Venom Joins Our Family

 

So everyone knows I've been wanting a dog for years now, right? And apartment living makes things a little trickier. I had sort of put the "I want a puppy" thing on the back burner until we got a house, but this huge little guy joined our family last night. Family friends (Bolsters) had a litter of black labs and he was the last one to find a new home. I first held him when he was about a month old, but since I also held all his siblings I have no idea which of them he was, and I had no idea I would be bringing him home so much later.
He's at Phil's parents for the moment... while we puppy proof our place. He is only 15 weeks old here and already much larger than Bandit and Ice Dog.
 Last night I was subject to the Wyeth Tradition of Pet Naming, which is an official 30-minute meeting where family members get to suggest and elect the right name. Here is a list of all the ones we came up with, the highlighted ones are my suggestions:

Duke

Diesel

Tzar

Vader

Galaxy

Trojan

Loki

Thor

Smash

Taber

Oakley

Ray Ban

Bane

Venom

Carnage

Black Jack

Bullet

Texas

Shadow

Thunder

Mosby

Black Pearl

Goofy

Wait-for-it

After two rounds of voting and eliminating our least favorites, we ended with the top contenders of Diesel, Vader, Loki, Oakley, Venom, and Mosby. I think I'm awesome at names, and as you can tell... the top 6 were all my suggestions. After another round of votes the top two were Vader and Venom. I didn't know which one to go with, but Venom won hands down in the end (5 out of 5 votes). 

He is just the cutest dog! He walks perfectly on the leash, naturally knows how to retrieve things I throw, is potty trained, and got the hang of the "Sit" command within 2 minutes. I plan to register him as a Comfort Dog, which gives him the same privileges as working dogs and can therefore be taken anywhere (stores, airplanes, etc.). Let's see what new adventures this huge puppy brings to our lives.