Announcing The Newest Member of Our Family

I've been a little bit busier than usual these past couple of weeks because we've been a little wrapped up with the newest addition to the Frump household.

He's nearly three months old and just as cute as can be.

We're back to infant formula and crying in the night, but it's worth it when you look into his big brown eyes and he points at things and looks so utterly adorable your heart just melts into a puddle.

Our adoption was a relatively trouble-free ordeal, the hardest part being when we accidentally saw his birth mother at the home where we went to meet him for the first time.

Just before she was forced out of the room where we were meeting, she looked at us as though to say, "Don't do it! Please don't take my baby from me!"

And I did feel very guilty.

For a few moments, anyway.

But one look into his sweet little face and I was instantly in love. Cold-hearted as it sounds, I didn't care what that young mother felt.

Can you see why?





What?! Did you think I was talking about wresting a baby out of some poor mom's arms?

Heaven's no!

Just making good on a promise to our boys, and also doing our friends a favor by taking one of their dogs newly weaned pups off their hands.

That infant formula I mentioned? Puppy chow. Specially formulated for puppies.

We were told initially that they were a Lab/Dalmation mix. When we saw the mom, however, we thought she didn't look Dalmation at all but more Pointer.

And we're pretty sure that this is the case because of this:







Yep, he points at just about everything. Cutest thing EVER.

He favors his pointer genes looks-wise, but I could never bring myself to bob his tail as they do for show Pointers.

Nope. We're encouraging him to embrace his Labrador heritage.

Well, that and because, honestly, I wouldn't want Judah to find it in the yard wherever it ended up falling off, pocketing it, and me later finding it in the laundry.

That whole snakes and snails and puppy dog tails thing was coined because of boys just. like. my Judah. (To be fair, Jericho did this too, except that he carted around a baggie with a fresh Rattlesnake tail that still rattled. I think it would be a pretty even tie between the grossness factor of both, especially finding them after they've been rehydrated in the washing machine)

Anyway, our pup is a Lab/Pointer mix. (What is that, anyway, a Labrointer? Pointrador?)

We're pretty sure he'll be a good hunting dog one day.

Which is what Jericho is hoping for after recently reading Where The Red Fern Grows.

After doing so, not only did he think he needed a Red Bones hound (or two), but he wanted to get hold of a fresh raccoon tail to tie to a string and train the pup how to hunt for coons.

I put my foot down about that, and dissuaded him by saying that I was pretty sure Labs and Pointers were bird dogs, and that maybe he could find a raven feather in the yard to train him to go after Heckle and Jekyll that keep landing back there and making so much racket.

And while we're on the topic, reading that same book also led to broad hints from Jericho that "Every young boy my age needs to have a big tree to cut down."

Because, you know, Billy from the story did it.

Because we happened to have a tree that we wanted to take down, we let him 'have at it' out in the front yard.





He managed to get that ginormous young tree down all by himself.

After his victory, feeling all manly, he made sounds about wanting to have his own rifle (Lord have mercy!) just like Billy in the story.

Living within the city limits, however, (not to mention having a toddler brother) we've talked him down to the more sensible BB gun. (Providing, of course, that he doesn't shoot his eye out. Or his brothers or his dogs. Or anyone else's.)

Due to that same story, Jericho also thought that getting a new puppy meant that it would get to sleep in his room with him, even though we've always kept our pets outside.

Because, you know, Billy did that, too.

So, though our pup isn't going to be an indoor dog, because we're complete suckers so thrilled that Jericho has begun to enjoy and look forward to reading (thanks to Where the Red Fern Grows) we decided to humor him.

For one night.



And, from the tub we kept him in, the puppy whined and cried for his mama all. night. long.

Finally, about 4 am, the crying stopped.

I went in to find out what finally caused it to quiet down, and found this:



Whether the pup got out of the tub on his own or was 'helped', we've not been able to conclusively determine.

How could we say "no" to such a request anyway when I found this the afternoon we brought the puppy home?



And did I tell you how adorable that little puppy is?



We've had a hard time coming up with a good name, though.

After putting this bandanna on him, I thought he should be called, "Banjo".



He kind of looks like a cow-dog, doesn't he?

As it stands, he's still going by D.O.G. Pronounced Dee-0h-Gee. Sounding kind of like Luigi.

Because Italian sounding names are perfect for Labrador Retriever/German Shorthaired Pointer's, don't you know.

In any case, I can hardly resist his puppy cuteness:





I often sneak him in at night to chew on my shoelaces while I'm writing, because when he gets tired, he rests his little head across the top of my foot.

And there just isn't anything quite so endearing as a puppy that falls asleep on your feet.

I think I may have to get new laces in my shoes, however, because he's teething like crazy. And always on things that we still needed. Like shoes, and paint rollers and brushes.



Although Raisin established herself as Alpha dog around the yard, D.O.G. has already comandeered her doghouse.



In spite of this, I'd say she's pretty tolerant of 'the kid'.

She's teaching him the ropes about being a good guard dog, and lets him tag along when she makes her routine inspections around the perimeter of the property.

She even gets her house back from time to time, making the pup sleep on the dog bed just outside the doghouse.



And on a couple of rare occasions, I've even spotted them snuggled together on the 'outside' dog bed.

So far, so good. I think we're all going to get along just fine.



Okay, so I guess we have our moments like any other family.