After taking care of my brother's family's dog over the Christmas holidays, I noticed a better dynamic than just having my two dogs - sure, the walks were a little trickier, but definitely manageable. Anyhoo, there was less jealousy and strife as opposed to when it was just Snorre, Jr. and Dashiell.
So after some careful consideration, research of shelters and rescues (Warning! - highly addictive and obsessive pastime, I assure you), and some advice from my first ex-wife - a dog behaviorist and currently a director at the Humane Society of America - I decided to adopt another dog - this time I decided on a female - there was simply too much testosterone in the house.
She's a sweet female Labradoor/Poodle mix (i.e., Labradoodle for the cutesy-inclined) from the SPCA. She is between the age of 1 and 1 1/2 years old. She's got an appointment tomorrow for a day of beauty at PetSmart's groomers. She's in serious need of a bath and grooming. I'll post some after-grooming pictures tomorrow.
Her shelter name is Isabella, but I am going to give her a new name. My niece likes the name Panda. I do, too - but since the puppy has a tiny little patch of white on her and the rest of her is black, I thought I'd try to come up with a better fit. Other names in the hopper so far:
Pepper
Moppet
Coffee
Bella (short for her shelter name - but having just divorced a woman of Italian heritage, I'm not really in the mood for anything Italian...except the food).
Precious
Tuppence
Luna
Karma
Gypsy
Sable
Zoe
Sweety
Stripey
PigfUcker
Abbie
I haven't delved too deeply on name lists yet, so I thought I'd see if anyone here cares to come up with some name ideas to add to the hopper. If it's of any help, her personality is very sweet, playful and she is colt-ish in romping.
Dashiell and Snorre, Jr. get along great with her, but there are times when they don't know what to make of this female. She barely sits still with my fumbling attempts at taking a picture of her with my iPhone. The new dynamic is really awesome though - no bickering over toys, etc. I think it's going to work out as planned. I promise no more critters - this is definitely my max limit. If I get any more, you all have permission to come to my house and pummel me about the head and groin.
*Edited for adding more names to hopper
Edited, Jan 5th 2008 1:46am by Snorre
Edited, Jan 5th 2008 11:21am by Snorre