Cotton’s Gotcha Day

Today is Cotton’s Gotcha Day! Be sure to give him a follow on Instagram (@cotton_gsp) and watch all things Cotton today on his and my story! It’s hard to believe that only 2 years ago we picked our little brown ball of energy up (because It seems way longer!). We knew that we wanted a German Shorthaired Pointer (GSP) and Mike knew that he wanted to name him Cotton, so we researched the breed to see if It would be a good fit for us and found a super responsible and awesome breeder in Cullman, Alabama (Check out 3M Kennels and Quail on Facebook!). On May 28, 2016 Cotton was born and we were so excited to get the pictures! For the next 8 weeks the breeder would send us pictures of Cotton which made us even more excited to bring him home!

July 16 was my birthday, so we spent that day and night in Guntersville, AL at a cozy bed and breakfast (seriously It was so cute and relaxing!). The next morning we drove over to pick up Cotton. When we got there, the only thing we saw was the mom and her sister run up to us…maybe 5 seconds later, a pack of liver and roan (thats what the markings on a GSP are called) came tumbling our way. I may be a bit biased, but GSP puppies are the absolute cutest and they STAY cute and good looking. We watched them play around for a bit then found our “red puppy” (he had a red collar on), scooped him up (we felt so bad realizing that we scooped him up from his whole world), brought him inside to fill out paperwork, then hit the road for a long (6 hour) drive back to Tallahassee. Based on the pictures, we were pretty sure that Cotton hated us because he wasn’t too thrilled to be with these strange people.

We had him in a laundry basket in the seat between us in the truck. It’s hard to believe that he actually fit in that now! But he was an ANGEL the whole way home, and we thought that we had a great road trip dog. Little did we know at the time that he’s the absolute worst dog in the car because he gets so excited to take trips (even if its just a 5 minute drive to the park!). We even stopped and got some Whataburger chicken strips for him on the way home and changed his life (haha!). When we got home, we brought him inside and he literally froze and stood there for a solid 5 minutes before moving. He still hated us at that point (even though he had chicken strips). At night, we had planned to have him on his pillow in the bedroom. Well, that plan absolutely failed when he popped his cute little head up on the side of the bed and wanted to be with us. Ever since, he has taken over the bed at night. He doesn’t mind sleeping in his crate at night, but when I am away from Mike I really like the company!

Since then, Cotton has taught us more about dogs and German Shorthaired Pointers than most people would ever care to know! As the breeder put it, he is two handfuls. We like to think of Cotton as a prep school kid in a blazer–very WASP-y. I must say though, for the breed he is actually very calm, but that doesn’t mean he’s not up at the crack of dawn everyday ready for adventure. No amount of research can truly prepare you for the crazy that you will experience for this breed. So, if you think you want a GSP, please consider if you have the time, energy, and space for them. All this breed wants to do is please and love….and RUN…LOTS of running. However, as crazy as he is and as much as he drives us crazy, Cotton is the most loyal and loving dog who has introduced us to some wonderful people! I wouldn’t have met my best friend, Hailey, if It weren’t for Cotton, and he wouldn’t have met his best friend, Bendel!

Happy Gotcha Day, Cotton!

Kelly