Oreo is my puppy's name.  We named her Oreo because of her colour - black and white, like the Oreo cookies.  She is a Border Collie Mix.  

We bought her on an online classified advertising website in early July. 

I didn't know Border Collies are energetic and high maintenance, until after I bought her.  I didn't do my research until afterwards.  

I saw the online ad in the late afternoon on a Saturday and the owner said she had many prospective buyers and I should better hurry.  (Don't sellers always say that?) Since both my daughter and I got very excited and fell in love with the dog before we met her, we hurried to the owner's house, which was only 10 minutes away. We didn't have any dog food, dog's pee pads, a crate, or a dog pen.  We had nothing at home to welcome the dog.  We didn't have time to buy those as we were worried the dog would be sold before we got there.  After we negotiated with the buyer and bought Oreo, it was late and the shops were closed.

She was very adorable, very cute and friendly.  I purchased her right away.  The owner gave us 2 servings of dog food.  I didn't even want to think about the dog's toileting problems.

It was a nightmare the next morning.  Oreo wasn't toilet trained and we didn't have pee pads, so you can imagine :(

Well, that was over two months ago.  Now she is almost toilet trained, but there is a lot of work to take care of her.  First of all, the morning walks.  She wakes up between 5:30 - 6am, and I take her out for a short walk before waking up the kids to go to school.  I work from home so I am home all day.  Oreo is used to having people around.  Once I left her home for an hour while I went grocery shopping, and she barked so loud and for such a long time that the neighbours complained.  Sometimes I bring her with me and leave her in the car.  Luckily, she doesn't bark so much now.  I know because I installed a camera at home.

She can be pretty disruptive sometimes.  A couple of times, she barked when I was having an online lesson and I had to apologize to the students, excused myself to let Oreo out to the balcony.  I am grateful that my students understand my situation.  

She is growing bigger day by day.  She grew from 3.5 kg to 13.5 kg.  This kind of dog can grow another 4 - 5 kg.  It is harder to control her as she gets bigger and stronger.  She always gets excited when she sees people or other dogs and jumps at them and I have to pull her back.  

Taking care of dogs is challenging but it is rewarding.