Bongo

 We added a new little member to our family over the week end. I shouldn't have been surprised. But I was. We had been preparing the kids for a couple years now that our old, faithful dog would one day not be with us. We were expecting to one day have to put her down. But in the end I guess she wandered off to spend her last hours alone. It's always tough when it happens like that. I remembered one of our dogs as a child did that. I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't overly fond of the old dog but she really was a very good dog and was a great watch dog and lived a good, long and happy life. I would guesstimate that she was at least 15 years old! Here's a photo of her I took over the winter.
 
 And since Bryant and I always told the kids we'd get a new puppy when this happened we decided that even though now was not a good time. It would be a better time than in a couple months. Considering how I'll be starting home schooling again soon with two kids this time. And also in the summer the pup could be outside a lot.
So I spent a ton of time online looking up different breeds and crosses. Bryant likes big dogs. And I do, too. Just not in the house. And dogs don't STAY outside in this family and since I am the dog bather around here I thought it only fair that I get to choose the size. I chose small. One that WON'T break my back when I try to bathe it. My first choice would have been a pug. Or a mini Pincher. But Bryant likely would have cried. Haha. No, not really. He loves dogs. Any dog, really. But these were definitely not at the top of his list for choices. So I looked at lots of crosses that wouldn't *look* like little dogs. Like pug/terriers and pug/jack russels, and lab/beagles. But in the end I decided on what they called a "Pugalier". He's a Puggle/Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. He won't get big at all. Not more than 25 pounds. So I'm happy. And he isn't too froofy looking. Not that B would care. They snuggled up right away and love each other. NOT a big surprise. At all. See?
 
 We went to go and get him. The kids fell in love at first sight. We named him Bongo. It's the name of a character on one of their favorite tv shows. And they liked it. Bongo slept nearly the whole way home in between the girls. So all the kids pretend slept with him as well.
 
 
 He's a neat little pup and fits in well. Of course he's going to need a lot of time and training and love. So I'm reading a lot on puppy training. But he's cute and we're managing. SO glad we didn't do this later when I had to balance a baby, home schooling AND a new puppy. In the end I just decided that while having a puppy now may seem pretty overwhelming,  there really would be no *good* time to get one. And that keeping our word about getting a new puppy when Kira died was really important. And that's what we did.

I'll not write about how crazy this week has been! If you're wondering where I've been -  I definitely feel like I've been MIA - we've been home! Trying to readjust to yet another new, big, wonderful and needy little change in our home.
He sure is cute though :)

 The kids love him. And he loves the attention. Just trying to train a pup with 4 little ones is proving to be a challenge in itself! They have a hard time not jumping in on the training sessions and are a huge distraction!

 And he wants to be involved in EVERYTHING!! :)

And that's the update for today. That's what we've been up to lately...
I'll try and write a better update soon.
Thanks for reading!