Three years ago, I had 3 elderly dogs a Jack Russell and two Boxers, on a cold snowy January day, my husband called and said a ex-coworker of his hada litter of 11 boxer puppies and I said absolutely not we can not have 4 dogs! But earlier that fall, we had a conversation when driving to Maine with our two old boxers, we talked about the next pair of boxers we would get and what their names would be. My husband said he wanted to name our next boxer Popcorn after the Appalachian moonshiner Popcorn Sutton, I laughed, rolled my eyes and said yeah ok! But the name grew on me, so when I received an email with 11 pictures, 4 boys and 7 girl boxer puppies I immediately ran down stairs and said to my husband I found him! I found Popcorn!!
A few weeks later we met our flashy brindle baby boy for the first time and a month after that he was part of our now 4 dog family. Not having had a puppy in 11 years there was most definitely a large learning curve. I didn’t remember feeling this exhausted with the first two! Is he unusually active? Does he have ADHD? I would wonder and then chalk it up to extreme puppy energy! Always on the go, always playing and always needing my attention, what was supposed to be my husbands dog, became the biggest mamas boy I’ve ever had (and still is) He is probably the most driven and smartest dog we have had, he will do anything you want him to as long as you are kicking a ball for him!
We’ve traveled all over together from our home in upstate NY, we have traveled to the Outerbanks in NC, Tennessee, Vermont, Lake Ontario, Lake Champlain, the 1,000 islands and all over the Adirondack mountains.
He also has driven me to become more active than I have ever been in my life, out of necessity, I work out to keep up with him! We completed our first 5k for the local dog park about a year ago and last spring we participated in the walk for k9 cancer and the walk for MS. This weekend we participated in a 5k for a local dog rescue!
I have bonded with him in ways I never thought possible, he has changed me and made me a better and more patient person.Things that would be a big deal in the past, aren’t really that important if you look at it from their perspective. Dogs are simple eat, play, love and really that’s all there is to it. What a great way to live! They don’t care about money or what kind of car you drive as long as they get to go with you!
Crazy dog mom that I am, he has his own Instagram account that he shares with his 16 month old brother Frisco @popcornsutton_friscotheboxers where you can follow all our adventures!
