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We are proud to introduce you to our new boy Fin!
Fin is a Black Lab; he was born on March 21, 2011 to a liter
produced by Mary & Keith. They are grandparents to Lila’s good friend
Claire, and our friends Windy & Almik. I had called Windy to ask if
she could watch Lila when we took Mugsley in, but she was with Keith & Mary
in Spokane. She shared with them of our multiple losses and they wanted
us to have Fin (he was Ronny to them). He is a purebred (the first ever
in the Suchsland home) though he does have a shorter bottom jaw so has a little
special need, or uniqueness as I like to think of it. His named comes
from “Finian” which was the name of a favored priest of John’s from
childhood. It was also a name that John and I had talked about long ago
for a dog. The girls and I really liked Fin because Labs are swimming
dogs so we are honoring his swimming heritage. We had just begun actively starting to look for a new
dog. I was actually literally in an active email conversation with a
woman regarding a dog we were interested in on Pet Finder, when Windy’s text
came through with the offer from her in-laws. As a family we talked about it,
prayed about, questioned our Lab owning friends, about their thoughts of Lab
ownership, and made the decision to accept him. It felt right, like a
cosmic connection to our other boys who were such a special part of our
lives! We are so thrilled we did, Fin is a little joy. The cats are
learning their new brother, Fin really wishes they liked him more so they would
play rather than just be meanies to him. All in time ~maybe… We then began trying to figure out how to get him home from
the east side of the state, a wonderful opportunity presented itself last
weekend. John was down in CA with his family at a memorial for his
mother, and the girls and I were at the great Wolf Lodge in Chehalis, WA for a
Girl Scout event. I talked it over with the girls how neat it would be
for John to find Fin home when he got home; they were excited to be able to surprise
their Dad! Mary & Keith were willing to meet us Sunday afternoon, so
the girls and I embarked on a “road trip” home via Quincy, WA. We got to
meet Mary & Keith as well as Fin’s parents Molly & Cooper. It was
very special! John was quite surprised to find our new boy home and
waiting to meet him. The girls and I were thrilled we had pulled the
surprise off! Fin is settling right in to our family, it feels so right
to have a dog in our home again! He is so cute, and eager to please.
He is walking on a leash, and fetching his toys. It is SO CUTE to watch
his gangly body run after a ball, and trot it back. (Yes, he can already do
that!) (Someone please take note and remind me of this after he eats my
favorite shoe because I was too lazy to pick it up – LOL!) If you would
like to meet him let me know, I’m such a proud Dog Mama! We are excited to have him blending right into our
family. We took him in to see our Vet Dr. Williams at Parker Way
Veterinarian Clinic, yesterday for a traveling well doggy certificate.
Plus, of course we were interested in his jaw. I had noticed that his
left bottom canine was behind the top canine, as we expected given his short
bottom jaw, but the right side bottom canine had hooked in and was digging into
the gum line of front of the top canine. When we talked about this with
Dr. Williams and he examined Fin he noticed that his jaw was starting to cross
in tension, and reported that this would only get more sever if left
un-treated. The solution was that Fin had his bottom baby canines pulled
to give his jaw the ability to grow without the tension; we will have to keep a
close eye on what happens as his adult teeth grow in at 5 to 7 months. We had
initially planned to have him spayed at four months, but after discussing this
Dr. Williams he thought we should do both operations at once to reduce the
trauma for him. He reports that the major side effect of neutering a male
dog this young is that he will always squat to urinate. (So please don’t let
your dog tease him at the park!) He also said that studies show that some dogs
are a little taller as the hormone release at puberty triggers the brain to put
a stop to the bone growth plates. He said that he does not really see
this in his experience, though he advised us to be cautious and get him large
breed puppy food as that will help him grow with the vitamin and mineral needs
but without the calorie bulk that regular puppy food has. Fin went in
this morning for his surgery. I picked him up this afternoon and he is
doing great! Fin will get his own portrait soon, but right now I will
share my favorite photos of him that Mary and Keith sent us. Thanks for reading and sharing in our joy, My Best, Lisa | 
