Meet Ellie

Yes, we FINALLY (as my kids would say) got a dog! 

On our trip home from Alabama last weekend, we researched dog breeds for about 2 hours.  My kids and hubby told me all the reasons we should get a dog.  I was still skeptical but began to soften a little bit. 

By the end of the next week I had begun looking online for local animal shelters and made a few phone calls.  The more I talked about it, the more I seemed to actually want to do this.  What was happening to me?!? 

We found a shelter near us called ARF and started looking over the pictures of the dog's faces on their website, voting on our favorite ones, etc.  I called and set up a visit.  No turning back now!

Saturday around 3 o'clock we loaded up and drove to the animal shelter with a towel.  Yep, that's it.  Just a towel, but it would come in handy. 

We arrived and immediately all the dogs went into hyper-bark mode.  The noise was unbelievable.  It was so loud we could barely talk to each other.  The kids walked ahead of us and the shelter worker told me to tell the kids to keep their fingers out of the cages and not to run. 

About that time I looked up and saw Pop-Tart's face.  Fear doesn't describe it.  I've seen that look before - or should I say I've felt it on my own face before.  They had seen a snake, and Pop-Tart ran faster than I have ever seen her run.  And you know all I could think of?  Oh no, the guy said for them not to run!  But I figured a snake was a good excuse to run if ever.  The older boys (Gogurt and his friend) stood there like statues for a moment pointing and saying "Snake, snake."   We totally went to the other side of the farm and the shelter workers took care of the snake.  We didn't ask what they did to it, the kids said it was black.  Probably a black runner, so more than likely they didn't kill it.  And we thought the dogs were barking at us!

Poptart had now crawled up on my head and was saying, "I don't want a dog, I just want to go home," over and over again.  Once I got her calmed down, we continued on. 

After walking through and seeing all the dogs that wouldn't fit wrapped up in a towel on the ride home, we went to where the puppies were.  Ah, yes, the puppies.  We took out 2 puppies from 2 different litters and then had to decide on one. 

We decided on a black and white bassett hound mix 5-month-old puppy.  We paid our money, and she was officially ours!

The kids whisked her away to the truck while we said thank you to the shelter worker (I can't remember his name!)  The kids had her in the truck for about 10 seconds with all the doors closed before they quickly opened the doors and were gasping for breath.  Yeah, our new puppy needed a bath in the worst way. 

We left the shelter and about 5 minutes down the road, the yet-to-be-named dog threw up in the towel Gogurt was holding her in.  We pulled over.  I got out and tried to clean the towel by rubbing it on the ground.  The kids were gagging in the truck, and I couldn't help but think, I'm already cleaning up dog puke.  We got back on the road, and I bet you can guess she did it again.  However, this time we were pulling into our neighborhood so we didn't have to make another pit stop on the side of the road.  We got home, snapped a few pictures, and then I had to leave to go by this new pet of ours some food. 

We haven't had her 48 hours yet, but she has definitely made her mark on our little family.  She does wonderful overnight, doesn't bark, whine, or howl at all, and is pefectly content living outside.  The kids are begging for her to come in the house but as I've said, if she's happy outside, I'm happy to leave her there!

So it's Monday.  Brad's at work.  The kids are at school.  It's just me and Ellie here.  Am I supposed to go out and talk to her or something?  Poptart made me promise to take good care of her today.  I'll do my best, sweetheart.  I promise.