Puppy Love

So the boys and I, having recovered a bit from the trauma of the Mango experience, have been feeling like we need a doggie in our family. The elder one especially--he really has a need for a pet to love, and hermit crabs just pinch not hug. So we've been looking for since the beginning of the year, waiting for the perfect dog to enter our lives. Our criteria were: nice dog, with cuteness, without biting fits. We're very picky people, hard to please. But the most important most difficult criterium was this: the doggie has to feel right, like she was meant to be ours.

We met quite a few at the human society, applied for and missed a few on petfinder, and finally arrived in Madison at a foster home for strays where we met the sweetest, most indescribably laid back dog of all time. She is an Old English Mastiff puppy, not quite 7 months old, and is 80 lbs of love. We thought about it for about a week and in the end I felt like I just needed her. She's brindle and huge and with sad, melty eyes and she's just awesome. The boys fell in love with her on sight and she has taken it upon herself to protect me from the vacuum cleaner.

Her name is Hazel, and here is what she looks like:

http://www.greatdogsite.com/watermark/Mastiff-1.5%20yearss-Brindle-1186697692.jpg

She's not quite that fat though. She's a svelte mastiff. Her butt is taller than the rest of her because she is an awkward juvenile. She came into my room the other night after I had one of those horrible graphic dreams that you have as a parent, and she put her head right next to mine and just kind of gave me the love. I think she's my doggy soul mate.