"Sally Can I Walk You Home?"

That is the title of one of the girl's new favorite songs - written & sung by Robbie Schaefer, who also happens to be a member of our favorite folk ensemble Eddie from Ohio. It's a great song, but it also helped us name the latest addition to our family - our new puppy, Sally.

When naming said pup, we realized how brainwashed a kindergartner could be. The first name that came to mind was Sally Foster...yes, as in the wrapping paper that elementary schools so forcefully sell. That just wasnt' working for me. However, that did lead me to start singing "Sally Can I Walk You Home?" I guess that was enough incentive to drop the Foster part and name our sweet pup, Sally.

How did we come to get a new puppy, one might ask - Well...

I'm standing in my den one afternoon and the phone rings. It's my wonderful aunt (for whom I am named) and she is standing in Uncle Bob's office holding the leash of a puppy who apparently has a sister that needs a home. They did provide a home for one of these 2 puppies and decided it would be fun to share the experience of a new puppy with unsuspecting family members who had never had a puppy! I laughed it off and went on with my day.

Well, I talked to her later in the week and they had taken both of these puppies back to their house and were looking for a home for the female pup. I think she knew what a sucker I might be for this puppy, especially since she knew how badly the girls wanted a dog. Tedd was on a long bike ride, so the girls and I went over the "meet" these 2 dogs. Well, one thing led to another and the as-of-yet unnamed female pup was in my car heading to our house. Not quite sure what came over me at that point - it's that sucker for a puppy part! We were just bringing her home so Tedd could meet her - yeah right! Well he liked her and buckled under the pressure. We had to take her back to Annie's house for the night because we were less than prepared for a new dog, but we went to pick her up after church the next day and she's been with us ever since!

She is a black mixed breed, with some beagle, lab and hound in her. She really is quite a precious puppy, but is definitely more work than I imagined. They are guessing she's between 4 and 5 months old. We're working hard on getting her house-trained and for the most part, she's doing fine - we have our days, though. We're also trying to work obedience school into our already too busy schedules, but it has to be done!

Mason and Sally have bonded and are examples of why kids should have a dog! They play together great and Mason wants to be Sally's boss (since we won't let her be the boss of Kate!). She has done a great job of helping feed and walk Sally. Kate loves Sally TOO much. She hasn't quite figured out how to be gentle with her all of the time. She has her moments where she does exactly what she is supposed to, but there is a lot more times where she is pulling on any one of Sally's body parts or pinching her. We're working really hard with Kate so that Sally won't be terrified of her!

I'll post some pictures of Sally when I get them downloaded from the camera. I'm just too tired to do that tonight!