A new male has been added to the Owens home, yep, I am still outnumbered, and loving it!

Ever since we decided it was best that we give Brady (our last dog) to a lady down the street, due to the fact that he just seemed possessed and wouldn't stop biting, wouldn't mind, and just was not working for our family, we promised Bryce that someday we would get another dog.



Now I swear I did not set this up....but within the last week, Bryce had started to take this cute stuffed, black and white dog, with him all over the place. He even decided to put him in a seatbelt beside him the other day when he went somewhere with his Daddy. When he did it again when he was with me, I decided to snap a picture, just because I thought it was cute. At first the dogs name was Spotty, but then switched to Furball, and back to Spotty.

Bryce said that since he hadn't gotten another dog, he was just going to pretend this was his dog for now, until he got that dog we promised. Bryce reminded us of this promise often. We completely planned on getting another dog, but we weren't going to spend a bunch of money on buying the dog and we wanted to make sure this time that it would work with our family, because our first two tries did not!

Then that sweet little, perfect-for-our-family, promised dog suddenly fell right into our laps.
Mary called me Saturday morning and said that the previous evening she had heard someone talking about how their daughter was thinking of giving her dog away. She is a college student, didn't have the time to mess with the dog and the Mother of the college student didn't want to mess with him either. So I gave the college student a call, asked her a few questions, and Saturday night, I left the boys home with Steve and went to check out this little dog by myself. Just in case I could tell right away that it just wasn't going to work, I didn't want Bryce to fall in love and be disappointed.



He is a Shitzu and Maltese mix, black and white, super soft haired little fur ball, sweet as can be, minds very well, is eight months old, and I decided that we would give this little guy a try. We told Bryce that we were going to be taking care of this dog for a week, and made arrangements with the dog's owner that if we realized it wasn't going to work, that we would bring him back after a week. All agreed. So I loaded up the crate, the dog food, the shampoo, the dog dishes, and his toys and brought him home.



We went promptly to the tub and I gave him a good scrubbing. He was dirty! The previous owners lived out west of town in a kind of country type of area, and he would go outside and get stuff caught in his hair and he was very matted!! He basically lived in their garage and the college student just hadn't had time to do anything with him. I at least got him clean for the weekend and I did try to cut some of the worst off of the underside of his belly.

Here is Jackson when he arrived at our house.
He loves this toy and loves to have it thrown and he'll go chase it. He is very playful, but very gentle. Connor just thinks everything he does is hilarious.



So first thing this morning (Monday) I called the groomer's to see if I could get him in. They told me to bring him right away. When they saw what condition he was in, they explained that they were probably going to have to shave him down close to get it all out and what a different looking dog I went to pick up several hours later.....


............but still sweet as can be!


Here are his food and water stations. Connor still doesn't understand that these belong to Jackson, and tries to push him away from eating or drinking. He is slowly beginning to understand. Connor is just enthralled by everything Jackson does.

Bryce just loves all his "tricks". The previous owner did teach him to sit when you tell him too and as soon as he sits, he lifts his paw and puts it in your hand.

My niece Jessica came over to meet him and she and Bryce have played with him a long time. I think Jackson will sleep very well tonight.
After only three days of having Jackson in our home, we already realized how well he fits in with all of us and how perfect he is for our family, so we asked Bryce a little while ago if he would like to keep Jackson forever. He of course said "Yes!!!" and we told him he now belongs to us. Bryce said "Forever?" and we told him that as far as we could tell, he would be with us as forever as Jackson is alive. Bryce is one happy boy, and so are we.

After spending the morning at the groomer's and the afternoon having three kids play with you almost non-stop, he is now one happy and contented, but tired out little boy.

Slowly going out............ .......and now fast asleep!

Here is some video of Jackson, and different one's playing with him. I just missed Connor falling over on the couch because he was laughing so hard at Jackson.