More: Miller is our first addition to our new family. My wife and I got married in April of 2019 and thus celebrated our first anniversary in our new home in the midst of the initial COVID lockdown here in St. Louis, MO. Given that more traditional celebrations were not an option, after careful consideration, we agreed that the timing was perfect to adopt a new puppy into our home. We had discussed this many times before and even had compiled a shortlist of vetted breeders that checked all of our boxes. With many of the excuses we had previously seen as roadblocks no longer in place, such as the fact that our new normal included both of us working from home every day, we decided to pull the trigger. I grew up with yellow labs and my wife had spent time with ours so we both knew what great dogs they can be. We were also on the same page about wanting a dog that would first be a loyal and gentle family companion, but might also provide me with something I'd been dreaming of since I was a teenager and first saw a dog work an open field: a bird dog. Having never trained a dog before past the basic sit, stay, come type of interactions, I knew I'd be in for a lot of work - but it is something I'd been looking forward to for years. We found a great breeder out of South Dakota that was so patient and helpful with all of our questions and requests. When it came time to chose our puppy from the litter, we narrowed it down to three females. Nowadays we laugh at the idea that we ever considered a different puppy than the little bundle of joy and love and energy that we ended up with. Fast forward to today and we couldn't be happier with our decision to grow our family. Miller's personality fits ours so well and she couldn't be more in love with her "big" sister, Lola. Watching her follow her sister around the house and seeing Lola "run the show" with a dog that is 4x her size and weight has brought us so much joy in a time where, for a number of reasons, joy hasn't always come easy. But that's what dogs do best.