Mann Family Adventures: First Blog Post

A friend showed me his blog the other day that he uses as a way to keep friends and family updated on their newborn child. I thought that this might be a convenient and easy way to keep everyone updated on our busy lives and maybe have a little fun at the same time.

Since much of our free time right now is being spent training and playing with our new dog, Mocha, I thought that it would be an appropriate first post topic. She is 14 wks old now and we have had her for about 6wks. She is a miniature Australian Shepherd. She is proving to be an intelligent dog and I think she will be a good family pet for many years to come.

Over the 4th of July weekend our girls were at Grandma and Grandpa's house so I drove to LeMars, IA and picked the dog out and then we surprised them with it the next day. They were excited to say the least. I don't think their smiles disappeared for a week.

It was a hard decision to get another dog. Our last dog, Boomer, died about 2 yrs ago and we just have not been able to bring ourselves to get another dog. Boomer was about 14 when he died, for many years he was like a surogate child to us. I work in the petfood industry and we often talk about the humanization of pets - well we definitely considered Boomer a member of our family. However, I felt like I was letting my emotions get in the way of our 2 children, Madison and Kiersten, growing up with a pet so we decided to take the plunge. At this point all I can say is house training sucks - but she is slowly getting the hang of things now at 14wks old.

I think that Madison is extremely anxious to start puppy training classes. She seems to have a gift with animals so we are going to let her take Mocha through puppy training classes and then some agility classes (I think she is really excited about that).

Here is a picture of Boomer in 2004 - RIP.