My Cody James

There is nothing quite like a dog. The unconditional love, the sheer loyalty and love of life...there is so much to learn simply by observation. I adore my dog, Cody. He has a middle name (it makes it easier to let him know when we mean business). Actually, we came up with the initials of his name first. My husband is a great lover of Jeeps and had already named one dog after the model he himself owns (TJ). So he wanted to name our new puppy CJ. We eventually picked names to go with his initials and he mostly goes by Cody. We picked him out (he picked us) at the humane society right around 4 years ago. I pestered my husband for a dog and he finally gave in, with the stipulation that I would be the one taking care of him (that didn't last much beyond house training). So off we went one Saturday morning. We started out at a pet store but they didn't have much in the way of puppies and I was set on a puppy. So we ended up at the humane society. Oddly enough, they didn't have all that many dogs and very few puppies. Actually, they had 3 or 4 Rottweiler puppies (a big fat no in my book; I needed to be able to walk the dog eventually and I'm too wimpy for a Rott) and 2 pit bull mix puppies. Now, I wasn't so keen on the idea of a pit mix as all I'd ever heard about pit's is that they could be vicious and dangerous. But this puppy just won us over. He was precious! We took him out and held him and then put him back and just watched for a little while. He came right back to the gate and put his paws on it and tried to stick his nose through in an attempt to get back to us. That sealed the deal! We left there that day the proud parents of a 10 week old puppy.

Cody, shortly after we got him

I took him to the vet the following Monday for shots and whatnot. He weighed 9.2 lbs. The vet told us he'd probably get to be about 35-45 lbs. He is half pit (his mother was pure pit but got out and got knocked up) but we haven't any real idea what else he is. We think there must be some hound and some lab, and maybe a bit of boxer for color...Ultimately it doesn't matter because we couldn't love him more. We did worry while I was pregnant about how he'd take to a baby but our fears have been put to rest. He is awesome with Jordan. And he may be her favorite toy! Incidentally, the vet was wrong. He is 85 lbs.

He's wondering what she's doing on his bed

Even when she was tiny he was tolerant

Do you see the resigned look on his face?

They spend a lot of time like this...

They hang out at the front door waiting for Dad to come home

He's giving her kisses!

He has now become unphased by most of her actions!

Sleeping in his favorite chair

And here he is this afternoon, curled up in the chair!