, but his reaction is clear and priceless!
And, as I anticipated, he was super happy that the boys will now be taking a 4-2 lead!

When we got Toby in the car, he was nervous... and so were we.  There are no guarantees in this process.  But we were also excited and so happy.  About halfway home, he scratched at his crate door and let us know he needed us to stop so he could go potty.  Such a good boy!

The boys... playing ball and bonding.

Gracie's first encounter with Toby. 
She was so happy to see him and was laughing and signing "dog."
We had hoped to surprise both kids together, but it just didn't work out with school schedules.  
Preston was sweet during the car ride, at one point saying that he was sad Gracie couldn't be with us to pick him up. (Considering it was close to three hours  total in the car, it worked out better for her!) 

A welcome gift from our sweet next door neighbors... well, from their one year-old lab!

John bonding with Tobias on his first full day with us!

There are no words to describe how happy this made us.
This was Toby's second night home and Gracie laid with him for about 45 minutes.  She was so happy to cuddle up to him (and invade his space multiple times!).  He was such a good sport and just took it!  Toby clearly senses how special Gracie is and that only made us realize how special he is, too.
Such a good boy.

We are, at this point, just shy of four days with Toby and are still very much in the "getting to know each other" stage. He definitely has some puppy behaviours - - he loves getting paper towels out of the trash can and he likes to sneak shoes that aren't in the baskets or certain toys from either of the kids' rooms (so far only in the mornings!). The good news is, he is easily redirected when we correct him and give him one of his own toys. He likes to explore, so he definitely cannot be trusted off leash in the front yard. He is smart, gentle natured yet protective, great with the kids, house trained, crate trained, a great sleeper at night and getting more and more cuddly and affectionate with us each day. John and I are so happy we made this decision for our growing family.