New Family Member

As an update to a previous thread, I wanted to let you know that we have a new family member. On Sept. 4th, Sean found these pictures online of a free puppy in the area. We all fell in love and scheduled to meet the owners on Sept. 6th.



As it turns out, we all did fall in love with this little puppy when we met him. We brought him home a little over a week ago, and he has fallen right in the groove of things. Yes, he is an outside dog, but he will do just fine. He doesn't yelp at night and often sits comfy in his makeshift doghouse (the boys' outdoor playhouse) while we await his real doghouse, to be delivered later this week. He was born on July 11th so he is about 9 1/2 weeks right now. He is a Sheltie/Cocker Spaniel/American Eskimo mix. We have named him Deuce.

Background on his name: Sean wanted a cool name for the dog (which he's been trying to convince me to get for over a year now) so he and I started brainstorming once we made plans to meet the owners. I had come up with the name Oakley, and Sean thought it was great. The morning we were to meet our future puppy, I asked Nathan if he liked the name we had picked out. His response?! "I like it, but we are going to call him Deuce." With that, he walked out of the room. Well, okay, then. And why would my almost-4-year-old son want to call a dog, "Deuce?" Those who know us well know that we are a baseball-loving family. Of course, we're partial to the home teams. :) So, we root for the Texas Rangers and really enjoy the family-friendly games with their minor league team, Frisco Rough Riders. We have been taking Nathan to the Rough Riders' games since he was just a little tot. Well, the Rough Riders' mascot is a prairie dog named Deuce. So, there ya' have it! Probably best, though, because Elijah can say Deuce really well; I'd be curious to see how Oakley came out!

The boys LOVE the dog. They now spend more time outside than they ever did. Elijah is a bit skiddish around him, but he is doing better. Deuce is just a puppy and loves to jump on you. Well, for a little tot like Elijah, that means that Deuce is jumping up to his face. He has knocked Elijah down a few times and pulled on his clothing. So, you can definitely see why the poor thing has a tendency to be less than thrilled around the puppy. But, he is getting better; he spent an hour outside with Nathan ("Nate") and Deuce today.

Here are a few more pictures of our new love...