Meet …. Willson
“Wake up and be ready in 15 minutes, Dad and I have a surprise for you!” Carter and Nora slowly and willingly got themselves ready to leave the house on a cold, rainy Saturday. As we drove, Nora peppered us with questions. The adventure was a mere 25 minutes from our house. We pulled into Ruby’s Rescue, a farm in the middle of country land just south of our home, when Carter realized we what we were doing. A dog! Confirming, we were in fact visiting a dog, the whole gang got zipped up and hopped out.
Nora almost immediately went into freeze mode. The rescue building was loud with barking dogs which overwhelmed Nora’s nervous system. Co-parenting without words, Justin stood with Nora and assisted in her co-regulation. She tried, she really did. Nora and Carter both gravitated towards the smaller pups on right side. They didn’t know we were there to see a specific pup who was a 2 year old Aussie. Rescue workers noticed how overwhelmed Nora was and offered to let us take the pup outside even though it was freezing and raining. As heart-braking as it was to leave the rescue without a pup, we left with much more than intended - vital information on how to move our family forward welcoming a dog home.
Riding home was extremely quiet. Carter cried, silently and with no explanation. Nora voiced “It just made me think of Elvis.” After arriving home, each of us processed such an important experience. Carter voiced that he really wanted a small dog. Nora shared that she really wanted to raise a dog from the puppy stages. Adding to our family was important to me as I saw how therapeutic it had been to have Elvis in our lives throughout our fostering journey. So, our job was to listen!
Justin researched small dogs and landed on French Bulldogs. Happy to lounge, everyone’s best friend, and highly adaptable are just a few of the personality traits described by AKC for this breed. As some dreams do, this came to a screeching halt when we discovered french bulldogs were locally sold for over five grand. Unless there was a money tree in the back yard I was unaware of, Lord knows we were not paying that much money. Back to the drawing board we went when just a few days later a text from a friend showed a few small pups available for a much more reasonable price by a local breeder and doggie daycare owner. By the end of the week we would have met and welcomed home, Willson The Froodle or other wise known as a French Bulldog and Poodle mix.
Willson the Froodle.
