Happy Birthday, Clover!

This is a day late, and I'm sorry, Clo. I got caught up with work yesterday and failed to post this. So here is Clover's 1st birthday post, 1 day late:

Today is a very special day. It’s the littlest Kingston’s first birthday! We decided we wanted another puppy around July of last year, but knew that the timing of the wedding would make getting a new puppy difficult (they have to be 4 months old and vaccinated with rabies to be boarded). We decided to wait to bring our new pup home after the wedding, but that didn’t stop the excitement from building. Dan chose the name Clover long before we ever met her. She would be our wedding gift to each other, and her name symbolized the luckiness we felt in marrying each other.

We went to see her for the first time on October 4th, 12 days before our wedding. She was one of two girls left in the litter, and we played with her and her sister. After her sister decided that laying on her back and kicking at leaves was far more interesting than we were, we had Clo all to ourselves. She played with Dan, using him as a jungle gym and giving him a lot of kisses. We fell in love with our little girl and couldn’t wait to bring her home two weeks later. It was very hard to leave her behind.

Two days after we were married, we brought her home. We brought Paisley to meet her new sister and we really weren’t surprised that Paisley wasn’t too impressed with such a shrimpy puppy. We put Clover’s brand new cupcake collar on her and took her to Dan’s parents’ house to meet her extended family. Everyone just loved our cuddly girl, and she had a blast running around and exploring. It was a very happy day for us.

Clover has been such a fun puppy to have around. Once just a speed bump for Paisley, they’re now the best of buddies. They play constantly and love on each other endlessly. She’s super smart – when we had Max staying with us, she figured out how to open the crate from the outside to free him on multiple occasions. When I order the girls to go to the big crate in the bed room at night, she tries to fool me and go to the little crate in the living room. She’ll sit very still inside it thinking I won’t notice she’s pulled one over on me. She’s not a cuddler like Paisley, unless of course she’s sleepy. Then she likes to curl up on the back of the couch and put her little head on my shoulder. She’s very good with her commands and leaves and drops objects when I tell her to. She loves to collect the biggest sticks and likes to hunt birds on our walks. She’ll get low to the ground like a little lion, flatten her ears and stalk them until she gets close enough (which is never actually close enough) to strike. She’s absolutely comical to watch about 95% of the time.

It’s been challenging at times since bringing her home, considering that our little smarty pants is still not house broken. But she is such a sweetie, and so stinking cute, that she’s forgiven and we love her so much. Our home just wouldn’t be the same without her. She’s our Clovie, our Bugga Boo, our little Birthday Girl.

Happy Birthday, Clover! We love you!
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We celebrated last night with a pupcake for the girls, and after a day of playing at PetsMart, Clover crashed out on Dan's lap. Dan was rubbing her ears and talking to her and she literally nodded off sitting straight up with her little head in Dan's hands. She's such a sweetie :)