New Pet

Andy has been wanting to get the girls a pet for several months now.  While we were visiting my parents last week, my sister kindly agreed to give her dwarf hamster to them.  Arin named her Princess.  The hamster is still timid when it is held, but Andy has been working with her and holding her often.  The girls love it when Princess is in her ball.  Otherwise, the girls are not able to hold her.  She is very quick and constantly tries to make an escape if she is not in her cage or her ball.  So far the girls love having their new pet.  Thanks Aunt Candace!

Walking Companion

A week and a half or so ago, we gave our mama dog and three of her puppies to the Humane Society.  The next door neighbors kept one of the puppies (the one Arin named "Snake").  For the first week, they kept the dog on a chain at all times except in the evenings when they were outside with her.  I am assuming this was to teach her where her new home was.  For the past few days, they have been allowing her off the chain during the day.  For the most part we see her staying in her yard.  The girls look out the window to check in on her throughout the day.  Because the neighbors took one of the puppies and Arin is able to see her everyday (even though she doesn't play with her everyday), it made the transition of several dogs to no dogs much easier for her.

This morning, we headed out the door to take our morning walk.  "Snake" saw Arin and came running as quick as she could to be with her.  She has calmed down quite a bit and no longer jumps on the girls, so both like her much better now.  We started for our walk and we could not get the dog to go home.  I was worried that we might lose their dog on our walk, but she stayed right with us for the whole two miles.

Arin thought this was great!  Other than the few times she walked in front of the stroller, it wasn't too bad for me either and I know it was good exercise for the dog, though I hope we don't have to take her on every walk!

Pups

The puppies are four weeks old now and we are still looking for homes for them. 

Today, we took them outside, which they loved.  Their tails were wagging and they were running all over the place!  They kept crawling all over Arin.  She said, "Guys, I'm not a feeding girl!  Shirley dog (that's their momma) feeds you.  I am not a dog!"

Arin has named most of the puppies.

LEIF

SELPHA (the runt & Arin's favorite)

unnamed puppy

DAISY

unnamed puppy

FLOWER

SNAKE

At first, Arin had only named two of the puppies.  She said, "When I am 20, I'll know the rest of their names."

Puppies!

There is a stray dog that hangs around Andy's work. She's a very good dog, so Andy let her stay. Unfortunately, she got pregnant and ended up with seven puppies! It is freezing outside right now, so Andy brought momma and babies home and made them a nice warm home here. The puppies are little right now - about two weeks old. They have started to open their eyes in the past couple of days. In the next few weeks (4 or 6??) they will be ready to find new homes. If you are reading this and you know us in real life and you want a puppy or several puppies, please let me know!