Introducing the newest member of our family...

Isabelle

We adopted Izzy a year old Great Pyrenees "puppy" from the pound on Friday evening. My mother in law had taken Cameron along with our nephew Austin to Kings Island on Wednesday. I having a momentary lapse of judgement decided to take the kids to "look" at puppies "just for fun". There was no way we were ready to add a dog to our family so soon after losing Chloe and Malloy. I think I actually told Chad and the kids I never wanted another dog. Leanne, Justin, Katie and I spent about 2 hours at the stinky pound looking at and playing with different breeds of dogs. The kids wanted a beagle and I wanted a cocker spaniel so we all left a little disappointed that we could not agree.

After leaving the pound on Wednesday I came home and started researching dogs. Chad immediately knew my temporary dog veto was wavering. We talked to the kids and explained to them that if we happened to get a new dog that it too, just like everything, will die. We asked them simply if the good of having a dog out weighed the pain of losing one. All three of the older kids answered "YES!!!". That settled it and we were on a mission to find a new family pet. I continued my research and quickly realized that neither a beagle or cocker spaniel was going to be the right fit for our family. Chad and I took the kids back to the pound on Friday evening to see Lucy a big white polar bear looking Great Pyr we all fell in love with. After playing with her on Thursday and researching the breed we decided she was exactly what we were looking for.

We adopted Lucy on Friday and brought her home to her forever family. Since shelter dogs are only given names to identify them and most do not know those names we decided to change her name. We had a long List of possibilities after a google search for "white dog names" turned up quite a few possibilities. We also added some family favorites as well as a few biblical names to round out our choices. Some of our favorites included Lilly (which Katie refused since that is her sister in China), Daisy, Isabelle, Josie, Norah, Phoebe, Snowball and Judah. I really wanted to name her Phoebe but was out numbered. Leanne wanted to name her Snowball and the boys wanted Josie. We all compromised and she is now called Izzy or IZZY-bell as Katie likes to say.

Izzy is a great dog. She was already house trained and knows basic commands such as sit, stay and shake. She is pretty well trained on a leash and loves to take walks. She also really loves the kids and cries at the window if they go outside without her. She however does not love her cage. She can not be left uncaged alone since she was returned to the pound after she destroyed a few things when left alone. When we put her in her cage she cries and tries her hardest to get out. In fact after we left her home for a few hours on Saturday night we pulled into the driveway to see Izzy staring at us from the front window. She had houdinied her way out of her cage the very first time we left her alone. Non the less we love her and are so happy to have a new dog to love.

Note: the dog in the photo is not Izzy, but that is exactly what she looks like.