"Greetings"

I always told my husband that if we ever had a Boston terrier I would want to name him Greetings... because they look like little aliens.

But when our son shouted out "Panda Bear!" when he saw the puppy, we decided to go with that instead.

So, Greetings from Panda Bear (Panda for short).

Panda is 8 weeks old and we got him from a family who took him in Thanksgiving night. So they gave him four days before deciding they weren't ready for a puppy. He's actually a good puppy, but they have 4 kids including a 7-month-old, and they weren't planning to get a puppy anyway. It was a spur of the moment thing for them and he is kinda spazzy, so they decided to find a new home for him.

Enter me!

I saw an online classified ad while my husband was returning the boxer who didn't work out. Short story shorter, we went to see him the next night and brought him home.

I've wanted a Boston terrier for a long time, so I am so excited. But as puppies are, he's a handful. He's got energy like I've only seen in one other place:

That's our other dog, Ruby. She's a boxer. Boxers are very athletic and energetic, but our dog makes other boxer owners' jaws drop with her feats of athleticism and misbehavior.

So I've got my hands full, to say the least. But it's not that bad, and we expect some craziness while Panda is a puppy. Right now it's chaos for about 20 minutes at a time and then quiet for a couple hours while Panda sleeps. And then they repeat the routine.

We learned our lesson with Ruby's puppyhood (she's almost 6 years old), and we will be much better with training Panda to be a good, well-adjusted dog. Don't tell the Dog Whisperer I said this, but I think Ruby is a lost cause at this point. She's very sweet and calm most of the day, but when she's around other people she's nuts. She'll calm down after about 15 minutes, but she usually doesn't get that long to prove herself.

All the craziness aside, we're really happy with Panda. I feel like we have a big animal family again. He's a very sweet puppy and my son really loves him. Even though he reminds me of: