Magellan and Mackenzie - Yellow Labradors

by Marty
(Illinois)

How Amazing Are Animals, and especially How Amazing are Dogs?!

When I was a kid we had a dog. Home wasn't great when I was young, but my brothers and I always rallied around the family Mascot our dog. My wife has similar stories. I'm a step father of two boys and my wife is a Widow. My wife's children were in the early teens when I joined the family. There wasn't too much animosity but we hadn't all bonded like a family yet.

As the kids got further into their teens and a couple of years went by we all escaped into our electronics most of the time. Everyone would be in their own room and concern themselves with their own things. We live in a townhouse and we wanted to upgrade. We had the usual plan, get a bigger house with some breathing room and get a dog. Then the real estate market crashed. We were stuck in our townhouse.

We needed to get out of the routine, we needed a little bit of chaos, we needed a dog. We decided on a big dog. I've always liked Labradors when I was a kid. The nicest dogs were always Labs when I was a kid. We went to a breeder with some money from a side job. The breeder had "leftovers", nobody wanted the boy dogs, they are too hyper, they are too much trouble. He walked out of the back with a puppy under each arm. I've seen fewer things cuter in my life. We almost settled for one when my wife said, "put them on the ground, one of them is going to tell me he wants to go home with me".

The dog the kids and I picked out was on the ground and the other disappeared under a nearby desk checking out the whole office. The little explorer happened on my sweeties shoes and began to nibble a lace, "It's this one" she declared "are you sure that one is a bit of a wanderer" I replied, "I'm sure, it's this one" she confirmed.

I picked him up while the breeder took us on a tour of the place, he knew what he was doing, dogs sell themselves. We read somewhere you should meet the puppies parents to get an idea of how the dog will look and it's character. He opened up a door and let the father out into the lobby.

"YOU KEEP A HORSE IN HERE!!!" I exclaimed. If this Lab wasn't a horse surely it had to be a prehistoric branch of the horse family. Maybe he wasn't the biggest Labrador I've seen since but he fit the bill of a big dog for certain.

We had spent a month in bed going over dog names. We did categories, common names, product names over and over and over. My wife had picked out some common names no matter how odd of a name I could come up with. Bailey, Riley, Sebastian, all of the classics. The puppy would wander off a little and come back for a visit all the while. I asked my sweetheart "What are we going to call him"?

"Magellan, he's a little explorer" she sounded.
"Really? I thought you didn't like the explorer category? Are you sure?" I asked. "He's Magellan" She said in that way you talk to a newborn. What a great name for a dog.

The kids were instantly in love with the puppy. We all were. He seemed to fit in at home like he had been there all along. Everyone would play with him, everyone would teach him something, everyone would snuggle with him. Being in a small townhouse we were forced to walk him, 3 times a day. Cold, Rain, Sun, Meteorites.

Later came another boy MacKenzie, he was a rescue. He chose sweety same as Magellan. MacKenzies' (Kenny) parents weren't as big as the Horse that made Magellan. Yet he ended up being as big and healthy as Magellan.

Kenny is a Momma's boy. He loves affection and always wants to know that his pack is together. He's a wagger and he beats anything around like a drum with his tail. Momma's little drummer boy.

We take them everywhere. They love car rides. They are the center of our family. The kids gush over them, and so do we. Surprisingly they are not spoiled. Most of the friends we have we met walking the dogs.

The kids openly show their love for their dogs. They have come out from their rooms, and they care about the pups and their family. We are quite a close family now. We cut vacations short so we could get the dogs out of the kennel early. The kids go away and miss the dogs and their home.

They helped us want to be here. They helped us want to be together. And it really didn't turn out to be chaos. Such big dogs and such a little house. We learned dogs are like water. They form to the container you put them in. Our Dogs made us a family. That's Amazing.