Dougan & Gracie

Let me introduce to you Dougan and Gracie. This is Gracie (AKA "Pretty Girl"). She is a 6 1/2 year old black lab. We first got her when she was about 8 weeks old. She was such a cute little puppy. Keith and I both grew up with dogs, but neither of us really knew how to train a puppy. That night, we set our alarm clock for every 1 1/2 hours to let her outside. Wow... that was a long night. In our case, it was harder than having both of our children home for the first night after having them! :) Gracie is extremely needy. She loves people, and she'll let you know when she's not getting enough attention. She'll whine or stick her face in your face, or use her snout to life up your arm if she wants to be pet. She is absolutely in love with Keith. Gracie is also very tollerent of Carsen. Carsen quite often will lay right on top of her to snuggle her. He loves her.

This is Dougan! (aka, "Big Duge") He is also 6 1/2. In fact, he's Gracie's litter-mate. A couple weeks after we got Gracie, we thought she would love a playmate. We called to see if any of her brothers or sisters were still available, and lo and behold, Dougan! Dougan was being held for a family member, and they had decided a day before we called that they didn't want a dog. Worked out great for us. Dougan is completely opposite from Gracie. He's very friendly, but not a people person. He spends most of his time in our room sleeping, away from everyone. Carsen also loves Dougan, but can't usually get to him fast enough to snuggle. Dougan shoots out of the room b/c he knows what's coming, and he is NOT a snuggler! In this picture, I think Dougan was trying to hide under the couch b/c he didn't want his photo taken with this necklace I put on him. We had Dougan and Gracie before we had kids, and I'm glad we did. They were completely spoiled. They slept on our bed. They went on vacation with us. They did everything with us. Until we had kids... then their lives completely changed. I still think they're completely spoiled, but not like before. They now sleep on our floor, and stay with grandma & grandpa when we go on vacation. Not only do they have eachother to play with, but they also have a couple of other canine friends that live in the neighborhood who they get to play and walk with. They even have a cousin named Buster who lives across town!!

Eventhough I often get annoyed with the hair on our floor (eventhough I vacuum every other day!!) and their stinky breath, I still love them and am glad we have them. So there you have it... you've officially been introduced to the whole Kramer clan now! :)