One week ago, we added a new member to our family!!

We adopted a puppy!  (Happy early birthday, Isabella~)

We have talked about this for close to 2 years because Isabella is so obsessed with animals.  We tried pet-sitting to try out a few different kinds of animals, but none of them were the right fit for us.  We decided after the last trial of house-sitting my school's bunny rabbit.... "nope - definitely NOT!  Let's just look into the dog thing!"

We filled out an application with a local pet shelter after seeing that they had a lot of adorable puppies available.  I've heard that it takes awhile to be approved, so we started the process about a month before Isabella's birthday.  But, the lady called back right away and set up an appointment.  We went to our appointment last Saturday morning, however, the the entire litter of puppies that we expressed interest were already adopted + the two foster puppies of interest weren't available until later in the day.  We met a couple of others - 1 puppy / 1 four-year old dog, but there wasn't a connection and Mercer was pretty nervous around the one that was older / already a grown medium-sized dog.

We left (45 minutes of driving each way) / came back disappointed and empty handed.  I went to an afternoon wedding, so Todd took the kids out later that day to meet with the foster pups -- they were a brother / sister pair.  "Def Leppard" and "April Love."  Apparently Isabella LOVED the male puppy from the start!  Todd sent this photo to me from the shelter... look at that smile!!

Several days passed and at least 50 different names were suggested before both kids finally agreed upon Mercer's last suggestion of "Hip Hop."  (Not mine or Todd's favorite name - but the kids were able to both say yes... so it's official.)  

Mercer is pretty comfortable with this puppy at first.  He was apprehensive to let him eat treats out of his hand (and has yet to pick up poo), but he plays with him and loves him.  Isabella is over the moon!  She picks him up and carries him all over the place.  When we took him to one of Mercer's baseball games, she offered to all of the other little kids there that they could hold him.  We knew that Isabella was crazy about dogs -- but it's really interesting to see HOW MANY kids (and adults) love dogs!  Hip Hop was pet by at least 30-40 kids and adults.   So many adults (and even the umpire after the game) commented on what a great temperament Hip Hop has.  WHEW!!  

He got a clean bill of health at our veterinarian's first visit.  The papers from the shelter says that he was brought there when he was about 6 weeks old.  He was underweight and flea-ridden.  The shelter and foster family got him to a healthy weight, provided flea treatments, vaccinations, neutering will happen (as a part of the adoption fee we've already paid), and crate-trained him.  He's just a great pup!  

His papers say that he's a border collie mix.  But... he really really looks like a rat terrier from what we've searched online.  So - maybe the border collie mom mated with a terrier of some sort??!!  May hit 40 lbs when grown?  His estimated birthday is July 27th.  His adoption date is October 15th.  Like we do with the kids -- we'll celebrate both.

(We have since learned that October is "national adopt a shelter dog month.")  Yep - we did it at the right time!  https://furkids.org/ 

He is crazy and active-- he likes to chew.  (Maybe he'll grow out of it?)  But - he is also really sweet.  He likes to cuddle.  He's pretty funny too when sitting on the couch with us. He perks up and/or growls when he sees dogs or cats on TV.  Seriously!    We were nervous about him sleeping through the night, but as far as we know - he did / he does.  (he sleeps in a crate in a room on the other side of the house from our bedroom, so we likely wouldn't hear him even if he was barking!)  He's smart and already has some signs that we're learning read.   

Todd has been coming home at lunch most days to check on him.  (It will be much easier once his office moves back to Marietta a mile or so away from our house!!)  Isabella misses Hip Hop every morning when we leave for school and talks about him every day on the way home.  He became an instant part of the family.  Todd and I are really happy that we did this instead of a different pet.

Mercer wants me to add that he's very cute. 

Yes -- he is!   



There will be more photos in the coming months......