Our family grew today.

This is Pearl, our new Beagle puppy. Her name was originally Ava but Hayley really wanted to name her Pearl and she’s young enough that it wasn’t a problem to change it. So far she’s been an adorable nut. She’s not trained on a leash yet but she’s surprisingly good for a puppy who doesn’t have any leash experience. I don’t think it will take her long to get the hang of it. She’s not housetrained yet either, so she’s had several accidents, which was completely to be expected, but she did poop once and pee once outside, so that will just take some time too.

The kids are in love and I’m shocked that Hayley went to sleep before 8:30 pm considering her utter excitement over the new addition.

We were so lucky to get her. I had expected to get a mixed dog, possibly a Lab mix, and the average age of dogs at the SPCA seems to be roughly a year to a year and a half so that was what I was assuming we’d find. It turned out that the best dog for a family with young kids was a Beagle puppy – I hadn’t even seen him when I went in to check the dogs out for one we liked.

That being said, goodness the SPCA is depressing. I mean, it’s a great place and the people who work there are amazing, and I really liked the girl who took care of us today a lot. But it’s just so sad to walk in that room and see all these dogs just staring at you and barking and running around their cages in the hopes that maybe, just maybe you’ll take them home. It makes me want to move to a farm and go rescue ALL of them.

Apparently Pearl’s owner had to give her up because her mother was very sick and being hospitalized so no one would have been home to train her or spend time with her. That’s sad, but it was good news for us, and I’m glad we were able to save Pearl today.

Even if it means I will NEVER sleep in again.