Addition

About a year ago, our best friends got a new puppy. 

About 11.5 months ago, Brooke started asking us for a puppy.  She worked for quite a while on me and even got specific in her request for a "little dog".  She actually didn't care if it was a puppy or not, she simply wanted a dog that was small enough for her to hold and carry around. 

About 6 weeks ago, Roger and I started the discussion of the possibility.  Our dogs have very little to do with the girls and certainly are well past the age of wanting to play fetch or chase with them for any length of time.  I struck a deal with my children (knowing, in all my smuggy smugness that they would never be able to accomplish it).  For 6 weeks they had to keep their toys picked up and help me keep the house clean.  My lesson was that if they could do that, then they'd be able to do it when a new puppy came along and we'd have less chewing to worry with. 

About a week ago, I realized and acknowledged "defeat".  My children had been doing a rather remarkable job of keeping things much tidier.  SOOOOOOO, Rog and I started looking for a small dog.  We are huge advocates of rescue organizations - Operation Kindness, Humane Societies, and the various rescue leagues in our area.  We visited quite a few and narrowed our list of possible breeds we were willing to bring in our home down to around 2 (no joke, I'm not exaggerating - we are so obviously big dog people).  Saturday night, the Dachshund Lovers of Texas came by with three dogs.  One was a 1 year old female and the other 2 were 14 week old males and were brothers.

The dapple of the two 14 week old puppies immediately took to Brooke.  And I mean he claimed her.  He sat in her lap or let her carry him around the entire 2 hours they were in our home.  She was in heaven and was S-O-L-D sold that this was her dog.  It was beyond obvious that she was right.  The female was more interested in engaging our older dogs (unsuccessfully, I might add) than she was in interacting with any of us.  The black/brown puppy sat and took in the scene.  Once he finished sizing us up, he pounced on Briana and the two of them were off rolling around and all we could hear were the belly laughs of Briana.  Of the two dogs, the black/brown one was very much more the personality of what Roger & I tend to adopt in terms of dogs.  We like 'em spunky.  After a discussion with the volunteers, some back and forth between us and watching the interaction (or serious lack thereof) of the puppies with our big dogs, we decided to go ahead and get both puppies. 

So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce Hank & Chip.

Briana's dog is Hank (the black/brown) and Brooke's dog is Chip (the dapple).  {And, it was a coincidence that Briana was wearing those pajamas (Brooke actually wore those when she was 3).}

Brooke & Chip

She loves that this dog lets her love on him and carry him and hold him

Chip can actually walk on his four legs, though I'm not sure of their need at this point

Here's Briana and Hank

Watching TV together

And playing - shortly after I took this picture, I heard Briana (through some seriously loud belly laughing) say, "Hank's trying to eat me!"

They really are easy going, good dogs

And as if to confirm to us that we made the right decision in getting two of them (and sparing our older dogs any unwanted interaction), Sunday morning had Hank & Chip having a good ol' puppy romp

I'm quite certain the outcome of this would be QUITE different if they had attempted this with Dakota or Sierra.

Just a cute shot of both of them.

Oh, and you wonder how our other pets are reacting to the new additions?  Well, see for yourself.  Here's what Sierra thinks:

Can't you just tell how annoyed she is?  She is actually pretty mad at me for some reason and won't even hardly let me love on her. 

And Dakota?  Well, she's been through this before, but I think you can tell what she thinks as well.

Honestly, both of the older dogs treat the puppies the same way they treat the kids.  They are ambivelant.  They don't engage the puppies, but they do tolerate them. 

And the cat, you ask?  We haven't seen the cat since Saturday.  {She's made a few brief appearances only to disappear again.  We're hoping she gets past this soon.}

Stop by sometime and meet the new zoo members - the zoo keepers would love to have you. :D