la la la la lola

Perro has a name: Lola! We wanted something feminine for her, but we wanted to avoid anything too precious or cute since she's such a spunky girl. Lola just seemed to fit her (we tried it out all day today). We were also strongly considering Piper, but she didn't seem to respond to that as well as she did to Lola.

It took a little while for Kevin and I to come up with a name we could both agree on - he wanted Tater (as in short for Potato), and I wanted Franny (as in a tribute to our love for San Francisco). Here are some other names we considered:

Tarra (because she's black, like tar, and it was the name of one of my Grandpa Bill's black labs)
Lottie (I enjoy the idea of me calling out "Looooottie!")
Jules (a tribute to our street, Juliet)
Luna (Spanish for "moon")
Charley (as in Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley")
Tilly
Zooey
Bella (Kevin vetoed it on the grounds that it's too Twilighty)
Tess

Lots of good names, so I guess we'll just have to keep getting dogs until we get to use them all.

Right now Kevin and I are watching "The Biggest Loser" and Lola is asleep on the rug at our feet. She is totally tuckered out after a full day of playing and long walks. I woke up at 6:30am today to let her out and to play with her in yard for a bit, then Kev fed her breakfast and took her on a 15-minute walk before he left for work. She spent about 2.5 hours in her crate after Kevin left for work (while I caught up on sleep), and then she spent the afternoon hanging out with me at home. We went out to the yard and played crazy games of fetch and "chase" (she loves to be chased) all afternoon, and Kev came home for lunch and played with her for a while. When Kev got home from work this evening, we met up with our friend Emily (at her house just a few blocks away), and then the four of us (plus baby Guac - in Em's belly!) went for a 2.5 mile walk in the neighborhood. On our walk, we happened to meet a lady, and her dog Ginger (a seven-month old German shepherd), who is on the board of the St. Paul Animal Humane Society, and who knew all about the best doggy training classes (Ginger, also an adopted dog, was impressively well-behaved). Lola loved getting a little crazy with Ginger. We rounded out the day with a trip to PETCO for some more puppy-proof chew toys (the stuffed fleece toy I bought yesterday was toast in about 45 seconds), and then it was one last bout of playing in the yard.

No wonder she's sound asleep now. It's been a very full first day for our little pup (and for her owners)! Here's a cute video of Lola and me playing today.

Can you tell we're really enjoying life with a dog?