Dear Steemians,
yes you read right- we got a puppy! The wait was long and everyday it got harder, but now our Labrador Puppy Neo, 8 weeks old, is here and he is named after Keanu Reeves‘ Character in The Matrix, almost named him Guts, after the Protagonist of the Anime Berserk from 1997.
I just love him so much already and can‘t believe how I couldn‘t live without him. I was giving him a little too much attention the first day, but I couldn‘t resist! I was kind of surprised how fast he learned the words sit and here, but the thing, that mattered the most today was ** his cuteness overload**! I know you have to give a lot of thought into having a pet like a dog. Do you have time, what if you want to travel, is work going to be in your way, how much will it cost, can you plan a life with a pet for the next 15 years? And I am really happy, we sort of filtered everything important out.
My family had pets, especially dogs before, but I was just a kid and I think more a playbuddy for our Belgian Shepherd dog Kelly, because she always only bit my shoes and I think didn‘t really listen to me?!:D It was more my sisters dog 
In Ulsan-Korea, my mother shares a farm with a few people and they have the cutest guard dog, named Gamdol! He is not intimidating at all, but totally laid back and super cute. It took me a day or two to gain his trust completely, because the owners think he was beaten by the pre-owners or something bad happened when he ate, so that he never took something out of your hand or ate something in front of you, but other then that he just followed his owner and layed down in the shadow. We drove almost everyday to the farm, when I was in Korea last October (2017). I just wanted to go and work on the farm to have a chance to see Gamdol and miss him so much!
Our neighbor in Germany had a Dalmation/Greyhound mix, called Fiene! I love this dog as well:D Our neighbor sadly wasn‘t at home that much, due to her job, so we had the keys to her apartment to kidnapp Fiene whenever we wanted or when she asked us to. This dog is so special! She is obsessed with gras and jumps like a kangaroo after it:D Super fast and energetic. Walking with her was a disaster though:D Still- she listed well, when we called for her, so I always felt safe and mostly she wanted to play frisbee on the field next to the river Mosel. Sadly for us, but great for Fiene, our neighbor moved in with her boyfriend while I was in Korea. So there is always someone there for her, but of course I offered help, if she ever needed it!
When we decided to welcome Neo to the family I was thrilled, but also a little panicked and immediately started to search for advice, books, podcasts and made a shopping list. We had more than 2 months time, so maybe I overdone it:D Sometimes the advice is a little overwhelming! So I would say, for beginners: it‘s always safe to be informed, but don‘t be obsessed with every little detail- I think it depends on every owner. We will try to be strict at the beginning, because we don‘t want to have the problems we had with other owners dogs we took care of. You just always get different views and advice. So what do we want? A chilled dog, that listens, doesn‘t pull while taking a walk and is social with other dogs if needed- a companion not a soldier, but it depends of course on the character of your dog and our Neo is already a cheerful, cuddly dog with a strong character:D We will concentrate on socializing Neo and getting him house-trained for now and just want to enjoy the time with him as he is still very dependent on us.
Here‘s a list of what we bought 3 weeks prior to Neo‘s arrival. I wouldn‘t recommend the nappy. Neo just bites the ends of, but we will see. It‘s just to be safe. The bowl from hunter is a little to small too, but we got a full refund from amazon and could keep it:D As for the collar, we just opted for a cheaper version from hunter, as he will grow out of it really fast. We also want to get a dog harness, but want to wait a little longer.
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I am so grateful to have a chance for a journey with Neo and am really excited to see him grow up:) Here are some photos from him starting from 2 weeks to 5 weeks old. It‘s crazy how fast he grows!
Thanks so much for reading!
xxx.