New Dog in the House

#1 - The Dog

We started March with a brand-new family member: MOCHA, an adorable, almost-a-year-old, choclate-y brown, long-haired, lab/chow mix adopted from Fulton County Animal Services (Southern Hope Humane Society), which, by the way, is one of the lower levels of puppy hell -- visit the website (or any other Humane Society), adopt a dog or cat, get those poor animals outta there!!

MOCHA came home sick, with kennel cough and god knows what else, with little information or background. She's turned out to be a remarkable dog, in many ways (as mutts usually are) -- incredibly intelligent, and yet...very, very quiet. She doesn't bark. She chews, she plays, she buries everything she can steal in the backyard, but she doesn't seem to have any protective, territorial, or guard dog instinct in her whatsoever. At least, not yet.

My husband suggested we get another dog, who will at least bark at strangers, intruders, whatever -- it would be nice to know. Of course, it would have to be some kind of blonde dog, so we could name her LATTE and have a set! (He didn't seem to have in mind an additional dog, so much as an exchange, i.e. "This one's broken!" I said NO.)