the story of ginger

as of around noon today, we have a new family member!

meet ginger!

ginger is an approximately 10 year old yellow lab who came into our lives quite suddenly. she is a beautiful girl. very energetic and agile for her age. she is super well-behaved, friendly, loves everyone, and would chase a tennis ball all day long if you kept throwing it.

yesterday, ginger lost her person. our sweet, elderly, bachelor neighbor, george, passed away yesterday morning. ginger had been with george for about the last two years, after he lost his dog, babe. before coming to live with george, she had a family and a lake and space to run. but they had to move into the city. and that is how she came to live here, and be neighbors with us.

so now ginger found herself without a person. george’s closest neighbors were wondering what to do about her. he has no close family, and they both have dogs of their own already. and well, as we have been very much without a dog since we lost sophie last june, it just seemed like the perfect match. we needed a dog, she needed a family.

needless to say, ginger is a little confused, and I’m sure she will try to head ‘home’ more than once. but for now, she seems to be settling in pretty nicely. and we are definitely smitten with her. she is just so sweet!

her collar had george’s phone number on it, so we took her down to the store today and picked out a new collar and leash (pink! layla’s choice.), and made her a tag with our phone numbers on it. I guess she’s officially ours!

a 10 year old dog was not really on our radar. it’s only recently that I’ve felt like I was ready for another dog. watching sophie go downhill and eventually knowing it was time to put her down was so hard, and still pretty fresh. it hurts my heart to think about. but we all really wanted a dog. we’ve been searching shelter websites periodically, and even inquired about a pair of lab siblings once. we also had thought of embracing our city’s tradition and getting a bassett hound. but we were looking for a young dog. NOT a puppy. been there, done that. I like my shoes! maybe once the kids are all grown up, I MIGHT be ready for that again. but we figured we wanted a dog that we could have for a long time. maybe around a year or two old… I prayed that God would help us find the right dog for our family. a dog that needed us as much as we needed it.

once again, God knew best.

I emailed a picture of her to my mom earlier today. apparently my parents are very excited about this too, because I got a call later this evening, asking if they could stop by and meet their newest granddaughter!

so cute. I’m so excited to have a dog again. to see how this unexpected journey unfolds. our whole neighborhood is going to miss george a lot, I just hope we can give ginger a happy life.