Family: Dan Shaffer, Katie Castles Shaffer, Evie (almost 10), Emma (3.5) and Drew (2)
Pet: Violet
Age: 5 months
Breed: Bernedoodle
Adoption story: We probably should have named her Serendipity considering how Violet joined our family. A promise of a holiday puppy was fast-forwarded when a homesick camper persevered this past summer. We started talking about “what if” we got a puppy now, even if it was not exactly the chaos we needed given the ages of our younger two. Katie insisted it needed to be a Doodle breed because dog hair was not on her wish list after having two very loving, but very sloppy, Basset Hounds for 14 years.
A coworker, friend, and dog-lover had raved about his most recent dog addition, a Bernedoodle named Rayne who was “literally the best dog he’s ever had.” It turned out the same breeder had one puppy left in a recent litter, and within 48 hours the dog was ours.
Planning to surprise our oldest Evie when she got home from camp went slightly awry when little sister Emma casually dropped a deadpan “we’re getting a dog, Evie,” as soon as she got into the car at camp pickup. Nonetheless everyone was excited!
Likes: Playing with any dog that will give her attention, being with her humans, brush-time, stealing pacifiers and counter surfing for kid-food.
Dislikes: Being left out of whatever activity is going on.
Interesting facts: The breeder picks a theme for every litter and gives her pups name identifiers which the owner can choose to keep or not. Violet’s litter was flowers and we kept her given name because we thought it was cute.