winter play

At least somebody is enjoying the snow. =)

Project 365 - Day 36

Not quite a zoo...

Day 19 of Project 365

This is our oldest son, Conner and his dog Dakota. Somehow Scott and I became convinced a few years back that it was a good idea for each child to have their own pet at some point. You know, it teaches responsibility and yadda yadda...

Anyway, we thought 10 might be a good age. So we talked a lot with Conner before then about what kind of animal he might want. We had lost our beloved family dog, an awesome Golden Retriever named Malibu, about a year and a half before. So Conner thought a dog would be good.

We planned to wait until he turned 10 but a few months before his birthday, the sister of a friend told us we could have the last of her dog's litter of Labs at a low cost. Since we knew her and loved Labs, we decided to go for it.

We had to drive a few hours to her home in Ogalalla, Nebraska to get him. He was super cute and we instantly fell in love. Conner named him Dakota and he has been his friend and primarily responsibility since then.

When Chase turned 10 last year, we looked at various kinds of animals. He ended up picking out a chameleon. He named her Tera.

We bought all the needed supplies to make her comfy in her new aquarium. He worked very hard to keep her environment the right temperature and humidity and fed her crickets. Eww.

But unfortunately she died after a few months. We found out from the vet that we had blundered by buying her at a pet supply store instead of a reptile store, and this particular store has a bad reputation for selling sick reptiles. I wish we'd known.

Chase was understandably upset. We had a nice burial for her in the yard.

We told Chase we'd get him another pet but not immediately. At some point we all decided another dog to keep Dakota company might be a good idea. The holidays came and things got busy, but once the new year arrived we started looking.

A couple weeks ago we visited two shelters. We saw a lot of great dogs but none that fit our criteria. We had thought to get a smaller dog this time and didn't want a puppy. We weren't set on a particular breed or gender. We all prayed for the right dog for our family.

Today we visited another shelter whose website we'd been frequenting. They do a great job of keeping it up today and even putting up videos of the dogs so you can see them in action. Chase had his eye on a dog last week but we didn't have the time to go up there and she was adopted quickly.

So today we decided to just head up there and see what they had. We spent a few hours and took about 3 of the dogs out to the yard to meet and play with them. By the time we left we had placed a hold on one. He was bigger than we'd planned but he won our hearts. We've decided we're just a large dog family. We wanted to come home and pray again and sleep on it before the final decision.

But so far it looks like tomorrow we'll have a new additon to our zoo -- I mean family. As long as he gets along okay with our dog and cats, it should all be good and I will post a picture tomorrow.

Wish us luck!

Saturday

This morning Scott took Conner to a nearby town's festival to get shots for his dog. They offer them for a very small fee.

Meanwhile, I took the other kids to a church garage sale. There we met our friends to swap kids. They took our daughter home to play with their daughter and we took their 2 boys. We drove back to get Scott and Conner and spent some time at the festival. The boys participated in a few of the activities but it got very hot so we headed home.

Josiah trying out the Fireman course, spraying a hose

Joshua bouncing down the slide

Conner and Aiden building a wooden racecar

At home, they spent the time alternating between the small pool, trampoline and GameCube. I

I have to say, for having a total of 6 boys around today, it was pretty quiet.

In the evening, we met for dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory to switch kids back. We haven't been here for a few years and forgot how much we enjoy it. It is set in an old cable car building and furnished with wonderful, old pieces of furniture. For a very reasonable price, you get a salad, entree, bread, drink and dessert. And it's yummy!

Norbert and Rachel

It was a fun, busy day.