George Oscar Bluth III Franklin Egbert

From Odds and Ends

The current position in which Haley and I find ourselves is that we are not ready for children. We feel we are not ready for that level of responsibility (plus, some say I am a tad on the immature side - but seriously, DO fart jokes ever get old?). So, we decided to give it a practice run with a dog.

It is perhaps a miracle that little Gob has joined our family because this was the one issue that Haley and I have never agreed on. Adamantly against dog ownership, stemming from an attack from a "large, black dog" at a young age, Haley had laid down the law early on. We were not going to be a dog family. Haley and I often argued over this point, and as is the case with all Thorpe women, the man always loses. You see, losing is not an option for a Thorpe woman.

This summer brought many changes to the Rob and Haley Egbert family, as we moved to North Augusta, SC, bought a house, and I started medical school. This series of events led to me (Rob) being away for longer periods of time as I studied. Haley was stuck at home and found herself watching "Days of Our Lives" alone (not that I ever watched it with her :-). This led to a tinge of loneliness. Luckily I had been pressuring the idea dog ownership for some time now, slowly sowing the seeds of change. Then one day it happened: Haley remarked "I think I want a dog." I had been waiting for those words for years.

From Odds and Ends

And so the search began. Haley was instantly drawn to the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. It turned out that those dogs are as expensive as they sound. Luckily, we later found out that I was allergic to spaniels, with their high shedding and dander (this came after looking into some Springer Spaniels which gave me an asthma attack). So the search now focused hypoallergenic dogs that would allow me to breathe in my own house. After numerous google image searches, we decided that we may like the "Cockerpoo," which is a mix between a Cocker Spaniel and a Poodle. Yeah, It sounds like a wussy dog, but I assure you that after you do a google image search of your own, you will see that these dogs look better than their name suggests.

We finally found a breeder down in the sprawling metropolis of Millen, Georgia. We were able to choose between a couple different siblings and ended up choosing Gob. The name comes from our current infatuation with the largely unnoticed yet wildly entertaining "Arrested Development." If you have not had a chance to get into that show, we highly recommend it.

From Odds and Ends

Gob supposedly comes from a Cocker mother and a Poodle father (yeah, I know, the cocker should be on the boy and all poodles seem female…we hope Gob won't grow up too confused). However, we think Gob is part bear and part Chewbacca, though he is far too big of a whiner to play either role. He is a good dog, however being the puppy that he is, anything and everything is a toy. He has a very small attention span and enjoys making grunt sculptures and leaving them in random places in the kitchen when we least expect it. In fact, he went drilling for mud bunnies tonight when we went over to Garret and Hanna's house for New Year's. We were quite embarrassed as he coiled a steamer in the corner of their dining room, behind the table. The funny thing was that we were watching him constantly and he hadn't been out of our site for more than three seconds. Those barbarians must have been knocking at the gate for him to have gone so quickly.

Another favorite pastime of Gob's is to violate his stuffed elephant. Sure, he likes to pretend that he is merely chewing on it, but then out of the corner of our eye, we see him getting fresh with the little grey Dumbo. Yes, he has a long way to go, but we are excited to welcome into our lives. In efforts to share with you a little piece of the life of Gob, I put together the following video. I hope you enjoy it.