A New Member of the Family

Some of you may remember Ashley, our sweet and wonderful black lab. Ashley was our first baby and part of our family until March 2006 when she developed tumors and we decided to put her to sleep instead of painful and expensive treatments. She was a big part of our lives and we miss her lots! We have been happily pet-free until . . .NOW! We have been thinking about getting another dog for about a year now and have finally found the perfect pooch for this chapter in our lives. Yes, we LOVE labs and would get another in a heartbeat except for 2 factors~the awful shedding and the lack of lots of space. Our friends have a Shih-poo which is a cross between a Poodle and a Shih Tzu and can't say enough good things about the breed. They are small and as close to non-shedding as you can get. Not yappy and extremely good with kids if raised from puppyhood with little ones. This is a pic of BoBo who is the sire of the litter we choose from.

Once we decided on a Shih-Poo (as you can imagine Tim has had some fun with that name!) you would think the work would be over. Nope. We did not want to buy from a pet store and take a chance on supporting puppy mills so that route was out. We wanted a family breeder with home raised pups where we could meet and interact with both the mother and father of the litter. I found one breeder that fit. She was so nice on the phone and said that she would hold the last female for us since she would not have another litter until at least next fall. The pups are only 4 weeks old so they need another 4 weeks with mama dog. We went and visited, played with Bella the Mama and BoBo the Papa, talked to the family, and held the pups. We placed our deposit and on Feb 7, Gracie comes home! Without further ado. . .pictures!