A new member of our family - meet Annie!

We got a dog on Tuesday! Annie is a mini Australian Shepherd. Her little brother lives next door. Annie was living with her mother and the parents of our neighbors (they breed these dogs), but they felt that they weren't able to give enough attention to 2 dogs. So they asked if 2 little girls would like to have a dog. She's 3 years old, very loving and gentle. She's having a hard time getting used to a new family. She doesn't want to eat very much. But you can see how good she is with the girls. Katie is constantly pulling on her! So far, Hallie has been the most successful at getting pictures of her - the top pic is one Hallie took the day we got her. Unless I use my cell phone, I can't get the dog to stand still! She loves to come sit on the chaise with me in the evenings while I stitch, or crawl under my desk for her afternoon nap. And she likes to sleep in the hall, between the girls' bedrooms. She's already adopted them as her "sheep", and she watches them closely when they play outside.

I promise, this won't become a dog blog. But it's amazing how quickly you can fall in love with a pet - it takes months, even years, to decide you love a person enough to "keep" him (talking spouses, not children, of course), but with a pet it's love at first lick.