When my hub and I got married, back in June 2004, we received the sweetest wedding gift: our sweet puppy, a miniature yorkie we named Cooper. He lived 16 years but sadly passed away in July 2020. We knew we needed a break from owning a dog, both to let our hearts heal and also...just to have a break from owning a dog - ha! We told our kids we would wait two years and then would consider getting another dog.
They have been patiently waiting but started begging for a new dog many months ago. We insistently and steadfastly told them, "No! No more heartbeats in our house right now!"...but a few months ago, my hub and I began secretly discussing adding to our brood.
This time around, we knew we wanted a big dog; a family friendly dog; a loyal dog; a smart dog; a trainable dog; and so, we narrowed it down to either a labrador retriever (which I grew up having) or a golden retriever. Ultimately...we decided on the latter, and so our top secret hunt began, specifically in search of a purebred, male, golden retriever puppy who would be eight weeks old (and thus, available to be brought home) the week of Christmas. After a couple months of inquiries, we finally found our boy.
He was one of nine in his litter, and I secretly drove the hour away back in November to choose him from his litter, when he was just two weeks old. I was smitten, and I have never wanted Christmas to arrive so badly!
We decided we would surprise the kids on Christmas Eve; so, that morning, we hired a sitter, telling the kids we had some last minute Christmas errands to run, and away we went to pick up our boy. Up until then, the sweet owners had been clandestinely sending us pics of our little buddy through the weeks.
We picked him up, drove the hour back home, put him in the open top box I had wrapped the night before, and headed into our backyard, where our sitter had our kiddos waiting. I will NEVER forget their reactions. I caught it all on a video I will treasure forever, but here are some sweet still shots and posed shots of them meeting the sweetest little surprise of their lives:
Oh, and his name! It was so funny because, on the way home from picking him up, my hub and I were throwing around name ideas and he suggested Tyson. I loved it immediately: giving him this tough name (a la Mike Tyson) but seeing his precious little face. Still, though, we wanted the kids to have the final say. So, within 30 secons of us throwing around names with them, my hub again suggested Tyson and everyone immediately loved it. WHAT?! No debate at all? Okay then. Done deal! And because our pup is a Southern gent, I suggested Beau as his middle name and that was it: Tyson Beau.
