Whining, Wine-ing & Winning

Well now I feel the need to explain myself. How Rumple got his name. Here we go…

I looked at many Facebook sites and other places trying to figure out how Jeff and I could get our first addition to the family. We wanted a puppy. A dude to do life with us. We didn’t just get a dude…we got Rumple.

I found a woman breeding Goldendoodles. Exactly what I wanted. I know adoption is the way to go, but before Bee, we wanted to build our own little family. We wanted a Goldendoodle to bring us together.

The weird part of this story relates so much to Marley & Me and the clearance puppy. We got the clearance puppy. The breeder said, “You can have the last one for a $300 discount.” SOLD. We’ll take him.

Pickup day arrives, and we’re supposed to meet in Concordia off the interstate. After driving past Salina, I casually mention the meeting point to my husband. He says, “Concordia doesn’t cross the interstate. What???

So I reread the post to make sure we’re not getting scammed, only to realize it’s Concordia, Missouri. Not Concordia, Kansas. At this point, we’re already committed. We’ve told our families. We’ve picked out a dog bed. I’ve mentally raised this puppy to adulthood.

I call the breeder, admit that I’m an idiot, and tell her we’re about to take the exit to Concordia, Kansas, but we’ll be there in about three hours. Four hours later, fueled by gas station snacks, poor decisions, and determination, we finally made it. And there he was. Our little dude.

We loaded him into the car, started the long drive home, and after spending an entire day driving across two states because I didn’t know there were multiple Concordias, my husband finally looked over and said:

“Fuck this day. I need a shot of Rumple.” We laughed. Then we looked at the puppy. And just like that, he had a name.

The funny part is, the name fit immediately. Rumple has spent every day since proving that he was, in fact, the clearance puppy. He’s eaten things he shouldn’t, ignored directions, created problems where there were none, and become one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

We thought we were bringing home a puppy.

What we actually brought home was Rumple. 🥃