Well guess who showed up today!!!!

YES!!!!!!! He's here! FINALLY! We went through HELL to get this little guy... but at last he's here. Sleeping in my lap (lets see him try THIS when he's 150+ pounds!) Today SUCKED. The suspense for his arrival was K-I-L-L-I-N-G Me! So of course, I left to the airport totally early. Got there right as his plane was landing, but had to wait until he was transported over to the Cargo area. bleh.

I was pacing... back and forth... with both my kiddies with me waiting.... waiting.... waiting... when the idiot behind the counter says.. "oh yeah.. he's here already" GROOOOOOOOOOOOWL~ He's lucky he was behind that wall! Anyway, they bring Matani's crate to JUUUUUUUUUUST where I can barely see that there IS in fact a crate back there and they proceed to tell me that Matani hasn't cleared customs and I can't have him, or even SEE him until he has. Uhm Helloooooooooo! Can you people say TORTURE? I was about 2 seconds from breaking into a full fledged PMS Rage, when I called out to Matani. I simply called out his name and the pup started HOWLING!!!! He KNEW his name! It was like magic. I grabbed the beurocratic BS paperwork and fled doing about 80 down to customs. I got there and the customs guy (who by the way does not have one single humorous cell in his body) proceeds to tell me that my dog is 1.5 years old. Uh no... he's three months old today. So, we argue over this for about five minutes before he accepts defeat and proceeds to tell me that I can't have my dog because he hasn't had a rabies shot yet. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!? If he didn't have a gun, I woulda lopped him upside his beurocratic too much paperwork HEAD! I tried explaining to him that puppies can't GET a rabbies shot until they are four months old and that I was not going to LEAVE my pup with these dorks for a month! So Mr. Paperwork Dork had to take the files back to the "behind the scenes dorks" and keep me waiting for another 45 minutes while they all figured out that once again.... I was right. Good grief people! STAMP THE FRIGGIN PAPER AND LET ME GET MY DOG! I swear he didn't swallow a bomb on his way over for cryin out loud! So, I went back to the airline, paperwork in hand... had to pay $25.00 for them to 'house' my dog for an hour and I picked him up and LEFT! Well, I got as far as the parking lot before he was OUT of that crate, on a leash and running like mad through the fields! And this little dude loved EVERY single second of it!

Now he's home. He's happy... he's pottied outside 5 or 6 times, he's eating like a champion HORSE, he's tormenting the kids and the cats, he's taken 3 naps and 1 bath (Lord does he smell better now!). I've discovered that STAIRS are a totally foreign concept to him and to watch him climb the porch step into our home is HILARIOUS! He's never had any experience with a sliding glass door either, as is evidenced by him continually walking/running into the damn thing! I've learned he growls in his sleep, he sleeps HARD. Not even the vacuum woke him up! He loves toys and loves to chew. EVERYTHING. He's chewed his "immigration papers", my couch pillows, my sun visor, my jeans, his toys, my cat, my son and my daughter. He likes to chew. A lot. I realized this was a match made in heaven when he passed up the water bowl and went straight for momma's Pepsi. Yep. This is MY BOY and he's stolen my heart! Here are the very first photos of Matani. I'll get some good ones tomorrow I hope when we're all rested a bit!