DOG!

After a 2 ½ year absence, we have a dog in the house.

Nowhere near as big as Dug here, nor nowhere near as loquacious. And because she’s a puppy, she’s got that patent puppy stink about her. But she’s here and the kids couldn’t be more thrilled.

She’s a miniature dachshund, same as our previous pet Moki, who died just before Thanksgiving in 2008. Michelle, in a moment of serendipity, found her on Craigslist last week and jumped at the opportunity to get her from a couple in Roberts.

The dog is, of course, very shy right now. She did better her first night with us than I thought she would – only one episode of crying at night, and that was remedied by moving her to the bed with us, rather than in her basket. We’re hoping in the next few weeks that she’ll get to feeling more and more at home with us.

It was kind of a rough weekend, though. Our daughter especially has been pining for a dog, and she really wanted to go either to the shelter or Petco this weekend to get one. Knowing that we’d have a dog in the house before the weekend was over, we had to keep putting our daughter off the trail, so to speak, though it all fell apart Saturday morning when I foolishly pointed out a dog in the truck next to us on the road. Fortunately, all of that behavior was redeemed after church.

Here she is:

And again: