Our new addition...

Yesterday we got a new dog. It has been 6 months, almost to the day, that we put Montana to sleep. We have talked about getting a new dog, sometime. My husband noticed an ad in the paper that the animal shelter was having an adoption fair at PetSmart on Saturday and maybe we should stop by and see if there were any dogs that we would like.

There were about 5 or 6 dogs there, most puppies and very active. Not what we were looking for. Then we saw Smokey. He was sitting quietly w/ one of the volunteers. He is 2 and recently graduated from the Friends of the Pen training program. The program fits dogs with inmates who, for 8 weeks, train the dogs. Smokey is really well behaved - it seems like the training really worked for him. He doesn't run off, understands commands, comes when called, etc. We had a good first night with him. He slept next to my bed all night. Right now he is sitting by my chair while I type this. We think he is going to be my shadow.

I would not have picked the name Smokey but I think we will keep it since he is so well trained and knows his name. I don't want to mess up any of the training by changing his name. Don't know if it would mess it up but I don't want to take any chances.

Hopefully things will continue to go this well. He is really sweet. He is a little bigger than Montana was. He might weigh about 60 lbs. I'll find out when we go to the vet this week. He didn't look quite as big at the store. Kind of like when you get a piece of furniture home and realize it's bigger than you thought.

My only concern is that he may not be the 'Hoover' I was looking for to clean up under the dining table. Oh, well, you can't have it all...