7:43am

 It was Wednesday morning and I was enjoying my last morning to sleep in before the ball of fur arrived.  The night before I had thought; "Hey, I'll pack the stuff we need in the morning because we don't need to be at the airport till 11:00 anyways."  Ha!  Well, just as my alarm was going off, my mom came into my room on her cell phone and said to get dressed as fast as I could because the airport had just called and told her that they had gotten Dante on an earlier flight and he was there, waiting patiently, whining and crying, for someone to let him out.  Well, I think I set a record for getting myself together with all of the paperwork and things we needed to get him, and still looking presentable.  About fifteen minutes later we were on our way.  I believe it was one the longest 35 minute drives I have taken, trying to think of anything and everything to expect from Dante and this new adventure.

 When we walked into the cargo pickup, before we could even say what we had come for, the lady behind the desk says, "You're here for your baby, aren't you?"  That sounded so weird, "your baby," I guess because I have been telling myself "this is NOT my dog," for the last year.  He was brought out to us about 30 seconds later (I think because they were tired of hearing him whine(; ), all 12.8 pounds of cute, smelly, and unhappy puppy.

He was so happy and just cuddled right up to me.  I don't know if it was because he likes me or because I was the first one to let him out of his crate after nearly nine hours.  Probably the latter. ;)

After trying to get Dante to "Hurry" (the command for potty), we were on our way home.

Once home, the first thing we did was give him a bath.  It took both my mom and I about ten minutes of working together to get all of his fur wet. I'm convinced that we can take many long walks in the rain and water will never touch his skin! :)

I think this may be the first and last time Dante gets a bath in the kitchen sink!

The poor boy was shivering when we were done, so we blow-dried him and wrapped him up.

My mom and Dante

The rest of the day consisted of trying to get him settled in and enjoying his crate ( He's still working on that one).

Now that Dante has been settling into our home and routine, his independent personality is really coming out.  He is very strong-willed and lets me know when he is not happy.  I just hope and pray that over the next year I'll be able to shape this into behaviors that can be used to his fullest potential.