Newest Member of Our Family

Last year when we moved into our house, the pleas for a dog started. The kids love dogs, Adam loves dogs and well, I tolerate dogs. To buy myself some time, I told everyone that when Addie was potty trained we could get a dog, totally not thinking that she would potty train by 2 years old! So in celebration (not so sure if I was celebrating) of the end of 5 CONSECUTIVE years of diapers, we went and got a dog on Saturday.


Meet Duke, the newest member of our family.

He is a German Shorthaired Pointer mix with Australian Shephard. We went with the name Duke because I love Duke basketball and Addie can actually say Duke. It's very cute how she says it with her nose all scrunched up!


We drove almost 2 1/2 hours to get the dog because Duke was "on special" at the Humane Society there. We got him with all his shots and nudered for $34- part of the reason I agreed. The boys wer so excited when we finally got to the shelter.


Tanyon throwing a ball to Duke at the shelter. Duke really warmed up to us right away at the shelter. The picture isn't the clearest, but click on it to enlarge it so you can see the sheer glee on Tanyon's face.

Right away he listened to Bryson when he told him to sit, if he had a toy in his hand.

Duke was so kind with the kids. Considering this, that he was almost $100 dollars cheaper than any other dog we looked at and that we drove 2 hours, how could I say no?!

Duke is about 2 years old and he still has a lot of puppy in him it seems. He has been good to the kids and seems to recognize us as his family. Problem is, he seems to be very protective of visitors. After doing some research, that seems to be the Aust. Shephard in him. So we'll see. I'm really not so sure what I think. He has brought a lot of extra responsibility on me right now, but he seems like he can be a great dog. Everyone else in the family LOVE him. Does this win me an award for putting my kids wishes above my own?!