Gotcha Day

2 years ago today, I brought my little Jasper home from the shelter where he was born. =)

Technically, he'd been mine for a week already but the shelter requires that all animals be spayed/neutered before you can take them home. Since Jasper was only 2 months old, he obviously hadn't been "snipped" yet. So I had to wait. =( That didn't make me happy, but it did allow me to get things ready for him. I bought a crate, bowls, food, toys and that blanket he still plays with to this day.


They handed him to me and he was still incredibly drugged from being snipped, but he was so cute! One of the girls there said, "Oh, he has an old man face!" Haha.

He was still snoozing away when I stopped at Anna's to show him off. =) Joe met me there too, and that's who's holding Jasper in this picture. Isn't he so cute?! He was sooo tiny too!

I got the term "gotcha day" from a friend of mine in high school. Her parents (who were Army at the time) adopted her from the Philippines. So, they celebrated the day she was born AND the day she was adopted. She'd always come to school saying "it's gotcha day!" with a big smile on her face. She's the same age as my brother, but we were in band together (and both played flute) so we had a little connection. =)

Getting Jasper was a complete accident. Joe and I had talked about getting a dog for a while, and the one time he tried to surprise me with one I wanted our landlords said "no." Of course, I didn't know until after the fact. A couple months later, Anna asked me if I wanted to go to the shelter with her and her father in law. I said yes, because how can you pass up a chance to see cute dogs?! 

Well, what do you know, they had puppies there. Not only did they have puppies, but these puppies were Boston Terrier mixes!! Joe and I were dying to get Boston puppies, but 1) they're too expensive and 2) tend to have health problems. So there I was, with this super cute puppy. I called Joe about a million times before he called me back. He worked like 5 minutes away from the shelter, and I wanted him to come see the puppy. He loved Jasper too, and we filled out the paperwork hoping and praying that our landlords would say it was ok. I got up early the next morning, praying they'd call and say I could finish the paperwork to adopt Jasper.

They did. =) I got dressed, jumped in the car and drove like a crazy person to the shelter. I grabbed Jasper (they have to scan the microchip), ran to the front desk and filled everything out. $94 later, he was mine!! Well... not until after they'd "snipped" him, of course.

We finally got him home and he was beginning to wake up and act like a normal puppy a bit. We decided to turn the TV on and it totally weirded him out! He kept staring at it like "what in the world is that thing?!" Haha =)

Just a little later that night Joe was whistling and Jasper looked at him exactly like this. So Joe whipped out his phone and snapped the picture. =P

I stinkin' love this picture!!! See how little he used to be?!

Trying to see if he had an underbite. He does. =P

Not too much later, the normal puppy antics began... He fell in love with my slippers and I surrendered them to him after he tore the stuffing out of the heel of one. 

And then he figured out that it was warm under the covers!! I'd come back from my shower and find him like this. Actually, he still does that. And now he sheds and gets dog hair all in my bed. Not cool. 

This one is actually my fault. Lol! I can't remember why, but I thought it would be a good idea for Joe to give him a sort of piggy-back ride. Hahaha! It lasted just long enough for me to take this picture.

One of the first times Jasper ever barked. 

The first video of him barking died with a previous phone. Sad day.

You have to watch this. 

Like most things with Jasper, this is hilarious!

When Joe went to BCT, it was me and Jasper for quite a while. I was cuddle up under the covers watching a movie one Sunday afternoon and realized that he was actually watching TV. I have a crazy dog.

Cute puppy. =)

As you can see, not much has changed! I'm pretty sure he stopped growing around the time we'd had him for about 6 months. I know his birthday, but I don't feel any sort of attachment to it since we didn't get him until 2 months later. Even though he's a mess, tears up any sort of paper and has a nervous bladder, I love him to pieces!!! Yeah, he's pretty much like my very own kid... Except he's covered in fur. Most importantly, he's been my buddy through it all: BCT, AIT and Deployment #1.

Happy Gotcha Day, Jasper!!! =D