Homer – 6 months old

We added Homer to our family on June 8th after I found him on the Petfinder app. Homer and his two brothers (the three dogs were “named” Glorious, Notorious, and Victorious for adoption purposes) were found on the side of the road malnourished and had worms. Tails of Hope nursed them to health and thought they were about 12 weeks old. At his first check up, our vet thought he was more like 10 weeks old, so we’ve gone with that time frame. So, at this point, he must be about six months old. It has been a long time since we’d had a puppy and last time we did, I didn’t have two kids. So, Homer is a sweet addition to our home, but he is a bundle of energy. We had a fun summer with him, so the timing was just perfect to get him when we did.

Milestones/Phases

Amazingly, getting him house broken wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be! That actually didn’t take too long. We have one of those strings of bells by the back door, and he does jingle them when he wants to go outside. During the early puppy phase, he thought they were a toy and would shake them with all of his might. Luckily, he didn’t have any problems being in his kennel and sleeping through the night (as I think he was so used to doing so at the rescue)

While he still steals your shoe, or will find a stuffed animal under the bed, he thankfully has quit drinking out of the toilet, chewing on random things (like my coffee table), and getting into the trash can. Unfortunately, he continues to put both paws on the kitchen counter quite often, so we have to stay on top of him and push all food to the center of the island if we don’t want to him to get it.

“Hobbies”

I feel like with each passing month, he’s doing something else that’s funny or a way to get our attention. Some of the funny things he’s done include: biting and chasing his tail, trying to catch lightning bugs throughout the summer, chewing his way through multiple pairs of flip flops, standing on the open dishwasher door, licking the dishes in the dishwasher, UNLOCKING his kennel while he’s inside, stealing food off of the counter, licking the lotion off my legs, chewing on an orange marker and getting it on his paws (& my couch! 😳), running full speed at you when he jumps on the couch…and this morning took a Poptart right out of the cabinet and tried to devour it before we could get it from him! #neveradullmoment

He also barks at almost any food that he sees. I guess he thinks he has a right to any and all food that anyone has.

Real talk: there are moments in the day that he drives me crazy…but it’s mostly because his energy is high right around the time I’m begging my own kids to go to bed! Also, if Hayden didn’t bounce a ball all throughout the house multiple times a day, maybe Homer would have the chance to be a little bit more chill. 🙂

Nicknames

Homer has accumulated many nicknames. He definitely knows his name, so I don’t think we are confusing him with our many terms of endearment. The kids tend to call him Homie (and then Homer when he’s doing something he shouldn’t be!), but Hayden also calls him Sweet Cheeks. haha. I tend to call him Homes, Sweets, and Pooks (Pookie). I guess we all just love him so much that we call him whatever affectionate name we like at the time.

Love his heart

He is so sweet (especially when he’s tired 😉 ) I love the mornings with him as I get up before the others, and he sits by me on the couch (at this point, I’ve given up telling him to get off the couch #choosingmybattles ) and I will hand you a lint roller if you sit on our couch. 😉

In the morning, he also follows me into each kid’s room when I wake them up. He usually sits on Hadley’s rug on her floor until she gets up. At night, Hadley shuts her door, so he doesn’t go in there but he usually ends up on Hayden’s rug for a bit until Hayden goes to sleep. It’s very sweet. Although, he hops all over them and can be a handful, I know he’s a sweet tempered dog who loves the kids.

He’s been a perfect addition to our family as our hearts (especially mine, I think) needed help healing after losing Shiloh and Scout within a year of each other. When I think of everything Shiloh and Scout helped me (and our family) through with their unconditional love and sweet support, it’s good for my soul to know Homer can be there for us too during the ups and downs of life. After Scout died, my dad said what a good dog he was and “He was great with the kids. Pets never let you down. Something that can’t be said about humans.” That seems to be ringing true with Homer as well.

This is our first rescue experience, and I’ve had a few friends who’ve adopted dogs say that rescue dogs know the owner saved them. Therefore, there’s a special bond and love because they know their lives could have been very difficult if someone didn’t rescue them. I hope that’s true. I feel like he wants to be around us all the time (Shiloh was so sweet but good on her own–didn’t really need much attention and Scout was as loyal as they come). I see a mix of both Shiloh and Scout in Homer, and I hope he knows what he means to us. He certainly has our heart (and sometimes my sanity!).